Portions for a Backdrop

From a large, cold, but friendly Studio in Ladywood.

Backdrop ~ Many fragments of.

22-02-20.
Concurrently.
The backdrop was painted pretty close to the Argonauts albeit finishing slightly afterward.

Both projects happened mainly because of the amount of space that I had. It was a large communal studio situation & a bulk of the painting was carried out in the colder months, with nobody around. I built a hut with a bed and the seemed to always shine on the left hand side of this picture in the mornings.
              Bob Morris had left his studio next to mine and left me with a dozen or more 10ft/4ft polystyrene panels. 





Taking on the backdrop allowed me to tighten up or get more into detail & follow whims, let it go where-ever.
Although, the thing had existed from a few years before when I had used it as a backdrop for a miniature stage I built in a Live/Work project.

I also did a back as well, which I had forgotten about!

It also had a little outing as a map by the door of a rather large show I held with Peter Hadfield 2006 (?)

The Panels in the rather large Central Library window

*

State of Play

Recent& Unexpurgated

recent & unexpunged ~ (of a text) complete and containing all the original material; uncensored. ~ expunged: Obliterate or remove completely (something unwanted or unpleasant)
expurgated ~  having had objectionable or unsuitable matter removed.

20/20 State of Play.

22-01-2020.

There was part of me that wanted to be a potter ~ make an honest living

& part of me that wanted to be a poet ~ comments on a lifetime of experience, travelling light.

I must have plumbed for the middle ground.

14-1-20.

I realise I’ve been on a different “bent” over the last couple of months or so. Whilst doing art I’ve also been doing sleeve notes. I can think of a couple of profundities that have cropped up as I sit here (before starting)

(Where old fashioned digital art meets old fashioned painting)

I dunno Bob,
Recently I have felt myself to be, maybe at the height of my “artistic powers” – as far as a lifetime runs.
Maybe it’s time to get something out ~ that is good ~ maybe not massive or even big
but
sound.
At the moment, there is no-one else I feel I could do this with.
It’s not a final show,
but
we could keep John firmly in mind.

Making Spirits come Alive
~ What is my work about!?
start with the premise that it’s about telling stories ~
maybe putting people into a storyscape,
but more so: it’s an attempt to create a new life

~~~ I was caught off guard-so I told the truth: two experiences
Aztec Jaguar
Miro’s simplicity with “other life”
BUT!
Are these images really alive?
What is it to be alive?

Mid 70s I was looking at “different” cultures & decided to “investigate”
~ a jaguar: it looked like a carpet, but I followed it through in oil paint. At the point where I felt I had finished, I looked (again) and a yellow paw shot out to claw me, it was alive.

With Miro, I was in a lecture that involved a good slide of one of his more simplistic creatures. Again, that was alive! It was existing on the screen for me. It’s where I compare him to Dali ~ who, for me was simply describing a “surreal” existence whereas Miro had made one.

Sometimes “passive/aggressive” is a very good way of making a point. Of course, if used too often it becomes snidey. If you are looking at P/A as a way of scoring points- you are moving into bigot territory. Also, why has P/A been used in the first place? To counter an aggressive situation hoping it won’t get worse?   --- The fear of an all-out brawl?

(28Dec)
I don’t know, but in someways/times ~
I feel I’m working better than I have done in my life. It’s hard to explain-but I feel I have the tools for the job in hand
and I have the job for the (mental) tools that I posess.
It doesn’t seem to be one painting, they merge together ~ but one problem, which at the moment I am comfortably after.

Mohsen:
First you think
I am the only one in the world
Then you think there is a world inside me
Then at last you realise there is no me and no world
& call it one day.

Mono Prints

Mono Prints.
13/002/2020.

& how I did these Alan.
From a black, sticky printing ink tin, with large spatula, slap a splodge onto a special flat stone surface or if not a sheet of glass.
Take a rubber Roller in your right hand and roll it about till you’ve covered it in a thin, but constant layer of ink.
Then spread a thin even layer onto a thin sheet of some metal or other. It has to be consistent and not too thick.
Next carefully lay a sheet of reasonably heavy paper on top, being very careful not to get any on your hands, as it can make an awful mess on your art-work. You now have not very long at all to take all the paint off it that you want to turn white or grey. You can use all types of things, like baby buds, sponge, cloth with a bit of white spirit etc. These were on a big sheet & as such had to move along at quite a rate of knots.

One Shot ~ One Life







Lightly cover it top & bottom with throwaway paper and place it under a roller. Proceed to roll. { If you don’t have a roller, gently smooth it over with the flat of your hand }
The result is quite exciting, rather like taking a pot out of a kiln, in that you don’t really know how it’s going to turn out.

The School Run

Margaret Street & George Road.

(a marriage made in heaven)

Paper Mural

12-02-2020.

(~ following on from the previous post:)

So- I finally made a Grad course 25 years later.
I found it a complete change of thought, direction & attitude. It wasn’t actually my idea to do it, but one thing that persuaded me was the comfortable & lively state of the print dept. With Sean O’Keefe as technician I dived in with that Department as a base.
I did various prints, but here I’ve got etchings and monos.

I had been working quite a lot with primary school children, actually getting “them” to paint murals & big things.
I had also been involved with taking my son to school every day ~ you could say it was in my blood!

There was the local school run outside my window, I simply took the two bits of experience and mixed them up. With a paper mural added downstairs at Margaret Street.

etching

These two, I did on the same day and I do experience "how on earth did I manage that and why did I allow myself to get them separated?

Truly me at my best and in tune.