I have just returned from Yorkshire with a meeting with the author Jessica Hart and Harewood House. All is set to open in August and with Art in Yorkshire, supported by Tate partnership, the promotional leg of the show should be good for the summer. I am keeping silent about the proposed work for this project until we go public in March but all has now fallen smoothly into place with an opening each month with all venues and respective authors in place. I am fully immersed in the research element of the project, reading mountains of books and other research papers and the excitement and nerves are mounting.
I am also currently mid flow with subsequent works for the Fellowship of Willmore House and the works for two shows are almost complete. I have also recently had a meeting with another artist regarding a utopian manifesto and I am lagging behind with time to embark on new works for this, although its all carried around in my head for now. Once the work for the next two shows is complete, I will pursue these ideas with more gusto.
For now, I visit this week the next venue, just outside Exmouth with Catherine and the science fiction writer. This should prove to bring yet more ideas and discoveries, although I have quite firm ideas of outcomes for this particular venue. It will be another exciting week no doubt.

strösocker

This week has contained many things. On Thursday I met up with Catherine and the author Hallie Rubenhold at Dr Johnson's House, just off Fleet Street in London.It is tucked away surrounded by big businessess and to be frank is a small miracle to have survived all of the building that has obviously gone on around it for decades. The curator Stephanie was informative about the house which has already led me to more reading. The house again revealed a very exciting history that is secret from my audience for now but pertains to being another great leg of the project. I came away bursting at all the possibilities as well as a true sense of meeting some very generous and inspiring people. The pace of the day was steady although extremely wet and so I pursued a couple of shows in the East End that I found of particular interest as well as keep me dry. It was a great day out.

Work this week has been steady with a great deal of time spent on the internet buying component parts for the Manchester and Exeter shows. I have made a number of structures to contain work, found some great paper and bought spying devices. All has gone quite well, although I need to gather pace to get it all done in time. The 2D work is on the whole there, just need to frame the pieces that need it. Lists are being compiled. Now in full flow, the work needs to continue at a pace although time spent in a studio environment is restricted next week due to teaching commitments and a forthcoming meeting at Harewood House in Yorkshire on Thursday with travel up North on Wednesday. I will have to use my journey time well. I will be meeting the next writer for the first time which again, I am truly excited about. A completely different background and genre than Hallie, I hope to persuade her towards a leaning of more, more more!

I visited this evening, Ms Dover and Mr Pearl, both of which appear to have inherited the second dose of a heavy cold. Both appearing flushed with the weight of it all and Mr Pearl talked about his twisted underpants, I took it all in my stride.
Ickworth with Jamie this week has brought out my lavish tendencies. Talking above and below stairs, our informative guide led us through tales of the house and its basement with relative ease. The hard part is filtering it all to decide on what I am going to focus on.
The Trust new Art campaign is moving steadily forward unlike the practical side of my work. I have had a very experimental week where most of what I have attempted have turned out to be failures, so it is my intention to concentrate all my efforts into the 3D forms that I am trying to achieve. All the component parts are there, I just have to pull it off. Easy to say indeed.
The Exeter and Manchester shows are fast approaching, so I need to start to contain what is and what isnt going in. Sunday will be the day for great mastery of the thing I cannot seem to control. Just needs a little magic.
Next week involves my first visit to Dr Johnsons house. This should be good.

Food glorious food

I have been thinking and talking about food a lot lately. The Ickworth part of the project is fast moving and very exciting. I have taken Ben to see the house and gardens this week and I am hoping to take Jamie there also soon. Plans are afoot to recreate history in an edible form and the writing planned is truly enthralling whilst the scope for making new and exciting things is for now, gigantic. The enthusiasm met at the house is quite frankly a revelation to me and is more evidence that people inside institutional frameworks can act appropriately and with much kindness.
I have been attempting my own sugar and salt craft this week to disastrous effect, so back to the drawing board for a while so to speak. My drawn imaginary landscapes however have been a lot more enjoyable and a run around the show at Smiths Row in Bury St Edmunds three times over, a brief run around Bury Gardens as well as Ickworth have put fresh air into my lungs and have cleared a path through the grey fog of the day job. Hurrah.
In a week or so I start my own Grand Tour of the English landscape, meeting new writers and revisiting the houses involved in the project.

Yesterday I visited Smiths Row to see the fantastic work of Pip & Pop with a friend. As well as seeing the work I mixed in a couple of mini meetings to which one extended to the early evening. Plotting and planning the next couple of weeks I am hoping to take Ben Moor to Ickworth to think through our findings and ideas. Catherine and I met up with him on a very cold day on the Southbank this week and he is onboard with the projects and has offered forward some great ideas in terms of story telling. This is SO exciting.
I have also asked another artist friend to make some culinary delights for the opening and he brought with him some beautifully illustrated ideas from exerpts from a book I have leant him. We had a lovely walk around the House in semi darkness just to give him an idea of the grounds. I hope to get him to meet the lovely people there soon and to inspect the interior. The project is now moving on a pace and Catherine has been brilliant in inviting a really exciting designer to pull the images and text together. I should hear back fro the NT this week about the images I have sent them, so hopefully that will be able to move forward too soon. More updates over the next few days..

Musketeers

Tomorrow I am meeting up with Catherine and the writer and actor Ben Moor to discuss our ideas for Telling. I am looking forward to this part of the project the most as I hope to be steered gently into the arms of some truly creative collaborators. Along with this I hope to get to see Miss Dover's show at Transition and Mr Pearls work at The London Art Fair as well as running past Five Hundred Dollars to collect unsold work. I did also sell work, so I am keen, as ever, to see who too. These snippets of information add to the backstories being written in my diaries that contain the secrets of gimp and his world.
I am hoping to hear from The National Trust this week about the print run and have booked a trip every week in February to other venues involved in Telling; so a lot of time will be spent discussing ideas and plotting with writers in Suffolk, Yorkshire, London, Devon and The Lakes. Its going to be great!
I hope tomorrow to start plotting my build for Exeter, I love plotting!

Oh the joy

At last I have stopped momentarily. Last week was of epic proportions in terms of teaching, accounting, gallery visits, airports and making work. It reached a climax on Friday when I finally arrived home, climbed the stairs and headed straight for my pillow. I rested there for 11 hrs, true bliss. Why is it that so many deadlines come at the same time when I am behind in the first place? Urgh, never mind. Next week involves a trip next week to London town once more to visit and discuss our exciting project with the first writer and curator. Things are now moving forward a pace. I also having a meeting to discuss another part of the project on Friday with another artist which ssounds very promising indeed. The good people at The National Trust and their design company have asked me to tweek the work for the leaflet, so after photographing them tomorrow, they should be in the relevant in trays at the end of play tomorrow.
My plans for The Exeter show are moving on slowly and my purchase from ebay arrived safely on Friday. Now I just have to find the time to draw out a plan and then start to make. I hope to get to my away studio on Wednesday. I need to start building the frame first and that will take a bit of time as it will need to be portable in order for it to travel.
Exciting week ahead, looking forward to it alot.