Mountains and lodges

I am pleased to say that today I secured an important venue for filming 'The Blue Light' at the start of the summer. Cromer Hall is a gothic mansion that is integral to the historical setting of The Hound of the Baskervilles and therefore to the story of the Black Shuck that is said to roam the coastal path between Overstrand and Sheringham in Norfolk. I am to make one more phone call to secure another venue but I cant see too much of a problem with this now that I have Cromer Hall in place. I have also been fortunate enough to have 23 actors offering to play the four parts I have available for the film. This is going to be extremely hard to whittle down as they all have great experience and things to offer the project. I will then need to find a venue to audition but hopefully this shouldn't be too difficult.

This week I have also been chasing mountains in a fit of hysteria for another body of work that needs to be on its way in July. Its at the point where I have so much research I now need to home in on what it is I am trying to find out, to get at, to pick away at the scab so to speak. To my mind this is the hardest part as I wait and wait, hoping for something to come to the fore.

On another note my new teaching job is expanding. I have a number of students getting in touch, so need to keep that under control whilst all other things are flying around in the sky. I have also started work for a show in Cardiff that runs the length of the Olympics. I will be very fit by the end of it, I think that is what is expected.

Applications are moving slowly but I really must find the time to finish them, always a problem as they get pushed to one side in busy times.

Poles, fountains and hanging lamps

This last week I have been forging ahead with the film as I now have three potential venues in Norfolk and offers from actors/performers to take part. I am holding out for one particular venue which I really hope to be able to use but it incurs a cost, so I will have to wait and see how much. I should hear back very soon. In anticipation I have a plan B.
The rest of my time has been taken up with finding a common ground between three historical figures and I have found it, so after tomorrows meeting in London for Roam, I hope to move on with more constructive outcomes.
I haven't been in my studio for a week, so I am itching to get on with sourcing and putting things together for work upcoming. 


This is my infantry so far.


Sticks, umbrellas, poles, trees, firearms, guns, pistols and the revolver, faucets, watering cans, fountains, hanging lamps, collapsible pencils, pencils, quills, nail files, hammers.


Balloons, aeroplanes, zeppelins, flying
reptiles and fish, snakes, hats, cloaks
pits, caves, hollows, pitchers, bottles, trunks, jars, cases, pockets, ships, wardrobes, stoves, rooms
doors, entrances, wood, paper, tables and books, snails, mussels, mouths, churches and chapels
apples, peaches and fruits in general, cliffs, woods and water, machinery difficult to describe.


Jewel- caskets, jewels and treasure, sweets, play, piano playing, sliding and coasting, tearing off a branch.
Ones teeth fall out or having them pulled.
Dancing, riding and climbing or being run over. Being threatened more over.

Control or is it?

Today I have added a sale page to my website and have sold already Madame Coopers Troopers. Yesterday was the opening of Tainted Love at Transition Galley, London where I chatted to a few new and old acquaintances. The space has been divided up by ply boards which give a sense of viewing the works in an intimiate space, which I really like. The PV was very busy. I am working on quite a few applications for things which I am pretty excited about like residencies, commissions and funding and feel, for the first time in ages, pretty on top of things, although I do have much to do. This week I have managed to secure a new tutoring post, which will, no doubt, come with its own new challenges and have also agreed to be in a show over the summer in Cardiff, although, right now I have no idea what it will become in terms of outcome. I have been reading and having fruitful conversations which is helping my current research into romance and the sense of the love lorn powerless man. Its pretty tongue in cheek as ever, but the reading is good. Next up is Tainted Love touring to The Meter Room in Coventry and film work for Roaming, which is ongoing as is work for my current MA. Lots of loose ends but all hopefully moving in the same direction.

Tainted Love, ROAM and a hint of violence

I have finally finished work for Tainted Love which is a touring show travelling to London, Coventry and Herefordshire this summer. I have agonised over this one, with wrestling with illness and juggling silly things that have taken an inordinate amount of time to tie together. Feeling on the whole a lot better the work has resulted in making 5 x A2 sized pieces, 2 paintings and 7 small works on paper. I have added drawing and symbolic gestures that have tied researching Aleister Crowley, his muse Laylah and Stindhal's Theory of Crystalization. See the link to my work as well as the work of others here Tainted Love. Overall I am pleased but may add more objects as the show moves on.

Catching up today with admin I am about to embark on concluding my research for the film as well as working on another piece that looks at control and behaviour. I am also making new drawings for another project working with another artist. ROAM continues it quest to amalgamate the work of 7 artists and we now have a website that it live where you can follow my filmic ideas with others works that will accumulate to be shown at Aid and Abet in September http://roamcollective.com/

This will take me over the summer to complete and hopefully will be enjoyable now that I have settled in at my new studio managing to get there every day, even if it is to contemplate and reflect on things past.

Settling down

I have just got back from a weeks work at West Dean feeling despondent with teaching and grey and sombre in mood. It has been weeks since I have been active regarding making work of any worth and now with a doctors diagnosis I have at least got an understanding of why I have been inactive. Now waiting for further results I have had my first productive day working in my new studio on new ideas as well as modes of working and things are moving steadily forward in terms of production.
I have so much to do regarding studies, research, three shows, drawings and films that I have been in a state of paralysis for a while and now, with a week ahead with no particular commitments I am attempting to crack on.
I have been reading a lot and am making slow tentative moves back to painting and I hope to have my visuals ready in terms of film direction in parallel. I am working on things for three shows in upcoming months, all of which have a lot to do with darkness of thought and violent acts in a romantic context. Likewise, the film and further works are to reenact behavioural acts that are centred around psychoanalytical theory, literature and gaps in memory and thought.

Spring leap

I have decided to leap from my studio at Wysing to a new one nearer home. With the costs of travelling rising and with what seems like a busy-ish time in terms of making work, it has been a hard decision to make but no doubt a sensible one financially. I am now residing in an outlandishly large old paint workshop which has been empty for almost two years and so I have been scrubbing and slapping white emulsion over the walls for the last couple of weeks. That said, I have now more or less managed to condense what was two ineffectual working studio spaces (one too far away and one at home as well) into one large fully functioning work space. I have a few more trips of things to take in terms of materials but other than that I am done.

And so, on to work things. I haven't been that productive overall. I am working on the last module for an MA which will be finishing in July and contemplating my navel with ideas to run with regarding work for Tainted Love. I have researched the questionable relationship between a significant cultural figure and his muse and so next comes the work. I have no idea where its heading , but that is usually a good thing in terms of enjoyment.

I am heading up to North Norfolk in a couple of weeks to discover places to film. This is, as ever, ongoing and due to my move has been put on hold slightly. That said, I have sourced a potential film maker or two, got a couple of volunteer prop makers and even had a proposal from a composer, so its looking exciting. I just need actors. It is my intention to wrestle with the storyboarding and overall look now, before I go ahead and arrange dates. The project fits into a larger collective concept and I have been busy taking the role of marketing guru liaising with the very efficient project manager/curator and things are finally getting off the ground. We should be potentially live in the next week or so, so more on that later...

A lot of links

The talk/lecture went well at Senate House and I am hoping to upload images and the video to my website shortly. It was great to meet the other artists involved as well as meeting the actor Anthony Shuster, who was taking a break from working for the last two years on Warhorse. There were many interesting questions at the end of the presentations too, which is always great to be part of. Here is a video clip and some photographs from the event.

This week I have made a drawing for a fundraiser at Transition Gallery which involves pagan ritual and references to horn dancers. The fete where these works will be on show is on March 18th, so run by if you can and make a bid.

I am now unpicking the final edit of the story from Liz Williams, who as ever, has made a beautiful and curious story around some ideas I have had for a film. I have put a call out for volunteers, so if you are interested in taking part them drop me a line at hayleylock1@gmail.com. I am hoping to drive up to North Norfolk in the next couple of weeks to hunt down relevant places to film. I have a good idea of where, so lets hope the churches around that area are just as enthusiastic.

I have as yet to pin down my ideas for Tainted Love, but I am sure it will not be far off. I am tied between my love of an object or a person, so I will need to wait and see which one wins.

In other news I am saddened to be leaving my Wysing studio at the end of this month. Unfortunately the costs of getting to and from can no longer be justified with the cut in my teaching hours and subsequent larger input I am putting into my practice. I have however almost secured a new studio not far from my home and with the current financial crisis I may have got myself a great deal, fingers crossed.

I managed last week to see some great shows both in and out of London. I particularly enjoyed Culpable Earth by Steven Claydon at Firstsite in Colchester. Great content, curatorship and interview by Andrea Cotton online