I Want To Make Something Out Of Everything

This quote by writer Cheryl Strayed seems to sum it up, as does her book Wild - simple in concept (a walk) and utterly profound in meaning (how do we move from one state to another). So in the spirit of placing one foot in front of the other, I have been clocking up the hours in the studio and completing my next work - working title Bird By Bird. Another literary reference, this time to author Anne Lamond and her book by the same title.
Bird by bird is best explained by the following quote from the book -"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years older at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilised by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brothers shoulder, and said, Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird."

So this leads to the latest Moleskine Japanese album, completed from everything (anything) that was situated paces from my studio door -  including rust scraped from gardening tools, mixed with water and used as pigment. No more explanation required.

Spirographs and Sparrows

This concertina work is complete and here is one section. This work was a companion of mine for many weeks (carried with me) and grew seamlessly from the bits and pieces that crossed my path. I was thinking about an interaction between the paper, the images and objects. The branch (attached) sits along side a very very carefully painted sparrow ( from an old bird watchers guide), Spirograph drawings (from an old Spirograph kit, Thanks Jane) and observed quick sketches from insects that made their way into my studio. The real and the represented, the observed and the remembered.



Latter in the same book .... I am resisting the urge to build up the final page. It is what it is...
Fragments ...

Another Page Towards The End

Here is another instalment in the latest book. It is close to being complete. The night sky is surely the clue. I love the way that for hundreds of years these skys were gazed upon and the dots were joined to create myths. Surely joining the dots is the only way to create any kind of meaningful story.
So here's to joining the dots.

Latest Works

All part of a series I am doing inspired by the most fantastic animation which in itself was inspired by the poems of Edgar Allan Poe. I have put the link here too - cause it is just too fantastic.

The animator is Saskia Kretzchmann from Germany.

My works are again in the Moleskine, with the inclusion of any bits of debris that float my way from small seeds to silk paper -  yes that really does exist - ask a print maker. I have included bones in my work before and this could be another good place but at the moment I really am not up to boiling and cleaning these. The regeneration - interconnection thing is here in this work too. Everything is really connected to everything else; with traces and tracks above, below, forward and back in both places.. To paraphrase Poe,  Who can say where one ends and the other begins?

Someone shared this with you: http://vimeo.com/40291524 The Boundaries of Life and Death http://vimeo.com/40291524 About this video ""The Boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?" - Edgar Allan Poe The shortfilm, based on Edgar Allan Poes quotation, is the result of my work in the 5th semester at the Anhalt University of Applied Science. It was a solo project and the conceptional work, the creation and the implementation of the animation took about three months. Der Kurzfilm, welcher auf Grundlage von Edgar Allan Poes Zitat entstand, ist das Ergebnis einer Semesterarbeit aus dem fünften Semester an der Hochschule Anhalt im Fachbereich Design. Er entstand als Ein-Mann-Projekt und Konzeption, Bau der einzelnen Elemente sowie Animation dauerten etwa drei Monate." Forward this email to your friends and family so that they can watch the video too.

Resurrection and Other Manifestations of Belief

A work in progress ... cobbled together from discards...

drawings based on insects preserved during a hot summer ( hard to imagine that now)

the weeds and twigs from my garden ....

the real and the represented...

Working title Resurrection

All part of a book for my Blake entry.

Just Some of My Collection

I am enthralled with collecting and assembling. This seems to work so nicely around my Plein air stuff. When you are out there small "gifts" come your way. Fragile things, completely over looked just waiting to be grafted into an artwork. The diaries too become precious objects in them selves.

Life and Death In Suburbia

This Indian Myna, deposited on my door step (a "gift" from our pet). Although I scowled at the cat  - I felt only marginally  better after justifying it as the death of a "flying pest". This started a series of works about birds - creatures connecting to the land and sky and apparently in Victorian times; the manifestation of children's souls that had "passed over". Both creepy and somehow beautifully poetic. Looking into the face of this bird was actually a similar kind of experience.

The two works (above) are a four segments from a larger book.

Coloured pencil, graphite pencil and water colour. The geraniums were also from my garden.