Internet or Art History

For the first time on the Internet, at least as far as I can find after perusing several thousand possibilities, I have launched an internet site that will detail and log the entire process of a multi million pound artistic venture that will last many years from this day of taking the proverbial step of Faith, from sketchbooks and scraps of subliminal thoughts and extrinsic inspirational sources, the website can be found at http://onemillionproject.synthasite.com/

The website is a freebie, not being much of a techy I dont even know how much I can put on the site before it has reached its limit but I suppose I shall reach a stage where I just wont be able to place any more on to it, that bridge I can cross when I get there for I have enough to set out on in the New Year without adding any more onto my work schedule.

My Exhibition in February now consists of 5 difinitive pieces of artwork, now all finished and ready I only have a small number of Posters to do aswell as some commemorative invitation cards for friends, the rest, as they say is down to God.

This is my last day in the studio for a week as I trip off to my partners house for the christmas week, Food Shopping on Tuesday, Present shopping on Wednesday and then see how much food I can manage on Thursday and put the frugality away for a little while.

Until then, check out the website, any and all suggestions will be welcomed, that can only add to the collaborative, it is new, there is much to do, I have to learn a lot but am sure that it can only bode well for the future for that is what learning is all about, not just from a career point of view but within our entire lives, without learning we do not move on and slowly but surely the world will leave us behind, Time and Tide...... as is the saying.

Pebble-Count 002

Life ongoing

Its the 19th December allready, no christmas shopping done and the weather outside is not so congenial to walking around enjoyably shopping, it is grey, breezy and wet, not that I mind the weather it is a fair excuse for not going around the shops though.

College windows this time last year, early days of the BTEC in Art and Design

Day two of the 2014 major exhibition process, I have sorted out You Tube so that I can post, eventually, some videos of the progress, I have sorted a website to collate as many personal comments as possible on the state of the nation according to the normal person in the street and I havestarted to set up my own networking site, there is nothing particularly wrong with facebook but it is just so full of 'un-arty' stuff going back and forth and most of it a bit too ungodly for me, I am sure they dont not realise that they are just building a sorry future for themselves but then again, did I! he says in a rhetorical manner, cest la vie I suppose, plenty of parties from the students, plenty of people passing comments back and forth, some relating to quite pitiful social lives but little to do with art.

Christmas 2008

Stonham, the organisation that provides the sheltered housing that I live in had their house christmas bash yesterday, and I posted a short vid on YouTube, probably the only alcohol free party that will appear but it was nice to see everyone with a roof over their heads, cards and gifts handed out, mine was a good old fashioned heavy knitted scarf that will go well with just about everything I have and my belly has had its fill, what more could a man ask for? perhaps another 999,9995 names on the project list, there are 5 names now which is 5 more than yesterday, I should produce a daily graph to go with the exhibit to show the rise and fall that charts the gradual growth of the project and add it to the final piece, we shall see, watch this space.

I found out the other day that the cost of the venue alone will be in the region of 60 - 120 thousand pounds so I guess I shall have to do some serious thinking about funding, not only for that but also for the manufacture of the art pieces, the transportation, storage as well as other venues so that a tour can be organised, am I biting off more than I can chew, probably but hey, if others can do it then I can at least give it a damn good try, I am an artist and that is what artists do, spread the message, spread the word..........spread the cost!!!!!

PEBBLE-COUNT

001

I end this blog here, not as a sign of depressive thoughts about how to raise half a million but with anticipation that, while I am writing this I am not doing what I am supposed to be doing.

Take care all and Merry Christmas, just remember what christmas is all about and think of the homeless and helpless, there are more of them than the world truly realises.

Best Wishes.

a small venture outside of my comfort zone!

675 mini homeless veterans finished this time last year in a 1000 piece instalation for the Royal British Legion and Veterans Day Organisation. On any given day in the year there are on average 1000 homeless veterans on the streets of the UK.

I awoke this am with a decision made; through the nite I had pondered over what would be required by way of exhibits that would be powerful enough as to dominate the massive space that is the Baltic Exhibition Hall in Newcastle which I visited last year, the moment I walked in, it was not the exhibits by Kendel Geers that took my breath away but the space and what could be done in there, my theme was simple enough I had thought of a working title already though the direction I was to take was right there infront of me, around me and behind me and as I stood in a long and cold queue of the, now defunct, Woolworths.

There was little joy of the season amongst those in the queue and around me as all I could hear were individuals pouring their woes out, either to a friend or to some poor innocent person forced to join them in the queue, while stood even in a place where working people were just about to lose their jobs and security, their own personal grievances took priority.

Water Rates, Electric charges, Gas, Telephone, Money, notwithstanding of course the British inability to greet someone without a moan about the weather, the wars being fought in Iraq and Aghganistan hardly a mention, the theme therefore can only be our country and, whether we like it or not, we live in a country full of miserable people who are only happy when their woes are greater than their neighbour. that is only my opinion however but the evidence serves my opinion solidly, research, research research, that which I hate most in life is about to become the mainstay of a successful exhibition.

eeeh! Whats a man to do, so, without further ado, the theme is simple, the crushing of a nation by a nation that persists in seeing itself as a world leader in everything!!!! the people dont matter, even in saying that statement however I quickly remind myself that it is the people who are happy to moan that will never see any change, nor will they come to realise how fortunate they are compared to others around the world, but, I will not get drawn into the have's and have nots on a worldly level for there is sufficient grief in our own country.

My enquiries to the Baltic was most fruitful as a starting point, I now know how much it will cost at the very least to even start to raise, it is a substantial amount over a 4 or 8 week period but if it is to be, such is life, I even have a cinema within the cost to show some filmatography which can only add substantially to the project, incidently, the project title, simply onemillion for it is the number of individuals that I shall be seeking to collaborate.

Of course, the title, as is everything in this world, subject to change but it is a starting point.

My next course was to imagine how to find one million, already I am on Facebook a social networking site with the ability to form public groups so in it went, I found a free webhost http://onemillionproject.synthasite.com/ where I am able to theoretically find random people on the web.

I have a You Tube and My Space accounts where I can drop in film clips and promote the project from another angle, other than this, I am off to explore other social networking sites where I can spread the word as it were. For those reading this I can also be found on Facebook but am having difficulty placing the icon on this site at the moment.

This project is, of course some years away and none of us know what tomorrow will bring, for me it brings me art, it brings me beauty, it brings me so many things that I have to capture in one form or another, exhibitions go on and charities still require that I honour my pledge to them. For Manna House I have 7 jars of Tobbacco collected over the year from the bits in the bottom of my baccy pouches that would normally have been thrown in the bin. to be without a cigarette for most is difficult enough but for those with problems the absence of nicotine can make the difference on which side of sanity they reside.

In the hope that the tobacco is good enough for their clients (i myself have dipped into the jars on one or two occasions) and proves to be a successful initiative I can only hope that they are able to see the possibility of it becoming something that would be worthwhile in other schemes where the disadvantaged are the main consideration.

Well that is today done, with 3 new members in the facebook group I await their one liners because that is all I need, that is all anyone should need to express a sorrow be it personal or worldly, how they will appear in the final piece only time and development will tell, so, until then watch this space.

In keeping with the 'past and present' theme I add this brief video entitled...

'order amongst chaos'

taken today, I'm sure I could get some gripes simply by asking around those who were working out in the cold and rain but that, perhaps, is for later, but for the now it fits in with my early morning thought,

from little acorns............

The masses according to time take over.

How time flies when you are having fun, as they say but, for real, where did Christmas come from allready!!!

Archive................This Time Last year I had 575 minature veterans destined for the Royal British Legion around my feet, 999 were presented despite 100 made available as gifts, one was still taken. These were accepted on June 27th (Veterans Day) and remain on permanant display in the Royal British Legion Ofices.

Each of these small veterans measuring around 2cm high were crafted individually, while each depicts a Former member of tha armed services, now each was litlle more than a small begger, wrapped in blankets and head bowed, some even depicting difference facial features that was truly not possible without a little hand from my creator. The symbolisation of this piece is to support RBL figures that, at any time durning the year there are at least one thousand ex servicement homeless at any given time.

Now realising that the rest of the world belongs to a generally accepted time period I have to give in and accept that the next few days are going to have to be put on hold while I go christmas shopping and generally getting ready for the fact that things are going to be closed for a couple of days, this really messes up my routine in some respects however, it is Christmas.

This Year I am looking at the Urban Environment from the perspective of colour balance and textures, while using Sean Scully more of a direction than an inspiration, my pictures have taken on more of a graphics approach for me to work with.

With the wind down to the holiday break I managed to get the final coat of varnish on the penultimate exhibition piece with one left to go, while being unable to start anything of any consequence I took advantage by tying up a few loose ends, like, attempting to convince myself that I have had as busy year as was possible and, tho I say so myself, I dont know how I had time to do as much work as I did.





Exhibitions by the handful, Television appearance, nomination for an artistic achievement award, charity works donated and doing their job and a start in my research toward a major exhibition in the future, £1800 per day for the use of the main exhibiting Hall in the Baltic centre for contemporary arts, guess I shall have to put some funding considerations into my plans to cover that let alone the exhibits.

The exhibits have been growing slowly in my sketchbooks though no matter how much I believed that a show in somewhere as large and prestigions such as the Baltic Centre in Newcastle was a dream sceario and awaited my being able to say, 'I am an artist' words that it takes a lot of courage to say,, it is only now with my most recent body of work am I able, not only to say it but to invisage a dream, with referencing and cross referencing I am able to recognise three major pieces that will, with a lot more work, be suitable for the show that I intend to direct against those who force the poverty levels within the uk to an unnacceptable level, we are allready there tho the future as it stands at the moment stands more as a portent than any message of hope that comes at christmas.

How long will peoples New Year Resolutions Last before the real world takes over and cigarettes are once again the easy way around stress, before the alcohol that was put in the cupboard and intended for moments of celebrations comes out again because of lifes woes, how long before all the others fall by the wayside while battling against the cold from expensive fuel bills, hunger through insufficient funds, et al et al........... the list is endlessl; for me, just one resolution, to keep going and groing, to seek a further and deeper understanding of myself, to seek out and develop a greater understanding in a world that is operated by so many who have little or no understanding of the world.

I found a nice text last night from the Dalai Lam, simple and precise and it is this I leave you wishing you a merry christmas tho the only parties I shall be attending will be in retrospect while I view the photo albums of those whose cameras would have kept working whilst individuals depreciate to such a level whereby their inspirations dwindle to a point that only fotos of tongues, extended and coloured from alcopops, where only red faces tired and lazsy eyes stare out at me.





There will be none of that for me, my life is happily boring and the mornings freshness is borne of yet another good nights sleep, awakening without having to worry what i got upto in my drunkeness, while not hiding the fact that my distant goal rests along my finding some level fof fame within the artworld, not for any personal necessity I stress but merely in the knowledge that to speak out against poverty and hardship, against the woes of normality a level of renown must exist, if and when that happens I hate to even start to consider how many such fotos will come to light from my own dark and distant times when parties ran my lifes diary and alcohol provided me with the courage to go, the reason to stay, and the excuse for either not getting home or not getting to work, perhaps I should just endeavour to retain my strength in faith and hope in humility.

So I leave you tho not without my twopenneth work of spiritual words I found last night from the Dalai Lama.

Mantra from the Dalai Lama
Just a short Buddhist outlook on life.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R's: Respect for self Respect for others and Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
I also know that dreams really do come true and you have my Best Wishes and my best efforts in those.
Moongate click for more info.

For the common mans good

My Blog from this point is intended to be of reflection, while combining new directions with Fotographs from the same period last year I intend to build a retrospective diary account of the year; this should theoretically provide an apportunity to both revisit and rephotograph with an ongoing and continual photographic evoloutionary depiction.

the Wier - Dec 2007

In addition, it will provide that, while keeping a watchful eye on the progression both of self and of my working practice, my working practice being of course my career progression and not my creativity, my art is not work, it is my vacation from life. It is said that an artist is never ahead of his time it is only the people around him who are behind the times, I dont know where I heard that or even if it accurate, it matters not, progression must take place and, while there exists no manual for any individual artists life one can only work similarly to the previous year.

Within an artists personal belongings there must a record of bodies of work, for me, the evidence is maintained in my sketchbooks diaries and photograph albums should anyone wish to view the personal working of my artistic mind, viz a viz my sketchbooks, please do not hesitate to contact me for details of where and how to access, my door is, as they say, always open, I would however prefer to add, at my convenience, it is the only way I can control and maintain my solitude, my space, my work, it is the only way I can remain in that special little place where I go when I am creating, so I apologise in advance for the delay in getting back to you.

I have waffled enough so in keeping with the old (THE WIER)and the new theme of my BLOG I leave this Mantra from the Dalai Lama as a little bit of new in my life, announced with the description;

Just a short Buddhist outlook on life.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R's: Respect for self Respect for others and Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
I also know that dreams really do come true and you have my Best Wishes and my best efforts in those.
Moongate

Only now that my dog-sitting days are at an end can I realise how much I did not manage to do, such was the attention that I had to give to a young and active collie, my working space has turned into a home!

With little opportunity to create the internet became the obsession of the week and, as it turned out, was a very fruitful exercise; I found 'Stumble' a sort of collective of interests sub-divided into mini search engines, absolutely marvelous to be able to move from website to website without the tedium of constantly seeking new words to type into a search engine only to be given a duplicate first page.

With Stumble I am able to key in specific interests such as art, sculpture, animation, sub-culture or any other interest that took my fancy, hit the button and I would only be taken to a website that interested me, managing to mark more than 60 sites as favorite in one session was a sure fire way to overcome my relative short attention span!

I have not sorted out the link for the site yet but will post it as soon as, in addition I will also provide a link to my favorites page where you can peruse all the sites that I have bookmarked, not only are there arts websites but also so marvelous software programs that you can download for free.

In addition to overcoming my short attention span I also had the opportunity of relieving my angst while not being able to paint, it was Damien Hirst that was the recipient of my anger, having read the article regarding his sending the copywrite police after a young (16) aspiring street artist, Cartrain, who had used one of his artworks in the manner of appropriation.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/hirst-demands-share-of-artists-16365-copies-1054424.html

I hope that it becomes the catalyst for the lads journey to his dreams, bad publicity, as they say, is still publicity, may that be true for all of us if ever the cards turn.

I suggest that last statement in the most profound way for none of us know what lies ahead, the world is a wiley place and none of us are immune from its charms.

The Gentle Water Bird - John Shaw Nielson

The Gentle Water Bird
In the far days, when every day was long,

Fear was upon me and the fear was strong,

Ere I had learned the recompense of song.

In the dim days I trembled,

for I knew

God was above me, always frowning through,

And God was terrible and thunder-blue.

Creeds the discoloured awed my opening mind,

Perils, perplexities - what could I find? -

All the old terror waiting on mankind.

Even the gentle flowers of white and cream,

The rainbow with its treasury of dream,

Trembled because of God's ungracious scheme.

And in the night the many stars would sayDark things

unaltered in the light of day:

Fear was upon me even in my play.

There was a lake I loved in gentle rain:

One day there fell a bird, a courtly crane:

Wisely he walked, as one who knows of pain.

Gracious he was and lofty as a king:

Silent he was,

and yet

he seemed to sing Always of little children and the Spring.

God? Did he know him? It was far he flew?.

God was not terrible and thunder-blue:-

It was a gentle water bird I knew.

Pity was in him for the weak and strong,

All who have suffered when the days were long

And he was deep and gentle as a song.

As a calm soldier in a cloak of grey

He did commune with me for many a day

Till the dark fear was lifted far away.

Sober-apparelled, yet he caught the glow:

Always of Heaven would he speak,

and low,

And he did tell me where the wishes go.

Kinsfolk of his it was who long beforeCame from the mist

(and no one knows the shore)

Came with the little children to the door.

Was he less wise than those birds long agoWho flew from God

(He surely willed it so)

Bearing great happiness to all below?

Long have I learned that all his speech was true;

I cannot reason it - how far he flew -

God is not terrible nor thunder-blue.

Sometimes, when watching in the white sunshine,

Someone approaches -

I can half define

All the calm beauty of that friend of mine.

Nothing of hatred will about him cling:

Silent -

how silent -

but his heart will sing

Always of little children and the Spring.

2am and all is well

its two in the morning and jessie the collie is sighing in the background wondering when all will shut down for the night, she has been here for the past week now and is still not getting the hang of living with an insomniac workaholic who doesn't sleep in the day time either, poor soul.





For me, its an egg sandwich, a change of the music and wind down now as the days work comes to an end, all painted out, eyes tired from the computer seeing as how I lost my glasses, the 30th pair this year, invite list for the February show growing and shrinking, unanswered questions about the poster, the invite cards and the million and one things that there seems to need to be done, how does anyone ever have time to work before they retire, how does anyone have the time to retire when they do get there!





tip tapping on the window at the moment is a mixture between rain and some cold looking slushy stuff, looking out onto the flagstones in the yard it looks black and oily, a portent for disaster if it chooses to freeze later in the night, worst still if the forcasted snow falls on top. already on the pavements are the footsteps of yesterdays peoples, frozen in time a fresh fall will make it trecherous on foot or in a vehicle but, it matters not, an artists work is never done.

The Ducks are happy, like me they have

nothing better to do than to enjoy the weather

the snowfall and inclimate weather is expected to be short, if it continues to tick all my creative boxes it will all have to be taken on board I will be back out in it, dog in tow by around 7 in the morning to see what my camera will bring home for me by way of inspiration. it is not just the fresh snow that transforms the familiar into something new and clean, it is the transition as all returns to normal that must be captured aswell in some medium or another, who knows what the creative juices will find, maybe I will just have a lie in until Jessie wants to go out, it matters not for the world will unfold as it pleases.

For the now, peace and harmony reigns, who knows what tommorrow will bring but that is for tomorrow, until then I am in the 'now' and it is the now that is important, to reflect on the past or the future is merely the ego calling out for some attention, there is no room for ego in an artists life, just the creation, the now.

A change in direction

Just when I had found a style that I enjoyed!!!! it seems that having now found a style that I enjoy painting in, something that is a little more personal and challenging, along comes the snow and everything changes, or at least that is how I imagined it until I took some photographs outside, there, out of the image I started to see the surreal world that appears in my pallet work, there I was, thinking that I was allowing my environment to alter what had seemed to be a ballance in my work when all that was really happening was the change in my surroundings were more pronounced as a painted image.


Now back home, Jessie my faithful collie following along beside me, it is straight back to the canvas. three new paintings in an exhillerating period of some hours, each separate in styles, each flowing easily. For these works all others were put on hold, I have three paintings under construction at the moment, whereas the majority of my work is completely a la prima (completed in one sitting) there are works that take me some months to complete, for these it is necessary for me to revisit a particular mind set, a particular type of music, a particular place to go,

Red Hut



only when the time of original conception is recreated am I able to continue these works, to attempt to continue when not in the mood is tantamount to disaster, there have been many pieces that have found their way either into the bin or to emerge as something completely different to that which I had started.

I dont really do sketches as a preparatory to my paintings, generally my paintings are created from within, from the feelings that I have either some time after visiting somewhere that has remained in the recesses of my mind or, as is the case today, immediately, as soon as I walk in even without putting the kettle on, the painting has to be done while the cold still sits on the end of my fingers, while the wide open spaces that the snow lying on the ground seems to bring, even while my torn calf muscles from nearly sliding and falling down an unexpected and icy slope have stopped their protestations about movement.

Fell Walk




as is usually the case, my painting for today is on the surface of another, a shortage of canvases being the order of the day though it matters not, the older painting has been fotographed and filed and serves now as the underpainting for the new work, two paintings for the price of one, cant be bad.


The paintwork for the February show is all but completed though there is one piece that I am not entirely happy with, actually I am not entirely happy with any of them but that is me, I am never fully satisfied with any of my work and know that only time and renown will allow me the time to actually spend on my works, that is something that I have enjoyed for this show, there has been no pressure to get sufficient work done having originally set myself a goal of only 6 works so that quality would take preference over quantity, I hope I have achieved this.



Jessie now worn out from the trek, her first real trip up and around the town and people and she did so well, as nervous as any collie but staying close to me, the lead hardly tightening at all, that is until some huge bark eminated from a parked car, I am sure Jess pulled me 6 feet along the ice, 2 paintings completed and one abandoned as I have run out of white paint, guess I just was not expecting the snow sufficiently in time to stock but how was I to know that the weather change would cause such a stir in my creative genes, simple, it is my responsibility to know! I shall be ready the next time around, until then however there is the transition between snowfall and the return to a landscape that i am more familiar with, that period of transition I must commit to fotografic record.