since 10 March I have been in my own little world, pondering and pottering while the world and its mother, passed me by. I have little need at this moment in time to move at the same pace as everyone else, and, while youngsters on their bikes, supported with stabilisers, and by animals with far less purpose than even I at the moment, I have reorganised my life, sorted out the wheat from the chaff as it were and broken my workload down to a point where I am able to move forward, both as a person and as an artist. My current fixed projects are as varied as they are separated by simple geography, the Glass House restoration and the Film company, Dog Tag Media both based in Scotland and my Autumn Show here in Kendal.
My recent contact with Melvyn Bragg is now at an end though not without my realising that there really was no connection between us sufficient as to reap the full benefits of being in contact with such a genuine person, the lack of contact simply of my own making and borne of the gulf that lay between, in realising this however it provides the most perfect grounding in much the same way as I found my level of health amongst veterans at Hollybush House I have now established my presence in the art world, a presence that, with its very existance, I have a place in life.
The Glass house project is tremendously exciting for me and, despite early, though knowingly false, ideas that the project would be a simple undertaking it has proved to be far from simple but nonetheless; with people to interview, stonemasons, carpenters and glaziers to film while they mimic the craftstrades of old and, in virtue of that I have no doubt that those who are responsible for the restoration work will be of the same qualities as those who built the glass house in its original state, there are photographs to take, drawings to do and paintings to be done, there is filmwork and all of the associated artistic skills combining with those of the workforce, what magic that could spawn.
The theme for my autumn show is to be a response to the changes in my environment, and will be based around the five paintings [those from the recent Stavely show] each supported by black and white/sepia photographs depicting life in and around Kendal, hopefully I can bring in some moving images as well but only time will tell, for the moment this is the direction and I can only follow the path and see what lies ahead of me.
Finally I have Dog Tag Media, a new film company that is truly at the very beginning, I feel so fortunate to have stumbled upon them and allows for so many joint ventures in the future that I can only start to imagine what the future will bring for all concerned.
I have spent a vast amount of time over the past two weeks examining the different techniques in film making and the different forms of acting trying to decide where and how I make my first move forward in the world of moving image, currently I have gelled with performances such as Upstairs Downstairs where emotions seem so overly staged as to be a simple honesty in the false world that is 'acting', with this at one end of my scale it moves along to a point where there is such a good rapport between camera and script as to create an illusion of reality such as soaps and mature drama, this is something that I have to work out, not only from the work point of view but also from a personal point of view, while trying to be something that you know you are capable of while not knowing how is very different from trying to be something that you are not meant to be in life, I have tried the latter throughout the entirety of my life to know the difference, I just have to keep trying to be.