Another New Year 03/01/2012
 
Since completing the MA in October, the last couple of months of 2011 were spent in an enjoyable rediscovery of acrylic on canvas. As the MA was focusing on Three Dimensional Design, I couldn’t justify the time to work on 2D pieces for a couple of years but have completed two painted portraits since the end of the course. The first of these, titled ‘Lainee’ is from a photograph of the God Daughter of a colleague and was commissioned following a series of sketches and negotiations. The second (with a working title of ‘Hexagons’, which seems to have appropriately stuck) is a personal impression of someone with a background in colour chemistry and was generated as a low cost (but high labour) Christmas present! It’s been a refreshing change to get back to painting, and it’s reminded me how much value I place in having a broad skill set with regard to my practice. Though I’m not planning to focus exclusively on painting, I’m certainly pleased to have the time to pick it up again and will now continue working to complete a series of paintings I started 3 years ago. One of these, ‘Bear’, can be seen on the Older Work section of this site and is developed from a series of sketches and photographs of Graffiti as recorded at the bottom of the Sketchbook Page.

In addition to the paintings, I have now managed (thanks to a friend still studying at MMU!) to cut a third series of boards in relation to the I Remember and This Place Is workshops. The I Hope To See boards have been made with younger participants in mind and I hope soon to use them with young people in Hulme to finish off a project which will in essence have generated a multiple perspective portrait of the area from the points of view of those who regularly use it. The daughter of another friend kindly trialled them for me when I visited just before Christmas and her enthusiasm for the idea has given me a fresh boost of confidence with which to pursue the project, as well as a few images to use for illustrative purposes when submitting proposals.

Lainee - Dec 11
Lainee - December 2011
Hexagons - Dec 11
Hexagons - December 2011
I Hope To See
New 'I Hope To See' board in use
_I have learnt from experience that aside from access to facilities, the thing one misses most upon completion of a programme of study is the feedback and support of peers. With this in mind, I have been taking steps to set up a small group of people to regularly meet with the aim of facilitating a pooling of professional skills and knowledge which would provide motivation, support and social contact for those pursuing a creative practice in Manchester. There has been one meeting so far in November which went well enough for the second to have been organised for the end of January. The meeting will take place at MadLab, Manchester and details can be found on their website.

While I have at least been keeping practical work ‘ticking over’ since the end of the MA, the biggest cognitive challenge I have faced may come as something of a surprise, at least to those who know me. I have enrolled on an evening course to revisit and re sit GCSE Maths. Thankfully, it is with some relief that I have found myself actually quite enjoying the content and though it is not without apprehension that I look forward to the memory test of exams in the summer, it has certainly given me an opportunity to exercise a different part of my brain, albeit a rather underdeveloped part! Though the decision to sit the course is not completely random, the long term reasons for it are as yet not well enough confirmed to justify any further details at this stage and so for now I shall be content just to mention that I’m doing it!
I have been feeling somewhat apprehensive about 2012 as I have somehow developed the habit of assuming that each New Year must be better than the last. As the last few years have been very positive, it seems hard to imagine how 2012 could possibly live up to that and I have been assuming a degree of disappointment is inevitable. However, that’s clearly not a productive attitude and I have instead resolved to invest my efforts in ensuring that regardless of the as yet unknown content of 2012, I at least maintain, if not develop, those projects begun in earlier years which continue to display creative or social potential.
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This Place Is 16/07/2011
 
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Following on from the I Remember workshop about 6 weeks ago, there are one or two updates to make in relation to those projects. The photos from the session with the Hulme History Society went on display at the Zion Arts Centre in Hulme for a month from the 13th of June. This gave the participants the opportunity to see the photographs of their contributions. The members of the society reported that they felt a sense of achievement in viewing the work, commenting that although it was a small portfolio of images, the content was expansive. The group also enjoyed a new conversation about the area stimulated by the photographs and were able to share the discussion further with those who had been unable to participate on the day. Keen to continue the project, Hulme History Society has invited me back in September 2011 to conduct a second I Remember workshop using members' photographs of the area through various decades.  This workshop will take a slightly different format and we plan to bring projection back into the session to view and interact with the photos. The main benefit of this new approach will not only be that we can visualise the past of the area but also that those with reduced mobility will be able to participate more directly and share their thoughts equally.

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On the 14th of July, a group of artists from Venture Arts (an organisation in Hulme which runs workshops for people with learning disabilities) participated in a similar session. Instead of focusing on memory however, the This Place Is workshop focused on a more current perspective of the same part of Hulme, which provided an interesting opportunity to compare the impressions of alternative community groups. The 7 members of the group agreed that they all had fun during the 2 hour session and that they enjoyed looking at the buildings and taking the pictures. Photographs from the session will soon be on display in the Holden Gallery Café at the Manchester School of Art.

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In other news, I recently added a couple of additional projects to the site; Fancy a Pint and Where’s Good For You? These smaller ventures have yet to be realised on a larger scale but are still related to my on-going investigations in to interaction between strangers in cities.
Aside from potential additions relating to the above, the next major update is unlikely to materialise until mid-September/early October as I now have until the first of September to write up the details of practice and concept that have occurred since my last assessment. Upon completion, I will then have reached the end of the MA and the very clear start of a new chapter!
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