| Far from winding down for summer things have in fact been just as busy as ever on the arts front so far! Though the I Hope To See exhibition came out of Nexus on July 4th, the very next week all 6 photos (and 44 more!) were whisked off to the other side of Manchester where they are now on display at Rolls Crescent Primary School.  I Hope To See on display at Rolls Crescent Primary School |  It’s much more appropriate that they end up there as they can now be enjoyed by the children who participated in the workshops and who were no doubt pleased to show off their work at the recent parents evening. I was also delighted to join an important prize giving assembly at the school on what turned out to be a very lucky Friday 13th for some pupils who not only received certificates to reward them for their ideas but also copies of a smart brochure containing all the photos for both classes. |
 Scenes from the East and West of the Mancunian Way | The following week saw the first opportunity to get the This Place Is brochures out and working. A collaborative event organised through CRITgroup, a few of us met in Manchester to take a reflective tour of the Mancunian Way. As well as a series of activities provided by Kevin Linnane designed for interacting with the environment, participants were asked to use This Place Is booklets for recording their responses to the space. The workshop ran for about 3 hours and the contributions are recorded in the This Place Is Public Gallery. It’s always interesting to discover the reality of a participative project (no matter how flawlessly it runs in your head!) and needless to say I have not been disappointed by the responses so far. So many interesting stories and visual records came out of such a seemingly limited space and time and it’s probably just as well that I am able to report that I also enjoyed completing my own booklet! None of that of course, is to undermine the activities set by Kevin; I certainly didn’t expect to spend Sunday afternoon dowsing next to a motorway and I think I shall be eternally grateful for my reintroduction to the largely forgotten art of wax rubbing! All the contributions to This Place Is are now live for browsing so head on over if you fancy discovering just how inspirational a dual carriage way really can be! |
This has all been happening over and around a new job that I took on last month. I am now delivering arts workshops on Saturday afternoons at the brand new Blackburn Youth Zone. The centre was featured recently on North West Tonight and really is a stunning facility for young people. I’ve been really enjoying using the space, getting to know new colleagues and having an opportunity to share my love for visual arts in an alternative environment to formal educational contexts. There are always one or two people who, for various reasons, don’t get on with the structure or pace of Further Education Courses and it’s good to know that I might be part of a different solution for a wider range of people.
| Despite all the busyness I have still managed to find time to complete the third canvas of the outstanding series of four (a quadtych!?) that I began in 2009 before starting the MA. The (delightfully titled) Suck My Ballsack is 50x50 cm and is acrylic on canvas. The series is loosely related to many of the same themes as the installation series, and some of the initial sketched can be found a little way down on the Sketchbook page. This evening we have a special guest at CRITgroup who will be taking about his recent work in Hong Kong and tomorrow I am off to deliver two workshops; painting on glass and then on metal at the Wythenshawe Games 2012. I’ll expect to be posting updates on both of those events (Check CRITblog for details of CRITgroup meetings) and with further This Place Is workshops lined up through August and September I expect to have even more to share soon; hopefully before this latest snap of warm weather runs out! |  Suck My Ballsack, July 2012, 50x50cm, Acrylic on Canvas |
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