Greetings from the not so messy, white spirit, bleach, oil paint and gin soaked desk of my home away from home at the Parsley residence in Taunton. Where have I been for the last week you may ask? I have had the pleasure of residing at Somerset College where myself and two artists; Brain Gibson and Paul Hurley are 'in residence' for the next few weeks. More specifically, the residency is a month long project under the 'Context' project which has been set up, created and managed by Emily Bull (currently studying a MA in Arts Business Management at Dartington). Context is a series of projects that aim to provide opportunities for artists, communities and professionals to engage and develop in the visual arts in Somerset. There has already been a series of short films by Somerset based artists projected in rural communities in Somerset and a evening for debate on the discussion of Art in the South West.So, I leaped at the chance to go back to my old University College and make a mess all over again, see some old faces (and some even older faces!) and hopefully learn and have more adventures along the way. I'm working alongside two other artists, Paul Hurley and Brian Gibson (please see links to their work below) which is a welcome and exciting prospect after working alone for a lot of my work this last year! We are writing a separate blog to which I've added a link on the side if you would like to follow our progress and because I just can't seem to get enough of blogs at the moment!
The residency is taking place from the 12th July til the impending Friday 13th August when we hope to exhibit or show some of the work we've produced in that time. It aims to be a 'public' affair so we encourage anyone who wants to get involved in working with us on this project to please contact us (more info to follow on the context blog soon).
Myself, I'm looking at a certain favourite subject matter of mine, tools, once again! So I'm looking for anyone with unusual tools or things specific to their particular trade to use as a source for creating images from. How specific objects hold significance or history in them from the person who works with them is what I'm interested in. Anyway, its already been a week and I think I've done a successful job at making a mess on the floor and walls of the Fine Art studio thus far. Its definitely quite a challenge to focus oneself for a month to produce something after having no structure for the best part of a year. Being back in my old college also raises my own sense of expectations and perhaps doubts with me having to re-question critically my practice and think am I supposed to have developed a maturity towards my practice in the time since I left?! Ha ha! We'll have to wait and see.
Still from a previous performance by Performance Artist Paul Hurley http://theatrebristol.net/directory/paul-hurley
My 'residential' studio space at the end of week one!
Work by Brian Gibson
My 'residential' studio space at the end of week one!
Work by Brian Gibson
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