I think I've spent too much time with the fairies. My feet haven't touched the ground! 
Last Autumn saw the culmination of the Fairy Path Project, commissioned by Shipping Brow Gallery, funded by Maryport Town Council. Artist, Jim Osborne and I worked across 7 schools in Maryport, revisiting the memoirs of local person Doris Riley, and her collection of stories and myths of the area. After the children had visited the legendary path, they worked on their responses to everything they had discovered. We hung the result down the path to re-animate it. I liked the final effect - little accents of colour dotted down the path, weird and wonderful faces and mobiles coming into view from each side.

The work was hung perhaps a little late in the season, so unfortunately, I'm now in the process of repairing many of the poor artworks. I thought varnished AirDry Fimo would survive, but this locality definitely needs fired clay or wood. We live and learn. 

In late autumn, I was invited by Everyone Here, the arts organisation run by artists and members of the west coast community, to help with lantern-making. The occasion was their Lightworks festivals in Seascale and Workington. After around 18 lantern-making workshops with hundreds of folk, the marvellous lanterns were ready to set off on their parade!

Funnily enough, I've been spending time looking through the awesome archive of the work of Welfare State International curated by Bristol University. Headed by John Fox and Sue Gill, Welfare State International was based in Cumbria for many years. They were also the first community arts company to bring lantern processions to Britain, after a cultural exchange with Japan. Hurray!

In developing their future plans for the town, Cockermouth Town Council were inspired to ask the most imaginative people in their community first - its youngest members. I was commissioned to find a way that the children could speak through poetic and visual imagery to give full voice to their ideas. I created large black and white drawings of different parts of Cockermouth. The children were invited to transform these drawings, animate their town according to their hopes and desires! When collage is used in a group setting, each fragment of text or image juxtaposed with the one next to it, is a super-charged way to spark off new connections and ideas. We have Kurt Schwitters to mainly thank for this. Just lately, I've been exploring the Armitt Museum's collection of his work and related archive. 

This is my simplistic title for a body of work I started about 4 years ago. It's about manifesting the unsayable, something the arts are very good at doing. 
Two years ago, on a residency at Stiwdio Maelor in Corris, Wales, I began turning drawings of indescribable experiences, feelings, and events into paintings. I returned to this site this year to continue. 

From this, I am now in residence for roughly 3 months at Hope Haven in Whitehaven, part of a unique collaboration between West Coast Mental Health Partnership and Everyone Here. ​

While we've been working with the schools, we've been hearing how the Fairy Path, which leads down from the Upper Prom to the Lower Prom, dates back at least a hundred years. It became beautifully decorated during Lockdown, and now, years later, its desperately in need of some TLC!

So far, myself and Shipping Brow Gallery's Artist-in-Residence, Jim Osborne, have been taking groups of children up the path, to sketch and look out for wildlife and of course, the odd fairy. They're quite hard to spot as they're rather shy. One little girl from Our Lady and St Patrick School recommended, it's best to be quiet on your way up the path!

We've been working with Dearham, Maryport, Our Lady & St Patricks and Netherton so far. Later on, we'll be seeing Flimby, Ellenborough, Grasslot and Ewanrigg Schools, and we'll be working with Maryport Beavers and a young wildlife group! Already, the ideas for the trail map are A-mazing! Have a look at what we've got so far...everything from fairies and brownies, to viking kings and princesses, to wild boar and magic foxes...and not forgetting one or two mischievous elves..

Over the next few months, hundreds of children will be visiting the Shipping Brow Gallery as part of their session. The first groups have already seen an exhibition of both Jim's and my work, together with the work of print-maker Jack Fawdry-Tatham. More recently, Dearham School caught the opening week of Sarah Reid, a local pastel artist. I hope they've found it inspiring. Take a look at their artwork, see what you think!

The making phase of the project will be coming up in May, and we've got bundles of ideas of what we can make, using materials that won't harm the environment..

A lovely start to the year, exhibiting with Jim Osborne and Jack Fawdry-Tatham. The wider theme of the exhibition points towards myth, narrative and imagination. Jim Osborne typically experiments across a wide range of colour palettes, from the glowing oranges and pinks of Maryport sunsets to the muted tones of interior still lives. However, for this show, his palette is far more focused. There is a hint of the otherworldly in each of his works, with unforgettable compositions depicted in jewel-like colours.

In Jack Fawdry-Tatham's etched prints, the otherworldliness is arguably more instantly visible, with his timeless arrangements of creatures and figures. What commands longer meditation are the hidden elements within each piece, an endless treasure trove of detail.

Unusual or not so unusual for me (you know what I'm like), I'm showing textile works, along the theme of 'journeys into the interior II'. This is a continuation of my interest in journeys underground, which I began during my MFA. During my physical investigations with the local mining society (CATMHS), I began to understand the community aspect to this industry and culture that had taken place below ground. The mining society members, many of whom have direct or family connections to mining, are totally at home in this environment, where they work together to carefully record and conserve these structures and stories of the past. I've since been endlessly inspired by this feeling of being in these solemn spaces, where you're left with your own imagination running wild at the same time as being grounded by the reassurance that you're with others.

Textiles, their origins, and the many ways that they can be sewn together, come with their own assortment of associations. Hopefully my pieces shine a different light on the subjectmatter. See what you think!
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Read more here

The exhibition runs until the end of the month.

The collection contain mainly UK brands and products which I myself have used. I'll also be including a student range, and will generally be keeping prices very competitive whilst maintaining quality. 

 After I've told everyone in the Lake District (and the world) about Keswick Art Supplies, I'll be hosting an open studio event with the other makers here at The Makers Mill. This will be taking place in July. I'll be showing a preview of my Journey Portraits (for commissions), and a brand new range of prints, entitled 'Holiday Paintings' for sale. Here's an example...

So, the MFA show is over, the dust has settled, the alcohol-free champs has all been drunk. 

First of all, a quick credit to Craig Dring and Chris Patterson for their yummy photos of my work.

My final show piece was called 'Story of We'. The subjectmatter was mining culture and the local societies that continue to preserve this heritage. Seen through the eyes of an artist, I found mining and mining conservation to be full of exceptionally collaborative and creative acts. There is a sense of design, the need to experiment to find a solution.  All carried out in often very dangerous conditions, and on a monumental scale.

It maybe niche, creating paintings of the subterranean, but the myth, stories, remains and rock formations are just so endlessly captivating.

 You can read more about the piece here, if you like.

So now, I'm developing the paintings I made during my Masters.  

I worked with the paint to create labyrinthine worlds, using oil paint and gravity itself. In the final show, they benefitted from being spotlit in the black-out space.

I'd like to increase the intensity in the work, so their colours can sing even without being spotlit! And the labyrinthine nature of the spaces - I'd like to explore this a bit further too.

​The paper-cast elements still intrigue me... but again, I think there is another stage to come. I really like the absence of any colour. I'm bewitched by it. It also gives me a sense of peace.

Low-relief sculpture - using the effect of light and shadow over a 3-dimensional form, seems like a good medium to evoke the craggy geology of the area.
It also speaks of the past, a 'ghost impression', something poetic, needing longer contemplation, ever-changing with the light of the day. The white cotton with which the work is made, also reminds me of shrouds, the sacred. 
I also recently learned that clouds have a molecular make-up that mirrors the suns rays - hence the white - the full spectrum. I like the idea of white denoting a full spectrum. 

I did mention in my last newsletter, that I was going to develop my Journey Portraits. This is true! I'll hopefully show developments of this in the coming months too.

 Going back to collaboration, creativity and research, I've been continuing to work with Kirkgate Arts and Heritage  in Cockermouth. In line with their totally inspiring vision, I've been running loads of workshops with all ages and communities, co-researching and exploring. I'll be over at Maryport's Netherton Infants this Autumn/Winter, as well as at The Settlement. 

Finally, after driving through to Newcastle for the past 2 years, I'm now able to enjoy my wonderful studio at The Makers Mill . I'm going to be setting up some art clubs, for age 7-12, 13-18 and adult, run on a subscription basis. More information will appear in the coming weeks!

I have been to London, I didn't see the Queen, but I have been quite busy...

I'm coming towards the finish of my 2-year Masters course. It's been an opportunity to have my work tested by a cohort of other students and lecturers from around the world. The idea is, you all agree to appraise each other’s work against international scientific and cultural trends and exemplars. This helps you fine tune your work and keep it relevant.

The key thing about a course of this kind, is it’s going to hurt (but in an enjoyable way)! You don’t have to change what you do, you're simply making sure that what you’re making is the best version. The Masters measures how far you have travelled on this journey, how much you have tested yourself; but you ultimately decide how to measure what is 'best'.


I’ve continued with community art projects...
Working with the Kirkgate Centre in Cockermouth and their communities. While I will be bringing in skills to share with these communities, I’m trying to emphasise the exchange of ideas, and un-earthing of skills local to their area, such as dyeing.

Also, ​I’m moving into Makers Mill!!!!

I can’t wait. It’s such a beautiful place, situated on the banks of the river Greta. I’ll be developing figurative pieces based on people’s old photos and memories.

The advent of Zoom is one of many autobiographical occurrences throughout my life that I have felt compelled to make art about, as a means of understanding it. In this way, at all levels, sensory, emotional and intellectual, I operate in a similar manner to artists such as Anselm Kiefer and Louise Bourgeois, whose processes and artworks are understood to be metaphorical embodiments of the experiences that they are working through (Rosenthal, 1987 & Bourgeois, 2015). 
​
The garment and wall hanging relate to a character from Nordic mythology: Ganglot, a female servant to Hel (goddess of the underworld, carer of the sick and the dying). Myths and metaphors can be tools that help us consider the deeper meanings behind events, whilst keeping at a safe distance. I worked for many years with individuals who were diagnosed as having severe levels of ‘Flights of ideas: where your thoughts move very quickly from idea to idea, making links and seeing meaning between things that other people don't.’ (Mind, 2020). We used these flights of ideas to make art together, but we would anchor them down in a project, with skill attainment, practice and a defined end with a public interface. I would encircle us with this boundary of rigor, and I was as happy to reside in this circle as they were.

This bounded space is akin to the archetypal artist’s studio, a hermetically sealed space where an artist can perfect their work. At the same time, this circle, this environment was also my artwork, my doing, coming close but not quite to what Bourriard described as an ‘artwork [that] is presented as a social interstice within which these experiments and “new life possibilities” appear to be possible.’ (Bourriaud, 2002). In my work, individuals refined their work, but also restored themselves. 

This is just one of the aspects of the unique blend of community art that I practiced over decades. For instance, I instinctively withheld much of my own tastes and styles, my own sense of aesthetics, when I worked with other people. Why? Borrowing the words of Susan Sontag, ‘For taste governs every free -- as opposed to rote -- human response. Nothing is more decisive’ (UCLA Department of DMA, 2020). I did not want to give them a set of lenses, as I believed their eyesight was perfectly suited to the dual task on which we all were focused: developing both themselves and their art.

Cognitive science is one area that begins to shed light on this way of thinking/operating. According to Francis Steen’s cognitive account of aesthetics, ‘the aesthetic impulse would be an appetite for information that in our distant past was recruited and relied on for optimal self-construction, regulated by a developmental chronology’ (Turner, M. (ed.) 2006). Interestingly, I was only able to put aside my own ‘lens’, or sensibilities, for certain amounts of time. Over an intensive period, involving working 6 days a week, year after year, on these types of projects, I perhaps neglected my own engagement with aesthetics, my own journey of self-construction. As educator and philosopher Paulo Freire wrote, “I cannot be if others are not” (Freire 1997), but in my case, I was not, while others were!

Mindful of my propensity to lose myself in ‘flights of ideas’, and the needs of others, I have drawn my own circle around the following features to my practice moving forward: a wish to tend to my own sensibilities; a proclivity for playing with metaphors and myths; a fascination with old mines chipped out of remote landscapes, lending me aesthetic, sensory, and metaphorical resources at this time; and a desire to experiment and develop my facilitation approaches for use in teaching, with particular awareness of the era of remote learning.

You can see the artwork featured above at Rheged Art Centre, Penrith CA11 from 26 June-5 September 2021.
 
 
 

 
References
 
Berlant, L. (2011) Cruel optimism. London: Duke University Press.
Bouchard, D. F. (1980) Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: selected essays and interviews by Michel Foucault.  2nd edn.  New York: Cornell University Press
Bourgeois, L. (2015) The Spider and the Tapestries . 2nd edn. Ostfilden: Hatje Cantz Verlag
Bourriaud, N. (2002) Relational Aesthetics. Dijon: Les Presses du réel.
Bowman, J. E. Liverpool Biennial (2020) What is at stake in community art? What have we learned? Available at: https://www.biennial.com/journal/issue-5/what-is-at-stake-in-community-practice-what-have-we-learned. (Accessed: 3 January 2021)
Boym, S. (2017) The Off-Modern. London: Bloomsbury Academic
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Gal, S. and Woolard, K. (2014) Language and publics: The making of authority. London: Routledge
Gordon, E. (ed.) (2018). The roof garden commission: huma Bhabha: We come in peace. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Harrison, R., Schofield, J. (2009) Archaeo-Ethnography, Auto-Archaeology: Introducing Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past. Arch 5, 185–209. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-009-9100-5
Jacob, M. J. and  Grabner, M. (eds.) (2010) The Studio Reader: On the Space of Artists. London: University of Chicago Press
Libcom (2006) Intellectuals and Power: A conversation between Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. Available at: https://libcom.org/library/intellectuals-power-a-conversation-between-michel-foucault-and-gilles-deleuze. (Accessed on 20 December 2020)
Luxonline (2020) Guy Sherwin: Film changes our awareness of time. Available at: https://www.luxonline.org.uk/artists/guy_sherwin/index.html (Accessed on 20 December 2020)
Machinology (2018) Inventing pasts and futures: speculative design and Media archaeology. Available at:https://jussiparikka.net/2018/01/16/inventing-pasts-and-futures-speculative-design-and-media-archaeology/amp/ (Accessed on 20 December 2020)
Marks, L. (2002) Touch: Sensory Theory and Multisensory Media. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
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[1] ‘Community arts practice has been concerned with the joint capacity and potential of communities to make art that activates its members to collectively gather to identify, describe, share, discuss and dissent against its challenges and conditionings and often within the physical localities of their lives’ (Bowman, 2020)

I have started painting in earnest for the first time in my life, even though I have been learning and teaching it for decades. That is to say, I have begun to find a reason to paint.

A painting doesn't just carry the trace of a subject, of one type of matter. It is a trace of both the subject matter and the human maker, who leaves a trace of themselves in this mutable material*.  It is their gestures or lack of them, they leave visible in the work. In my painting practice, by focusing on certain sites, I am observing not only what the light makes of these sites, but what I, the maker, makes of them. 

​
If the aim is to spotlight this subjective response as well as the subject matter, selecting a site for the degree to which it  triggers a heightened response or not, becomes relevant. I've been studying the life and works of J W M Turner for many years, an artist who was also markedly selective about the environments he worked in, choosing sites of extreme weather, human drama and/or industrial upheaval. Through oil paint, and energetic gestural traces, he foregrounded his subjective response to these conditions within his work.
 
Most recently, I have taken my painting to a sequence of three sites in Cumbria and Northumbria...
 
Firstly, Hodge Close in Cumbria, a remote slate quarry originally dug out to 100metres into the ground, with a network of tunnels which became more uneconomical to mine as the danger increased. It is now flooded to 50 metres depth and is used as a renowned extreme playground for divers and climbers. The cave in which I worked can only be accessed through a scramble up and down a 100-metre boulder field, in an unflooded section of the quarry. There is no phone signal for many miles.
 
The third site was the Baltic 39's first floor gallery space during installation week -  a frenetic and risky space in time, in the sense of impending deadline and the attending performative aspects. I had learnt that Turner had done exactly this same thing during varnishing days at the Royal Academy.  He would place down an impossible amount of detail into his painting in the days before a show.**
 
Sandwiched between the two was a middle site, the cotton-wool cosiness of my home studio.
 
What this rollercoaster of sites gave me, was an opportunity to play with my states of being, tweaking the level of real,  constructed or imagined jeopardy to see how this affected my perceptions and acts of interpretation. I have a hunch that there is a certain restless type (or aspect) of learning that is only awakened when there is an anticipation of difficulty or burden, of a social, emotional or physical nature. In these moments, I believe an aesthetic is revealed in a perceived site of risk. People talk of a beauty in the manner in which an endeavour comes together; of the lines, colours and shapes of its ingredients: surroundings; active bodies, human and non-human; and deep social exchange that nobody anticipates until it unfolds. 
 
As the viewer enters the presence of my painting, I wish for them to become aware of this duel aspect of matter, the subject    and the state of being of the maker. I wish to tell the story of how our perception shifts just as much as the light shifts across different landscapes. I choose oil paint as it seems to share synergies with the shifting energies of both light and human emotion. I can make it shine, draw the eye, or be dull, disappear, slowly melt away. This isn't just about painting as an expression of a special point of view or way of being. It is more about observing how these states alter according to situation, and could give us new knowledge to reflect upon, both of our exterior and interior worlds, and how they work together.

*The art scholar Isabelle Graw, elucidates beautifully on this.
**The Tate Conservation team have deduced this from their forensic investigations, validating the mythology of magic and genius that has always shrouded this aspect to Turner's methodology.

My work and research has wound its way back to mining. But it’s sort of connected into a broader theme of contemporary artists’ and wider culture’s current obsession with archeology.

I’m in a process of ‘digging’ up the relics and ‘structures’ from my 15 year socially-engaged arts practice and digital archive, of working with marginalised/‘hidden’ communities across Cumbria. I have recently discovered this is a trend amongst artists of the last 20 years, called ‘archeology of the contemporary past’. Basically you dig something up in order to right a wrong, celebrate, make something in society more visible (I feel guilty of all three), or you fetishize the crumbly aesthetic (guilty again). I realised I have the same motivations as every other archeology/geography enthusiast, the only difference being, I don’t do as much actual physical digging. Although saying that, in the manner in which I make the work, I think I will be mimicking those archeological practices.

So, then, I’ve read that, a criticism against this digging up, is maybe a failure to imagine a future (e-flux journal #4 — march 2009 Dieter Roelstraete The Way of the Shovel: On the Archeological Imaginary in Art). I thought, well maybe, out of this archive, I can imagine a future. Apparently, this comes under the umbrella of speculative archeology!

So what I've decided to do is to take some of the fantastical narrative material that myself and the groups conjured up, and I’m going to imagine and make the sequels. I’m going to take the somewhat grungy Labyrinth-esque aesthetic that we all used at the time, but mix it with the ‘archeology aesthetic’ ie gorgeous rusty stuff. Oh god, it’ll all look like steam punk if I’m not careful. But, I think this ‘looking forward to the future’ is maybe what’s needed in this subjectmatter. Make sense of the past, to answer the question of how to make a real difference in the future, with what I do?