Me and the Beeb

So, the dust has settled after a heady couple of weeks. 

I think, back in April 2018, my application was initially filed under '?' as I didn't hear a dickie bird for months. Then, suddenly, out of the blue, the ball was rolling... some of November was immediately swallowed up with filming. Next thing I knew, it  was already mid-February. Late December to early January had turned out to be an almighty Research and Development month, as I moved my skills and processes on in leaps. 

And what had motivated me to go further than my usual level of ridiculous perfectionism? Let's be honest... one million people were going to tune in to watch not just myself (warts and all) and my wares, but with an expectation of some sort of alchemy. They wanted to see people be moved, and be moved themselves. No pressure then.

My previous 3 projects, Dreaming of Home, These Four Walls, and Home is Where the Heart is, all collaborative and commission-based projects, had inadvertently prepared me for this moment. In the BBC concept, here again were the raw materials - people's treasures/memories/identities/possessions, and here were the artists charged with working with this material and transforming it into something new. A piece of work which would perfectly reflect the people involved.

As the BBC series unfolded, this alchemical reaction, was indeed captured for all to see, with the buyers spontaneously bursting into tears of joy or sometimes sadness (if they couldn't afford both reflections of themselves). Day after day, over 15 episodes, artists took all the intimate details of people's lives, their losses and gains, their pleasures, their pains, and distilled them all down into an artwork. The more distilled the better. Mine was very distilled, I have to say. But then, my buyers were natural distillers themselves. I was blown away by this side to them. Anyway, the distilling took me through 3 or 4 processes. And I'm not usually this immodest, but I fell in love with the result.

It.
Was.
Yummy.

I've even signed up for a residency in the Autumn at the new Makers Mill in Keswick, when I'm going to carry out a whole new development stage to this paper-casting work.

So anyway, all for now. The BBC series Home is Where the Art Is is still on iplayer for a couple of weeks.