I've learnt a lot about putting up exhibitions recently...

I have learnt a lot more about hanging work in these last few weeks. Things like, what looks good/bad next to each other, how to hang things straight and with the right distancing etc. As well as the more obscure things like, how to move thirty-six bags of floor tiles (see above photo) out of a gallery space in thirty minutes and how to move things again and again until your happy with how it looks even though you're exhausted (probably as a result of moving all those bags earlier!). All of these things have really frustrated and helped me reaffirm what is important about these kind of shows and that it is always worth fighting for the cause and not settling for anything less than what is the best that you can do. A little corny perhaps, but from a art management point of view I think its an interesting process and sometimes, battle that art has to go through in order to grace the walls of even small galleries like this one at Somerset College.

As a result of the residency I feel I have not only learnt about my own practice but have learnt about professionalism and organising of shows a little bit more. I can hopefully take this with me on future shows. There are many stories to tell and it has been a great process and one that I thought I'd briefly share with you.

Show time!

After four wonderful, crazy and intense weeks at Somerset College, Brian, Paul, Emily and myself can finally bring you: The Context Residency Exhibition!

Come and check it out! Its on and up now in the White Space at Somerset College everyday 9.00-4.30 until September..........

The best Friday 13th your'e likely to have....ever!

Roll up, roll up! Friday 13th 1.30-3.30pm Somerset College, White space gallery!

See, hear and feel new work created in residence here in our very own town, Taunton, by the new and emerging artists in residence: Brian Gibson, Paul Hurley and Natalie Parsley.

Don't miss it!

Tool? Or Not-a-tool?

So, I was thinking.... If I am more interested in trying to show the tool, the whole tool and nothing but the tool then perhaps I should be going for a little more realism and a different kind of attention to detail and sensitivity that I hadn't used before on my own prints. I really do like some of my prints but I think they show a different kind of sincerity that is more about my feelings and expression than about the tools themselves. I don't want to eliminate myself completely from my work, and couldn't do entirely even if I tried, but I think I could find a middle ground of looking at the tools in a closer way than I have before. IE. instead of just looking at the outline and shape of the tools can I look more at the weight, history, texture, patina of the tools? More importantly can I combine this with my own drawing style and love of paint and print to produce something that visually works?! There in lies the challenge.... I started photocopying some tools, like so, and found it humbling if not also slightly annoying that it takes a machine seconds to replicate and pick out the detail that took the owner of that tool years, if not a lifetime, of work to have produced those kind of marks and wear on that tool. A fitting contradiction and something I think would be good to exploit to further my work in this project. I proceeded to photocopy the tools up until the largest size they could go which is 400x. I was left with a massive jigsaw of grainy black and white pieces that somehow would fit together to make a tool. Some of the marks picked out from the 'made in England' text on the saw to the dents, splashes of paint, rust and more look incredibly interesting on a larger scale and make you notice the tool as an object of use and work much more obviously than I had achieved in my prints. I aim to develop this further into my work.

I think it is also appropriate that it somehow echos Brian's black and white semacodes that could almost seem to appear in amongst the graininess of the rust on the tools. Perhaps there is also potential here for something to develop as well?