It took me a week or so to reacclimatise and then I was so busy that it’s taken me another week to get to the blog again.  So I’ll summarise all the activities and have included a couple of images of the work I made last week- first two days were very discouraging then I had a productive day developing images onto Khadi paper circles (above) and stones (below) using liquid light.  I was very grateful for a day when it all worked!  Called in at the new Fred Aldous shop and bought heavier tracing paper and 21cm Khadi paper squares.  Need to revisit the work done on the disappointing days and do it better- made some very good learning mistakes!!

Have agreed to write up the making of the stones for submission to Harman after they put out a call to student bloggers working with alternative photographic methods.

My main aim at the moment in terms of the work is for the Corridor Show which I have now scheduled and am planning for the end of Feb/beginning of March. Need to do more thinking about a title etc- will need help from my tutor and lots more thinking and talking.  Most of the content will be photographic images and photograms developed using liquid light or cyanotype onto a range of substrates.  Also hope to make some layered pieces using map fabric and sewn on text.  There isn’t much wall space so I’m hoping to use the windows in the doors and walls, which are many, square and can be backlit for presenting work on translucent paper.  Also want to use one of the Macs for running an A/V presentation of more liquid light prints (of trees) with a soundtrack of wind in trees.  And put some of the stones on little shelves.  Have been working on scaled up cyanotype prints for the wall space and using the pic of my shadow on the tree as the main image for the show- to make little cards, and use for a ‘business card’.

Alongside the show I have been discussing holding a conversation event about how you present experience of place artistically- using quote from W.G. Sebald:

“Strange things happen when you aimlessly wander through the world, when you go somewhere and then just want to see what happens next.  Then things happen that no-one is going to believe later.  And, what comes next is very important, it is necessary to somehow capture and document these things”

From Searching for Sebald: Photography after W. G. Sebald edited by Lise Patt

So the question is how?  I have a (growing) list of people to invite who work in this area and hope that I can host a stimulating conversation where we learn from each other (and I clarify my ideas about the walking project).  Provisionally scheduled for March 1st.

I have set up the fund-raising page for the walk  on localgiving and some donations (for Leeds Animation Workshop) have come in already.  The main purpose is to make sure I do what I need to do to be able to do the work (look after myself!) and it’s going well so far.

Also did lots of work on Cafe Feministique- the follow up to Equality…End of!  We had 2 useful meetings and I have booked the venue, made and started to circulate a flyer, and set up an Eventbrite link.  Quite proud of it all.  The hosting team (affectionately, The Ladies) are all up for it so it feels really positive.

The new bookbinding course run by Louise Atkinson for East Street Arts is excellent and just what I’ve been looking for- ten weeks of learning skills and making, in a great community setting with a lovely diverse group of women, including Sarah and Dita from College.

Speaking of Sebald (above) I finally got to watch Grant Gee’s movie Patience: After Sebald, a brilliant addition to the Sebaldian genre.  So many of the writers and artists I have come to appreciate were included:  Marina Warner, Iain Sinclair, Lise Patt.  It was a beautiful evocation of Sebald’s Rings of Saturn perambulation and respectful homage to Sebald.

I was delighted to chat with Cat from College about the Corridor Show and about displaying my stones in one of her Curator’s Choice glass cases, and I am included in the forthcoming exhibition catalogue, which is quite thrilling.

Also thrilled to get a message that I have been included in the Alnmouth Arts Festival 2016- now need to ensure I have plenty of work to show.  Hope my work gets accepted for Loitering with Intent in Manchester, and I’ll be submitting work for the Chapel Allerton Festival too.  So… together with the MA End of Year Show, that’s this year pretty well booked out, and it feels good.

Had a couple of very good checking-in sessions with the MA lot at College.  Very stimulating conversation, we need to try to keep meeting, the mutual support is very valuable.

Onward and upward!  Without quite knowing where.