me and parson cross

I lived on the estate between the ages of 11 and 21 (and my mum and dad still live there).
We lived on Holgate Road with our back garden coming out onto what is now known as (and probably always was officially) Tongue Gutter. We called it the Brook. There was a concrete pipe out of which one of the two brooks on there emerged. It was at the bottom of our garden. It is still there. This is a very recent picture of it:

The iron grill preventing entry into the pipe wasn't there when I was young. So, me and a friend went up it. Very quickly we came to a place that opened out into a comfortable space. In the concrete was written (it would have been in wet concrete and written with a finger) the words P.O.W. and then a date that I can't remember but was 1940 something. Maybe there was a name too?

Anyway, I found out later that part of the council estate was built by Italian prisoners of war - after the 2nd Word War. Our houses were said to be built by them. Here was proof! And such an exciting thing for teenage kids to find.

That's one of my Parson Cross stories.

photography

Last week's session  with Georgia didn't happen - the rain was just too hard. We are re-scheduling on a weekend because she has now started at Sheffield College. What did happen though on Friday was a session with Sarah Caldwell, taking pictures in the Winter Gardens. It was fun - even though the camera batteries died - that is twice now with Sarah and no times with anyone else! Here are my favourite pictures - photographer: Sarah Caldwell from Parson Cross.

I love the last one!

It's raining!!

I am meeting with Georgia this afternoon for her to take some outdoor photographs in town. After a long hot and dry summer, this is the first day of rain. She must feel as if the odds are against her. Or maybe not. Different kinds of photographs.

And more..

 

Will's dad was brilliant!

One thing I forgot

Last year, we held an exhibition of Harry Mayor's painting at SOAR. Harry was my friend Will's dad who influenced me to draw and then go on to art college. It was a fantastic event with loads of people visiting it. The exhibition was organised by me, Kate Genever, Steve Pool and Will Mayor. Here are some of the best paintings.

 

Tour Dummy Run

Just got back from doing the dummy run of my subjective P.X. tour with Frances and Daniel.
They liked it. Two things to do - more tales and therefore a longer tour - 1 hour in total.
Read Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life.

Update...

Well, a lot has been going on. Our photography group recently had a discussion where we looked at lots of different types of photography and I asked people what sort of photography they would like to focus upon. Sarah said ‘natural’ and Georgia said ‘close-ups’. We are going to take a field trip soon, taking pics, in the Winter and Peace Gardens in town.  

I met with Stuart, a painter, in Asda café last week – he saw my advert in Five Alive magazine, as did another painter Elaine who I have yet to meet. Both live on Foxhill. I am going to help Stuart realize what he wants to do in painting – he has huge artistic ambitions - much more to follow on this. I am hoping to work with Stuart for a long time to come.

I have won a bid to be part of Art Sheffield Festival Parallel Projects – I will hire a mini-bus and conduct a subjective tour of Parson Cross, visiting some spots where some interesting things happened when I was a teenager! Art Sheffield will publicize it on their printed guide to the festival and their website. Great! I’ll publicize this event nearer the time on this blog . The festival takes place between the 4^th Oct and 14^th December 2013 – you can find out more about it here http://artsheffield.org/assets/art-sheffield-festival-2013/.

Kate Genever and Steve Pool ran a great week-long summer school on Parson Cross. I attended the whole thing and I gave a paper entitled Is Art Freedom? on the last day. I learnt a lot and met some great people.

Plus, lots more leads to follow.  I may be running a painting group at Foxhill Health Centre – please watch this space…