The Foxhill Two

From Summer 2013 I started to work with Stuart, an ex soldier who lives on Foxhill. From Autumn we were joined by his partner's son, Callum, who has the label of autism. Here are the likely lads:

They both paint and both make other things too. This is some of the earlier work they made:

I can't take credit for any of the above. Stuart had done all of his stuff before I met hum and Callum had done the strange spaceship like thing alone - without any help from me. I was excited by their paintings and by Stuart's artistic vision, which is considerable,

A long time away

I haven't posted anything on this blog since October - a long time in the blogosphere.
I have been really busy with work, home life and art.
So, the next few posts will 'conclude' the ARBS scheme on Parson Cross. It finished in real time last December (2013). So, here we go....

River Ritual

Our film can be seen at: http://vimeo.com/78343027

Please comment.

River Ritual

Not strictly about Parson Cross except the artist I am collaborating with on this project is Eddy Dreadnought who has a studio next to ours in SOAR on P.X.

Eddy (and me a little bit) have made a film entitled River Ritual. It is about the Rover Don in Neepsend, the area I grew up in from 0-11 before I moved to P.X. The film is inspired by my memory of a student death in an annual rag week boat race down the Don. Nobody but me remembers it. None of my family nor the internet.

It is a beautiful poetic film. We intend to put it on YouTube next Friday, so link to follow... We showed it and I spoke at a symposium at York University last Friday entitled Social Water. It was a triumph!

many dilemmas

Class - betraying my class background by 'being an artist and intellectual'.
Art - responding to 'problems' that I first began to address in the last 70's at art college and making work in 2013!
Art - painting and sculpture versus 'conceptual' work.
Performance - is it my first love? More than painting? Painting as performance.
Engaged art - I love spending time with people I have met - but I really want and need to be in my studio painting OR making performance.
Existence - feeling not really there or here.
This list being so self indulgent.

Just get on with it!

The Lowry at Salford Quays

And here is the proof. Elaine was inspired by seeing Lowry's work and admitted that she hadn't been attracted to him before.

Laurence Stephen Lowry

Yesterday I took Elaine Tomlinson from Foxhill to The Lowry yesterday in Salford Quays. Lowry is the most unfashionable artist I know of and it seems that it was always thus. I don't like his matchstick men paintings but I had seen some earlier work that I liked. I really enjoyed the exhibition at The Lowry. It showed some great early drawings and paintings and some great seascapes and some wonderful late work. He was such a loner, very much his own man and never seemed to flinch from that path. A fascinating, lonely character who painted and painted, even though he didn't know why he was doing it. He really was someone who endlessly pondered upon the meaningless of existence.
We had a great time - Elaine didn't know anything about his work (apart from matchstick men) before we set off and she loved it as did my partner Helen.

The portrait above is of a woman called Anne - it seems that she may not have existed but Lowry painted her throughout his life. He did the above one in the 70's when his matchstick period was raging and the art establishment were shocked. I like the work and personality of this non-hero.
A miserable bastard though!