Post 5b: Fine art gen.

I'm wading through my current practice and trying to make some sense of it all. I feel the need at the moment to divise my postings into thgree segments:

1. FL
2. Sketch and Illo
3. Fine art general

I think the addition of this last segment will allow me to float and enable intuition. I think it's important to allow time for experimentation - it helps fuel the fires of creativity. I think it's all fulfilling the same aim, but I feel I need to find a way of tying it all together. I think the reintroduction of the blog is an exciting development for me in trying to make sense of my work and research.

Post 4b (ill)

I've decided to keep my posts all on Lunderbach. I'm going to separate out the illustrative work from the fine art for the time being as I feel I need to make sense of my posting.

I realise that I'm going to be combining the two, but I need to keep the SL stuff separate because I suffer from the dibilitating head turning syndrome!

I went to Lincoln on Friday to submit some sketchbooks for a show. I realised that I really need to write more about my drawing as I was required to include a statement about my work and felt that the writing was a bit forced/stale. I guess that only comes with practice - hence the new blog postings.

The image I've posted here is called 'waiting for work on a Sunday evening.' I feel that drawing gives me an outlet for my insecurities and daily worries of coping with the real world. I guess most people get that Sunday feeling - perhaps some feel it more than others though. I enjoy being able to say things in my work that aren't necessarily appropriate in the day to day. It's good to get the observations out there.

Although, it's a pretty subjective thing to deal with, people come from very different places. Is my work therefore a kind of therapy? Is it something that is be self indulgent? I think I must consider my audience, perhaps hoping that there are some shared issues that they, the viewer can relate to.

I think this is where commissioned illustration differs from 'Fine Art.' I'd still like to do a series of politically inspired works, especially in light of the current climate and aim to produce work for an editorial portfolio.

Post 3b (SL).

I've been thinking about carpeting the gallery space with synthetic grass for the show proposal. what am I trying to achieve by doing this? My initial thought has got something to do with the aesthetic appearance. It could look like an interesting statement or it could fail. I think that I need to keep writing about this.
I remember about 10 years ago I 'planted' a series of twigs with speech bubbles coming from them in a section of synthetic grass - these could also play a part in the exhibition. I think they are somehow loosely related. So as i said, I'll need to keep writing down the thoughts - and I think the informal nature of the blog format is a good place to begin.
I've also been thinking about how the art of the 'fastasy or imagined' can take or reinterpret events or experiences from the 'real'.
I opened my studio recently and had an interesting conversation with another studio artist and he revealed the following ideas and thoughts about the project:

'The scribbled out text is suggestive of hidden messages, as though something is bubbling under the surface.' It was also likened as a kind of Davinci Code.

I could use metallic badges of the clubs as part of the exhibition - with a Blue Peter quality.

I could print out the tables/san them and make them smaller through the process of baking in the oven or shrinkies. This is similar to the quality achieved when one deflates a baloon.

I want to encourage audience participation. I copuld invite members of the public to identify themselves with one of my imaginary teams and sign up to a kind of contract or membership to a particular club. I could make up a selection of conditions for membership. This brings about thoughts of attachment or a need to affiliate oneslf to a team. It has a lot to do with identity and how we use signs to make up our identities as human beings.

7/01/11


I was listening to a radio 4 programme today which touched upon the way data can be unrelable/distorted. The book is called 'proofiness.'

I'm going to use this part of my blog as a place where I can put together ideas for my show and try to remember some of the ideas discussed yesterday (06/01/11) with the curator.

1. Astroturf segment...this could be a simple carpeted shape in the gallery space...it could also be used to site a cup on top of...

2.

Post 2b: SL

I'm interested in keeping this blog informal and allowing the writing to be fairly loose. Why not include the odd spelling mistake and gramattical error? I feel that these kinds of concerns can potentially inhibit the creative flow of the text.

Today I've been thinking about how I use the stuff of the real world as the research for my SL project. I'm a frequent listener to 'Talk Sport' radio and find myself immersed in the day to day chit chat that mainly surrounds to ongoings in the football world. I find listening takes me to another space. I think it's a form of escapism. It's interesting how fickle the media can be from one game to the next.

Post 1b: SL

The Sporting League

I’m starting a write up about all my research that relates to the Sporting and Colbreck leagues. I’d also like to include anything that may loosely relate to the leagues and will use this paper as a place where I can collate other research that may also be relevant. I could have a reference page that I use for links or possibly a blog page for this purpose….


The Sporting League has been in operation in my mind since the age of 6. It’s a fragment of youth that I’ve held onto and acts as a form of exhibitionism. I’ve always wanted to get others close to the teams and get others to support them.

The league also acts as a parallel world – invisible but made visible through my actions as an artist. I find myself using the ‘real world’ as the starting point for the imaginary…perhaps there is a feeling of ‘the uncanny’.

The team names such as Athletico, Bayerns and Jivintis have geen influenced by my knowledge of European football teams. This began for me in the year 1984 when Liverpool won the European cup. It was the first year when I became aware of a world outside the first division.

I woild pitch myself as Reds’ no 1 player. I’ve been there in the Colbreck league as a player having won that league between the years of 1982-1985. I would look forward to play times and the next great battle would begin. There was a heightened sense of magic. The mind re interpreting the media which resulted in my creation of theoretical football leagues..

I’ve been uploading my written commentaries and scores to a blog over the last year. This is something that I’d like to build upon over the coming months as I begin to play ‘catch up’ with the scores and tables lists.

There is text and biro on paper. I think it’s important for me to use the democratic tool of a biro as it’s what I originally used when I was younger. I I could potentially build the league into a completely virtual/digital experience but feel that it’s important to keep the raw edged essence of the ‘look’ of the project in the hand made biro style. This could also be my way of saying no to the corporate and sticking with the DIY ethic.. This gives some ideas about the sense of the word ‘truth’. Being true to oneself and using ‘honest’ materials. Am I a victim of the brand The biro? Branding is an important part of my philosophy in my Sporting project and through my observations on life in general.

I take on the Warhol idea of trying to act like a computer. I turn myself into a computer like entity when working out the scores and transcribing them into my series of sketchbooks.

The artworks are frequently broken down into their basic element. I’m writing lists and statistics on paper and am living out what could be seen as an obsession to the outsider. What is an obsession? Why do obsessions frequently appear to have a negative connotation attached?

The text is dominated by dividing lines that make up crudely drawn grid formats. The ready reckoner is a simple grid that is the core of my theoretical world. There is a centre, without which I have to guess the scoresw and don’t have a place for a written record. This begs the question…’Do they need to be brought to the attention of the public? What wider function do the leagues serve?


I look back to the early days, the things that evoked the senses from various stages of my youth. When I was at primary school there were the cones, the bibs, the park in willaston and a sense of community – bringing together – looking back and renewal. I would imagine the crowd cheeringthrough the breeze of the trees in the park. The leaves representing people in the crowd in the summer months. A tree stump would become an advertising hording. The bits of grass ion the school field would be akin to individual football stadia. Each area would have it’s own personality. From the Colbreck pitch to the Parkish pitch. These places formed the beginnings of narratives and later to my interest in European football teams an the sense of the exotic.


Why do I sometimes feel it’s all a waste of time and they’re childish?Why do we do what we do? There are a range of things that I could give my attention to in life, but why an imaginary football league? I’m already at a disadvantage in that time keepson moving and there is often a sense of failure and the struggle to keep up or play catch up with the statistics.
I think that football has always been a constant source of intrigue to me. I’ve always enjoyed listening to the latest scores as they’ve filtered through on the radio.

Is there something amiss to a 36 year old man admitting that he still continues the games of youth? What am I trying to say and what will the continuation enable me to voice in the future.

I was listening to a caller on ‘Talk Sport’ of which I’m a regular listener to a Man Utd supporter getting angry about a star player (wayne Rooney) leaving the club and bad business dealings. My thoughts moved onto ‘Why isn’t this man talking about his home, wife, kids and things that are worth getting angry about?'

Is the projected anger from men towards their club something other than their unease at the teams bad fortune? Could it be something to do with being uneasy that time on this planet is short lived?


Is it a way to express oneself - giving a sense of meaning to life through a fiction? I went to see a Germaine Greer talk in Oct and she was talking about how men have managed to hold onto this playfulness from youth and is something women don't really have. I must see if I can find some of her writing about this issue.

I'm forever questioning is the SL something childish? a waste of time? Why football? Am I keeping my options too narrow by following this particular line of enquiry? Lists, table and statistics are something that have always engaged me. The osesssive look.

This questioning of 'a waste of time' could be a research question all it's own. What defines 'a waste of time.' There are many recreational activities that could be said to be just that but people are engaged in a whole host of activities.











What is the relationship between drawing and the football leagues?

The medium of drawing is pivotal to the development of the football league project. There are many ways in which one can define the term of drawing from the stud marks in the turf of the football pitch to the worn out mud patches on the wreck or in the school playground. Drawing is a way of evidencing an event. It could be the footprints on the concrete of a football stand to the litter left by the supporters at the end of the game. These hints and suggestions could provide me with further ideas/sources for future projects.

So we have ‘found’ or conceptual drawings, coincidental drawing as mentioned above to intentional drawing. This could include my sketchbook depictions of Sporting League’ players.

Is writing drawing? How does the word ‘Athletico ‘ differ from a gesture or mark? Then there are the figures and statistics. Are they still drawings?