Wales trip

Avian anarchy

Bob And Roberta Smith LOCWS 2014

 Last weekend I went to Wales, as my brother and his fiance are getting married next year at a castle not far from Swansea, so we went to have a look at the wedding venue. 

I had hoped to use the opportunity to visit Swansea and go and see the art for LOCWS, but we only had a long weekend (plus travelling) and only passed Swansea on the way to Rhossili and the Gower. The only piece I saw was BobAndRobertaSmith's piece quickly papped from the car window!

Blue Banana shop window, Birmingham

Minecrafting

Minecraft Carreg Cennen Castle

I did spot some Jon Burgerman work in Birmingham on the way

Jon Burgerman Birmingham

An electric sheep pen somewhere in Shropshire

Hoping that next year to stay for longer to explore some of the Dylan Thomas haunts once the centenary has passed and there are less visitors ;-)

I'm very pleased to have signed up to a-n and AIR's Paying Artists campaign, and hoping that next year I will be able to afford to travel and stay for longer. 

The Angel Of The North / Paying Artists

#paying artists

Emily Speed posted a link regarding a well known supermarket chain whose name does not need promoting on my blog, because I'm currently boycotting them, that have mistakenly projected a baguette onto Antony Gormley's much loved Angel Of The North.

I tried to ignore the whole propaganda-esque hideousness of it, and decided it was a photoshopped fake, it'll go away.

However, many a time I've been buying food in supermarkets and not been paid, most recently I could've been one of those making use of foodbanks. I haven't yet needed to use a foodbank, because I'm not currently paying the gas or electricity bill, so the choice between heating and eating is currently set at "eat". 

So I therefore believe that the supermarket involved (or maybe even a rival supermarket) should GIVE us artists our daily bread.

Bill Drummond used a tin of his International Grey paint to paint over a billboard he found morally objectionable in Birmingham.
I do not have a tin of International Grey paint, so I therefore have instead photoshopped a billboard that I find morally objectionable.
I also decided, as a-n and AIR's Paying Artists campaign was being launched, to use this for a new Facebook avatar. I can't change my twitter picture, because my browser is so out of date that it no longer supports Flash.

A while ago I was invited to take part in Lincoln Inspired festival, which is currently on. I don't think Lincoln Inspired supports the careers of the University of Lincoln graduates, as none of the artists involved are University graduates as far as I can tell from picking up a brochure. I haven't been to have a look, as I don't know many of the artists involved. I know two of the artists, neither of them are graduates. Having just been to see the AA2A scheme exhibition at the University ProjectSpacePlus, none of the AA2A scheme artists are participating in this either, so they obviously haven't been invited, even though the standard of work by Tom and Nathan is obviously very good. And inspiring!

In Which Nothing Creative Happens At All

Pinchbeck stocks - Knight Street, Pinchbeck

I never made it to Jeremy Deller's talk at Nottingham Contemporary. 
Another funeral down in Spalding during the Easter holidays, caring for a depressed son with very little support, and a complaint to the gallery manager that resulted in a false promise that something would be done, but in fact, they couldn't identify the member of staff that must've been on CCTV that day, so nothing has actually been done about it.

Pinchbeck - where I grew up

My aim lately has been to meet with the curators of Ayscoughfee Hall to concoct some kind of new work in response to the taxidermied bird collection they have there. I went for a funeral at Spalding Parish Church next door, but obviously it was the last thing I had time to do. 

Lincolnshire fields near Pinchbeck

The trip to Spalding involved a very rickety long replacement bus journey via the B roads of Lincolnshire. And news that my baby nephew had arrived. 

The trains had all been cancelled for signalling updates, and there were, understandably, very few 

passengers.

My son and I were the only people on the bus from Sleaford to Spalding, which passed through my old home village of Pinchbeck on the way. 

Since Easter, I was invited to the private view for the AA2A Scheme exhibition at the University of Lincoln, where everyone was ridiculously pleased to see me,  and it was nice to see Thomas Cuthbertson's animation, along with Nathan Baxter's space helmet video installation.

I do think that the AA2A scheme would be better if artists were paid to participate. When I took part in it, I was University staff, but I didn't have the salary or pension to go with that.

I've also been strangely invited to attend the exhibition for Opem at The Collection as an "entrant". I never entered this year, as I had far too much going on to waste my time paying the £10 admin fees, for my work to be rejected, and when no one is paying MY admin fees.

At the time, I was barely even in Single Parent Survival Mode at the time, although in hindsight, if I'd have known I didn't need to pay admin fees again, I could've entered the LAN LSM.

There is an upcoming trip to Wales, so I'm hoping to get the chance to see Art Across The City