What I Did Last Summer II

A little bit of collage ...

What I did last summer ...

My summer was grey and quiet.  I was much to be found in the local fields and lanes.  Some sources also report seeing me at a Bjork concert in Manchester, on a sunlounger on a private beach in St. Tropez, horse trekking in the Atlas mountains and on the Charles Bridge in Prague.  I was not in some of these places. 

Often after twilight I repaired to my room to listen to The Blue of the Night which I can recommend as being highly conducive to the contemplative state needed to render such sketchbook works as follow below:-

As the lateness of the hour increased, I found myself becoming more and more abstract:-

I did not of course neglect collage and will post these pages in What I did last summer ... II.





Blog Reactivation Sequence begins

1.  Blog?  What blog?


2.  Oh yeah, that blog.  I thought we didn't have to do those anymore.


3.  Crap, what can I put up?


4.  What I did last summer ...

So tell me seriously ...

do prints and clothes go together?  This is my print set up for the assesment. 

There's a little voice inside my head that says it's too much but it's currently not being listened to as people keep coming up and saying that it's very me and they could tell right away that these were my prints.  You may be relieved to know the tablecloth has gone - floral embroidery was definitely a step in the wrong direction (and it wasn't ironed).

There is meant to be a light-hearted feel to the prints themselves, after all one is labelled 'happy out' and I wanted to almost clash the colours of the dresses and prints together but at the same time make sure that the dress for each print reflected the theme of the print.

Anyway I've got till Monday afternoon to change things if I suddenly develop a sense of taste.

I'll upload the individual prints later.  

Happy, happy, happy!

T'was with an elevated heart beat that I scanned the lists a week ago to see if my name was there on the offers under 'Print'.  All around me fashionistas and painters were screaming, shrieking and crying.  Last September seemed so long ago and suddenly everything had come to this point. 

During the ranking I heard tales of people in other subjects starving, not sleeping and passing out and yet even on the last day of Print, when the ink was flying, white spirits weren't to be had for love nor money and everyone was queuing for the presses, I listened for a second and all I could hear was music and the buzz of conversation.  No-one was assured of a place and yet the atmosphere was brilliant all the way through.  This is down to Des and the whole Print crew who fortunately create a bullshit-free zone where work is (whisper it) enjoyable.  There it is folks ... the E word.  I enjoyed the whole 4 weeks, from the research to the last wipe down with a clean rag.  I wasn't overjoyed with any of my prints (and I still can't open the tins of litho ink) but I hoped I'd done enough to get in. 

Well hallelujah my name was there and so I'm set for 3 years in happy, happy, happy Print.

Here are a few early prints, in the excitement this is all I remembered to photograph but I'll upload some more later:-

Collagraph made with insulating tape, 2 colours

Insulating tape collagraph over etching, 3 colours

Single colour collagraph



This was my finished space, I kept it minimal and also made some of the prints into books.  Our project brief was identity and I used the idea of my father and myself sharing a lot of the same traits and this being expressed in small, almost insignificant ways.

I also got some lovely, random effects on my lab coat but this is an ongoing project ...