film

I've begun developing material for a SHORT (approx 80 seconds) film on the subject of Lost Property. I'm hoping to get it finished within the next 6 weeks or so in order to enter it as part of the depict show that will be going on in Bristol in the winter. This is going to be my first-ever video (ie not flash or anything) film, give or take a couple of scribbles I've patched together over the years. I'll have to see if I want to do anything digital to it afterwards, but for the moment it seems that my idea is mostly covered by the video filming I want to do. It's all figured out in me noggin.

guerilla bookbinding

I'm going to be offering a one day course at Spike Island printmakers here in Bristol and i'm calling it "Guerilla Bookbinding"

"Fast, cheap and out of control. Guerilla bookbinding dispenses with complex tools and equipment and concentrates instead on a few basic binding structures that will turn printed matter into books...fast."

is what it will say on the brochure. I had the basic lesson plans cooked up a couple of years ago, but I went ahead and produced an evening class that sort of fell between two stools: it was too long and too short for the things I wanted to teach. I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to do this sort of course, which I think will be much more fun. I plan to run my students ragged chopping out fast, nifty little books.

I still need to square up some logistics with regard to materials, but a big thumbs up to Spike for giving me the go-ahead.

Work - August 2004

I've had the most scary to-do list over the last few weeks. It's gradually built up to the point where I'm actually putting the various tasks into timeslots in my diary. The upshot is that I get little enough chances to rest, but at least I'll get things done. I think I could be on top of things within about three weeks. Just knowing that is something I couldn't have imagined a while back.

So I've been putting in a lot of time working with various proposals and paperwork, but I've also got some time now to get to grips with a few art projects that have been dogging me for a while. If I know that they're not taking place in some nebulous future then I feel more reassured that they actually will someday get the work done and be ready. That in itself has made the work I did today much easier- I felt more able to focus on the tasks I had to do today, and more at ease spending the time on one thing and not another, knowing that each thing would have its place.

I also managed to spot, at the last moment, an appointment I nearly forgot about tomorrow. I've been doing jury service of late which has driven a bunch of things out of my mind. I'm (hopefully still) going to meet with a curator at bristol museum and get shown their small collection of rifles and shotguns from around the turn of the century. I'm doing a book called "whistling copse" based around the murder of a gamekeeper in a poaching incident in the 30s. This could be a bit of a breakthrough with this particular project, and I'm glad not to have missed it. It's time this book found its feet. There seem to be so many other ideas that want their day in the sun, but it takes so long for me to develop a really good project that there are lots of back-burners in the hinterlands of my practice. I'm happy so long as I keep working though.

I'm tired now. I was tired before now, but stupidly decided that it would be a good time to comprehensively solve my electronic diary problems with lots of adjustments and publishing to various host servers and assorted tests and rummaging.

To bed with me!