Bradford on Avon visit

Paid a visit to Fiona Haser in Bradford on Avon yesterday. Fiona runs Ale and Porter Studios on Silver Street there, and I've been in touch with her via email for a little while about some opportunities arising from some drawings of mine Fiona saw online.

There's going to be an exhibition at the soon-to-be-completed exhibition space in the ground floor of the former brewery or cask house that the studios are based in. I'm told by Fiona that the floor used to have drainage holes in it so that it could simply be sluiced down whenever neccessary. Should prove to be a boon in clearing up after openings, if the feature is preserved in the new configuration. The upcoming show (after the opening, which will involve a show of brilliant automata with a seaside theme) is going to be a sort of art supermarket, with rafts of whimsical and wonderful multiples piled high to sell low (well, sorta low, anyway). There are uniforms for the artists so that we can help out as counter assistants. I hope to be attending to spillages in the aisles by springing into action with a fresh bottle of whatever it is that gets spilled. I got to try the outfit on- an enchanting companioning of tabard and pink hat. I was hoping for an hygeinic hairnet, but perhaps I am hoping for too much.

Fiona wants to produce a dictionary of art terms (in a Biercian vein) for this show, and has asked me to provide some illustrations. As well as that, Linda Clark and I will be producing customised variants on the drawings in They Walk Among Us for sale in cellophane bags.

The next show after that is going to be a mixed portrait show of sorts. I've been asked to provide a few large portrait drawings, and my current thought is to produce a series of ancestral portraits in ink of assorted boggle-eyed madmen.

Although the place is, at the moment, a building site, it has a great atmosphere and the building itself is really lovely. I'm quite pleased at being involved in my small way in the beginning of a place like this. Part of it, to be sure, is the charm of Bradford on Avon itself- I spent an enjoyable few minutes watching warm, sleepy fish hovering beneath the bridge, oblivious to the comically raucous ducks that thronged in ducky profusion. I also had a cardiac-assaulting bacon and brie sandwich at the Bunch of Grapes pub near the studios, also recommended, with ensuite cat to hoover up any scraps. I enjoyed meeting Fiona, too, whose enthusiasm overshadowed her understandable nervousness that the place be ready for its opening on the 24th. I'm hoping to work with her again, and plan to show her Personal Effects when things have settled down there a bit and she has a Film license.