Weeknote 2025/05

Mind The Gap

Often - things fragment, and work becomes less of a defined path, more a series of spinning plates. Something I notice after 16 years of freelancing, is that often these plates relate to different projects and ideas - they all need a tap, a bit of momentum, but they all spin in slightly different directions. I’ve had a busy week, and it’s been in pursuit of many small things. Important but not particularly noteworthy perhaps? This sense of things shifting, having multiple directions, can feel a bit disconcerting, and it often opens up space and time for something else to appear…

Revisiting : Reappearing

Last Summer I undertook my first artist residency at The Hide, in Gloucestershire. It was a fascinating experience - opening my mind to the artfulness of nature in a location unfamiliar to me, and helping me appreciate our part in the environment in ways I’d not previously considered.

Kestrel hovering over Rodborough Common

I spent my time walking, conversing, writing, photographing, and threw in a bit of very basic print making for good measure. I didn’t use my car once while away - I did as much as I could the slow way, on foot, taking my time. Observing, recording.

Found Objects : Cyanotype and relief printing.

I wrote about the experience here, and I remember I got very excited about how all this wonderful input was suddenly, even urgently, going to fuel new work. I benefitted from two mentoring sessions while away - and during the second of these, towards the end of my residency, I enthused about how this immersive experience would instantly reveal itself on my arrival home. Exhibitions, books, prints, you name it. I was gently encouraged not to rush, instead to let the experience reverberate, wash over and around me - and see what slowly emerges. And relax.

On my last night away - I stumbled onto the fact that the poet WH Davies lived and died in a house nearby to where I was staying, at the foot of a steep hill in the hamlet of Watledge. I decided to visit the place, and as I left, the rain started, and quickly became a downpour. There are two routes to Watledge from where I was staying. The first is a precipitous path, and having skittered dangerously down it in the rain a couple of times, I decided instead, to take the longer route by road. As I walked the rain became heavier, and as I carefully descended the hill I could see rain pouring from the sky, and flowing past my feet as it rushed relentlessly down the steep hill. I approached the house and as I did so - the rain coming off the hill increased in volume and it literally picked me up under my feet and slid me straight past the house. Somehow I managed to stay upright and clamber back, as the downpour obligingly ceased. I stood outside the house and admired this memorial plaque.

Memorial plaque outside the home of WH Davies, in Watledge

I returned home from my adventures, and sure enough, the exhibition and much of what I enthused about, has yet to materialise. I have continued to work on my bookbinding skills, and my writing and photography too, and in recent days it has dawned on me how I will take some of these discoveries found last summer, on into 2025 and beyond. In the first instance - I will design and bring a new book into the world. A book, partly handmade, partly machine printed. A book which I hope will capture the essence of slowly and carefully observing the beautiful minutiae of life. After all - ‘what is this life if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare’. Thanks go to WH Davies, to Alice, who runs The Hide where I stayed, to all the people who indulged this stranger in conversation, to Carole for kindly agreeing to let me spend our wedding anniversary adventuring miles away, and to Arts Network Sutton for funding this essential adventure.

Current Artful Adventures

Back to the present day - I want to mention three creative things I experienced last week, which I encourage you to check out, if you can.

Art and Mental Health

I popped into Bethlem Gallery to admire the art in their new collection and to pick up a copy of a new zine, a collaborative art project titled MISC. Bethlem Gallery is an important place doing important work at the intersection of art, mental health, and more. It’s based near Beckenham on the edges of South London and I recommend you visit.

A montage of the art currently on show at Bethlem Gallery

Rock n Roll Public Library (RRPL)

RRPL is an amazing exhibition of punk and pop memorabilia and ephemera, curated from a much larger collection assembled by Mick Jones, guitarist and songwriter par excellence. It’s a visual and sonic feast in a pop up space on Flitcroft Street. It’s free to enter and open until March 22nd - 12pm to 7pm daily. Get your skates on!

Black Is The Color Of My Voice

Wow!! Carole managed to get us seats for this amazing performance at the equally amazing Wilton’s Music Hall. Black Is The Color Of My Voice is inspired by the life of Nina Simone and features many of her most iconic songs performed live by Nicholle Cherrie, in this powerful one woman play, written by Apphia Campbell. Experiencing this performance was one of those rare occasions when time stands still - a completely engrossing experience. The play is currently touring - and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

What next?

I’m starting a new project this week - and first I need to settle down and assess some grant applications. This is tough, careful work, and tomorrow I find out if my submission to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition has been shortlisted. Watch this space.