Reading Week

It was a very busy week. I've been searching for frames, trawling the charity shops, attended the Plymouth Auction at Shobrooks, and searching my cupboards at home. We are using the French Salon Style to exhibit our images. The display would be in keeping with the style if we can get as much of a variety of frames as possible. I've found four that are suitable, and I'm thinking of using some modern frames that I may paint and distress if I have the time.

It took me a whole afternoon to dismantle the old frames and clean them, cutting my fingers on the glass several times.

The Exhibition Preview Evening is nearing and as yet we have not sent out the Invitations. I am in a slight panic about this as normally people need more time to respond. However, there is nothing I can do about this until we have a meeting next week when we are all back at college.

We also need to discuss our budget and other things such as getting a Comments Book, making a book of all our images so that people can then see which image belongs to which artist if they should be interested in buying any prints, and I would also like to make a book of my own to accompany my work as a separate piece of art. However, I'm not sure how the other members of the group will feel about this and I really don't know that I'll have enough time to make it.

Images taken on my Mobile ... me choosing frames, cleaning and deciding which images I want to use.

I have also been working on my final major project, I have decided on my idea now, and have been shooting lots of film on my Mamiya 67 in black and white. I'm quite excited about the images, I am liking them very much. My concept is based on absence and presence, continuing with the connection between past and present and using the sunlight as it shines through the windows at home to create images in a film noir style. I have been researching Structuralism and looking at the writings of Levi Strauss, William Benjamin, Sasseur and Susan Stewart. I have decided that my three case studies will be the paintings of Vermeer, and the work of  Uta Barth and Tacita Dean. They are all very different artists, but all focus their work on light, the act of seeing, chance and coincidence and connections with the past. I'm finding my research very interesting but there is some chaos in my home and in my head at the present time.

It's a very busy time for us, but I am finding that I am thoroughly enjoying the pressure and the process. My whole life is "art" and for me this is wonderful, and something I have always wanted. I have a passion and that passion is taking over my life .... great!