David Symons - Blog

Lost in Lace

2012-01-20T07:11:00.000-08:00

Chiharu Shiota, After the Dream, 2011

I love where I am living, so near to the hills, so near to the Town, so near to the school and so near to the hub of West Midlands culture, ------ Birmingham!

Not been to Brummy for ages, I mean years and it improves every time I visit, or perhaps I just see more.
Big buildings, fantastic architecture, interesting looking people and a great accent.

Today, we went on a journey to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery or the BMAG (a different link) and it took less than just over an hour to get there, to see Lost in Lace, where the photo was taken. I didnt know what to expect and all I can say is that it was fantastic. I really do recommend the visit, there is some amazing artwork on show, really delicate, really clever and a couple of the works was just so incredible.

One of the best was this http://lostinlace.org.uk/artists/tamar-frank His work just blew my mind....

Go GO GOOOO its only on til 19th Feb. You won't regret it.

To the man who nearly killed me and my two little girls

2012-01-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

A letter to the man who very nearly killed me and my 4 and 7 year old girls.

Tenbury Town centre River Teme Bridge closure.

We were returning to Tenbury on foot along the A456 on Tuesday 17th January 2012.

At the pelican crossing by the Garage by the River Teme Bridge, at 4.45pm my children shared the task of pushing the button of the pelican crossing. We always wait for the lights to change to red, the green man to flash and the warning pips to beep before walking.

Today, for an inexplicable reason, we all paused as we heard the beeps before we walked on out on to the road. As I looked right I saw an unloaded skip lorry hurtling towards the pelican crossing and I was able to drag my children back to the kerb. If we had not paused we would have been directly in front of a speeding lorry unable to stop, and all three of us would have been killed. The driver, having been clearly surprised at the red lights, attempted to stop the vehicle and was evidently completely unable to, but seeing the way clear speed on through the red lights.

I cannot describe the horror and tragedy of the situation adequately or strongly enough and can only hope that this particular driver and other drivers of HGV’s, large vans, 4x4’s, buses and cars all read this story and pause for a minute to think through the consequences of their actions.

To the man who nearly killed me, ask yourself why, oh why were you going so fast, what was it that was so important that you were prepared to kill three people?

To the Council, what can you do to stop these people?

Having survived such a near brush with certain death, I feel it is my duty to remind people to slow down near towns and villages. I must remind parents, guardians and carers to not to trust the skill and awareness of other drivers on the road to actually stop at a red light on a pelican crossing or any other crossing.

Notes:
I was unable to obtain the license plate or name of the company of the lorry.
Location was the pelican crossing by the garage and River Teme Bridge.
It was early evening, dry and cold and still daylight.

This is the google map link
http://g.co/maps/m2zhs

Libraries future

2011-10-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

This is a novel way of creating a community space, packed with novels and literature, and a way of reducing the expense of running traditional library spaces. Not sure of the amenities and there isn't a cafe but a pub is across the lawn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_booth

If you are anywhere near Newmarket this may be close, its in Cowlinge, a small village in the heart of rural Suffolk.

The council run a mobile library service and as mobile phones are one of many of the necessary monthly expenses of 21st century living, this defunct relic of a traditional once Nationally owned communication company is perfect for such competition from kindles and ipads. I guess its the conclusion of a big society volunteer led project.

OMG Glasses are what they are called....

2011-08-05T05:13:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought life was a breeze....

Something turns up that reminds you of your mortality. What does this mean?

Yes, its true. I had an eye test, thought it was a great idea because I do work with detail and with digital processes, so keeping an eye on my eyes seemed to make sense.

Trouble is, it turns out I need to wear a device to enable me to see correctly.

How does one choose a frame in to which the device can be safely worn around the eyes?

There are many to choose from. Some made me look ill, others simply simple. I couldn't afford the cool ones so instead resigned myself to the one pictured.

You need them to read and do close up work sir.

How on earth? So when I look at my subject I take them off, and then when I look to draw, I put them on? I look about 30 times a minute. This is impossible.

Also, they make me feel dizzy as I wonder back to the mirror to have another look.

But the real thing is, is of course, my age. It kind of goes with the ageing process. There is no manuel to show you how to grow up, but there seems to be endless manuels telling you that things can go wrong and when. Maybe I should assemble all advice and current medical research in to one book and call it the
ummmm, facts of life?, what to do now you know?, what to do when you hit your 20's? Life and all that?, Thanks for the hair, whats that all about, uh, you mean if I keep on eating chocolate I'll get fat?

Not fair, Perhaps I should get back to writing my job application.

The Guardian

2011-07-27T09:27:00.001-07:00

Thought I would share this link with my blogging friends, its an article my friend Paul has written for the Guardian and its the start of a monthly column.

I wish him well and the best of luck.

http://t.co/ZoJWcuv Im very excited for him about it and its a good read....

#makesmemakeartwork

2011-07-23T04:45:00.000-07:00

I am trying to work out what makes artists make artwork?

Cut and paste this in to Twitter to find out if anyone has responded to my question:

#makesmemakeartwork Click on it and the link sends you to a list.

I make artwork because I can.

Not many people actually bother. If I won the lottery, guess what? I'd make artwork. I don't care about careers or exhibitions which is my greatest fault. I just like making artwork.

I suspect most other artists are the same, some are just better at self promotion and marketing and so can begin to get 'noticed' and forge a career and possibly survive at that alone.

I've loads of pictures that no one has ever seen. They wont change the world or make heads turn, not unless people get told to notice them. Who has that power to tell people to look. Which publications, gallerists, collectors, curators, museums, peers?

This is a question that has always amused me. Why do people need to be told what to think?

Fashion is not fashion once it has arrived on the High Street.

Music isn't cool when the band has gone global.

Why are we so fickle?

What is it about an authoritative voice that persuades and convinces us that this particular type of art is so very cool and of the moment? I thought that the Internet would free us of this need to be reassured that this person, this look, this music, is the best the most cool or the most obscure.

But ultimately and of course, its the need to make money that is the driving force behind all of this; be it the publication shifting units, the record company shifting music, the art collector trying to raise the profile of their selected artist by promotion and therefore the price of each unit in storage, the gallery trying to get footfall in to the room or the retail outlet trying to shift cheap copies of 'fashion'.

This is the end of my late morning rant - thanks to coffee and cake.
x

A start of a campaign to publicise scams against artists?

2011-07-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

As part of my mission to inform and help artists (do a better job than me at surviving as an artist), I want to draw together some scam techniques used by criminals.

If you have any stories about being scammed, please let me know and email me at – Home@davidsymons.org

A well established and fantastic public artist called Ailsa Magnus drew my attention to the following scam letter her friend Jilly Ballantyne received from a person from South Africa – read on…

Hello,

How are you doing today? My names are Eche Franklin, I want to book for Art & Craft Workshops Classes with you while on a 2weeks holidays in your country.We are 10 in numbers seeking for Art & Craft Workshops training while on holidays and as part of our plans we need Art & Craft Workshops classes/private lessons.

Meanwhile We shall be needing your services for the whole 2 weeks in place.again for the 2 weeks the classes for each day would be 3 hours from Monday to Saturday (morning hours) for the group. We are asking for 3 hours per day for 2weeks - Monday - Saturday. A total of 36 hrs in the whole.

Do you have a training facility where you conduct classes? We can arrange for this,if not available.Do you have rooms or is there any hotel close to your facility?

DATE: 7TH JUNE 2011 TO 21 JUNE 2011

I would love to know the possibility of working with you during this period.Kindly get back to me with your proposals so that we can make booking asap.

The group would be performing for a group of family members over there. I would love to get the total cost or a quote.Do you have credit cards machine in your place to process your payment? I would be grateful if you will be willing to do the work to teach quality classes.

Kind Regards

Eche Franklin
King Kong Ltd,
29 Henry. Street,
Westdene,Bloemfontein,
South Africa.
Phone:+27 736-979-777

I think the give away is where the he says credit cards machine in your area...what do you think? Please comments below.

The following website links are from the artists who sent me the information:

http://www.paintingriviera.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jilly-Ballantyne-Artist-and-Art-Tutor/363978665515?sk=info

http://ailsamagnus.blogspot.com

www.ailsamagnus.com

Please view their websites, their work is really good.

Well if its too good to be true then...part 2 - final part

2011-07-03T12:48:00.001-07:00

Well if its too good to be true then... part 2

Eventually a letter arrived for me and it actually contained a cheque but nothing else; I expected a note, a list of selected artworks, perhaps even an address, the name of the shipping company or at least a reference of some kind like an invoice, but nothing. Apart from a hastily written address on the back of the envelope stating the address of the sender.

Oddly the address, once Google mapped, revealed itself to be a charming street in a sink estate somewhere on the outskirts of London, a place you probably wouldn’t even park your car.

Strangely the cheque had a figure on it previously not discussed and it came to £8000 and it was made out to me. Wow I thought, now that is a lot of money. But hang on, why is the cheque from a company in Liverpool? The company did exist (thanks Google) and looked genuine enough. The company looked like it sold cheap jewelry and expensive fake watches.

When I checked my email I found that B****** had sent me note stating that an overpayment was made to me due to the shipping company (as yet un named despite continuous requests) had broken some antiques and bizarrely the guys eldest daughter had requested to see my website so she could choose some more artwork as a birthday present to herself. He wanted me to acknowledge receipt of the cheque, to rest assure him.

Well, I looked quite closely at the cheque; it looked like a cheque, was see through and had two signatures. After not much deliberation I decided to ask the experts, no not the Police, simply the bank.

So off to Town I went and waited for quite some time until a bank person was ready to see me, and after relaying the story and unveiling the cheque, said paper was whisked away for closer scrutiny.

After a further quarter of an hour the bank manager herself came to see me and queried my story and said that in fact it was a genuine cheque but from a cloned cheque book and the bank was going to investigate.

The bank manager said that the cheque would not have been cashed had I not queried it and she was quite concerned that I would have waited until the cheque had cleared before spending spending spending!

Well, when I got home I was somewhat deflated having already spent, in my head, a considerable portion of the money on a new car, or maybe a new computer or perhaps just a pair of shoes. As I was deliberating the phone rang and a man on the other end asked for me and then introduced himself, in rather a foreign sounding nature, as if from the eastern side of Europe. In fact it was B****** himself and enquired whether or not I had indeed received the cheque. I hesitated, seriously tempted to prolong the experience, perhaps get further information or just to see what happened, I was tempted to lie and say nope, no cheque has arrived or yep, I cashed it today!

Instead I confessed that the bank had suspected the cheque as being fraudulent, but as soon as I finished the sentence, there was a moments hesitation on the other end and then suddenly the phone went dead.

And that’s the end of that.

I guess the reason why I’m writing this is to warn other artists of the increasingly sophisticated scamming techniques now employed by criminals. How brash and bold to keep correspondence going for so many weeks and then finally ringing me up; so completely out of order.

Please email me if you would like to know the real names and addresses of the fellow mentioned in the story and let me know if you have encountered similar scams.

What is particularly puzzling and somewhat worrying is what would have happened if I had not suspected all along that it was a scam?

If I had cashed the cheque, would the criminal have tried to persuade me that I should send him a cheque as soon as possible? Or was it a cash launder scam? Was it a rue to get me doing something illegal with the intention of black mail or undertaking further heinous crimes?

Luckily I will never know.

Thanks for reading

David

Well if its too good to be true then...

2011-07-02T03:45:00.000-07:00

This story is true and was deleted in May when it was decided that it was too near the actual experience to be published.

This story is all about the old saying - 'if it's too good to be true, then it probably isn't!'

Well, this quarter’s entry is about my experience with a 'Polish' man who claimed that he wanted to buy 5 Cliche-Verre prints....

It started with an email correspondence from a guy called B***** M***** who said that he liked to buy some artwork on my website but had lost the web address, and would I mind sending him a link. I found it very odd that this would happen because my email is home@davidsymons.org, within which is a rather big clue as to the identity of my website.... then there is the fact of web browser history and the original search etc. etc. But I reasoned that the guy could be an art collector without much experience of using the Internet or computers.

After a couple of days thought, I decided to respond to the email to see what would happen, what information would the guy acquire from me; in short, to play along.

I sent him a link and after a few days got an email from him listing the works he wanted. Some of the prints were on exhibition in the US so I replied listing the artworks available and at what price.

Some time later, he returned an email stating exactly which ones he wanted and with some strange instruction about a shipping company moving some furniture from a house of his in Cardiff, so it would be good if I could get the artworks ready for delivery with this company. He also asked for my address. Another odd fact was that the artworks came to just about £2800 and he mentioned he was going to send me a cheque for £4000 (to cover the costs of shipping). He also supplied his address in Poland.

I googled this address and found a lovely upmarket artisan square with lovely looking houses and restaurants, and intriguingly, the home of the national music society in which people working there collected interesting art. At this point I became excited....

Meanwhile, two weeks passed and then I got an email apologising for the delay in correspondence, due to a brief spell in a local hospital, and a promise that a cheque will soon arrive at my house...

Part 2 to follow in a couple of days, please return then for the final part and to find out what happened....

X

My windmill of your mind

2011-05-18T05:20:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely day out this weekend and ended up in a working windmill, complete with steep ladders, grinding teeth and crushing wheels. Was so excited, whipped out the mobile and took photos and films.

Having recently got iMovies, decided to work out how to use the editing suite and make a movie using the photos and short films. So here it is:

Any feedback or comments are most welcome.

If you are interested in what happened to my scamming story, the full text is now available via an email from me, just give me a shout and I'll send it to you.

Thanks

Almost a fantastic story

2011-05-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, after a brief discussion, I've been advised to remove this quarters entry.

Sorry.

X

Other peoples blog dilema

2011-04-27T04:15:00.000-07:00

Was wondering whether to blog a blog on my blog and then I realised, I must and I will so here it is...

http://nonfigurativephoto.blogspot.com/2011/04/major-glassprint-show-in-san-francisco.html

Ah bit its in Welsh this time

2011-04-05T05:13:00.000-07:00

Mae’r artist o Gymro David Symons, a anwyd yn Abertawe, wedi’i wahodd i

arddangos rhai o’i brintiau ‘Cliché-Verre’ yn Oriel enwog Jenkins Johnson yn San

Francisco, gan agor ar 7 Ebrill 2011. Gwnaeth Symons y printiau ‘Cliché-Verre’ yn

ystafelloedd tywyll Ffotogallery yng Nghanolfan Chapter Caerdydd ac mae’n arbrofi

gyda’r dull gwneud printiau unigryw yma ers dros ddegawd.

Medd Symons, ‘Nid ffotograffau na pheintiadau yw’r lluniau ‘Cliché-Verre’, ond dull

o luniadu â golau, sy’n rhoi printiau lliw moethus, tanbaid, arluniaidd ac unigryw ar

bapur ffotograffig Math C.

Yn ystod haf 2010 dechreuais gysylltu â nifer o artistiaid o bob rhan o’r byd sy’n

defnyddio’r dull prin hwn gyda’r nod o guradu arddangosfa deithiol ryngwladol. Trwy’r

cysylltiadau hyn mi gefais gynulleidfa ehangach i’m gwaith fy hun, ac yn sgîl hynny

fe ddewiswyd fy ngwaith ar gyfer y sioe grŵp yn San Francisco, dan ofal yr artist

Courtney Johnson. Mae Courtney’n trefnu i’r sioe fynd ar daith a gobeithiwn y bydd

yn cyrraedd gwledydd Prydain y flwyddyn nesaf.

Dewiswyd tri gwaith gan Symons ar gyfer y sioe, sef ‘Band’, ‘Ar ôl Matisse’ a ‘Cylch

pren’. Wedi’u mowntio ar Foamex, mae’r printiau unigryw wedi’u selio â laminiad

uwchfioled, i warchod y llun rhag niwed gan olau’r haul. Mae pob darn yn mesur

37x47cm ac fe’u gwnaed yn 2009, ond dyma’r tro cyntaf iddyn nhw gael eu dangos.

Dewiswyd unarddeg artist o bedwar ban byd ar gyfer yr arddangosfa hon, sy’n

archwilio’r cysylltiad a geir rhwng technolegau traddodiadol a hynod fodern wrth

arbrofi ac arloesi.

Dyma’r artistiaid cyfoes: Peter Feldstein, Suzanne Izzo, Fredrik Marsh, Frank Rossi, Käthe Wenzel, Jo Bradford, Courtney Johnson, Abelardo Morell, Maggie Foskett and Fred Parker

Mewn newyddion arall, dewiswyd darn o waith Symons ar gyfer cystadleuaeth Artist

y Flwyddyn Cymru 2011 yn Neuadd Dewi Sant, Caerdydd, yn agor ar 6 Mehefin.

Press Release by David Symons

2011-04-05T02:13:00.000-07:00

Swansea born Welsh artist David Symons has been invited to exhibit some of his ‘Cliché-Verre’ prints at the prestigious Jenkins Johnson Gallery in San Francisco, opening on 7th April 2011.

Symons made the ‘Cliché-Verre’ prints at Cardiff’s Ffotogallery colour darkrooms at Chapter and has been experimenting with the method of making unique prints for over a decade.

Symons said, ‘the ‘Cliché-Verre’ work are neither photographs nor paintings but are drawings with light that result in gorgeous, intense, painterly and unique colour prints on C Type photographic paper.

During the summer of 2010 I began to contact a number of artists from around the World who use this rare method with the aim to curate a touring exhibition that will travel internationally. It was through these connections that my work gained a wider audience and resulted in my work being selected for the group show in San Francisco, curated by artist Courtney Johnson. Courtney is organising for the show to tour and we hope it will arrive in the UK next year.

Three pieces of work by Symons were selected for the show, ‘Band’, ‘After Matisse’ and ‘Treering’. The unique prints, mounted on to Foamex, were sealed with a UV laminate, protecting the image from sunlight damage. Each piece is 37x47cm and made in 2009 but it is the first time they have been shown.

Eleven artists from around the World have been selected for this exhibition, which examines the connection of traditional and cutting edge technologies characterised by experimentation and innovation.

The other contemporary artists are Peter Feldstein, Suzanne Izzo, Fredrik Marsh, Frank Rossi, Käthe Wenzel, Jo Bradford, Courtney Johnson, Abelardo Morell, Maggie Foskett and Fred Parker.

In other news, Symons has had a piece of work selected for the Welsh Artist of the Year 2011 competition at St David’s Hall in Cardiff, opening 6^th June.

Exhibition Press Release

2011-03-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

Arggg so much work

2011-03-02T03:36:00.000-08:00

Here I am getting distracted from my main task of preparing for an arts strategy for Cambridge. This has got to be the best moment in any strategy, when you are curating artwork for spaces that dont exist yet. I skim through hundreds of thumbnail of artists work looking for interesting and different work.

Here are some tips if you are an artist with work on portfolio sites:
1. Keep your images relevant to what they are. If you make indoor installation, dont tag it as outdoor art.

2. Keep your images up to date.

3. Make the images the best you can.

4. Have prices (rough estimations) of the commission available.

The other thing Im doing is getting my own artwork together for a show in the US at the JenkinsJohnson Gallery in San Francisco

My images are getting mounted on to foamex as I write this and a number of things could go horribly wrong, so Im holding my breath to get them back.

Fingers crossed....

Chew my bone voda fone

2010-11-11T03:40:00.000-08:00

Grrrrr
I upgraded my phone a few months ago and am very pleased with it, a HTC Legend. Being a bit careful about monthly bills, I monitored how much I used my phone and particularly the Internet usage. My bills remained the same as before, mainly cause no one phones me :(

Anyway, I'm doing my tax return stuff and thought I'd look online at my vodafone bills to tot them up for the financial year both last year and now. To my shock I discovered that in August this year my bill was 100% more than every bill Ive ever had, ever. It didn't tell me what was going on in my online bill so I rang them up.

I don't get reception in my house so I used the BT phone. A bit Ironic thinks me?

After pressing a number of buttons, navigating my way through horrendous phone music, I got through to a guy with a cold. Bless him. I asked him why my bill was for so much. He replied that I, in effect, have paid double for a service Ive already paid for. I didn't understand. This sentance is much clearer than the sentance he gave me.

He tried to explain that for instance, if my line rental was from 1st of the month til the end of the month, and then I upgraded in the middle of the month, the remaining 15 days would still have to be paid for in the new upgrade contract, therefore paying for something I'd already paid for. I said I didn't understand and was annoyed at having paid for something that I'd already paid for.

I was about to get angry and demand a full explanation of how this error could have happened when the man with a cold said, Because you weren't informed of this in the shop at the time of upgrade, I'm going to give you a £20 credit for your next bill.

I was delighted and then immediately suspicious.Why had he given me a £20 credit so quickly? Is this a normal operation that these companies do to make extra money. I wondered if anyone else had experienced this? I asked the guy, why didn't they tell me about this in the shop? He replied that the staff assume that everyone knows about this because they know...

Im still suspicious.

If you notice that your bill is higher, its worth ringing them to enquire.

I got £20 for a five minute phone call.

Toy Art Exhibition

2010-11-06T07:44:00.000-07:00

Had a very good time gluing this disco robot together, complete with oversized lazer gun and holster. The holster is also a seat, table, cage, primative radar, transport device and portable communication tool.

Look at this
For more images click here.

Teaching and preparaton

2010-10-13T02:25:00.000-07:00

Its funny how long its taking me to prepare a series of PowerPoint's for my graphics students at Highpoint Prison. The feedback from the students is so positive and appreciative that it makes you want to do more.

Graphic students are exposed to countless trillions of images on the web and in books but if you don't have access to the web what do you do? I find their (my students) experience of looking for and at images is very limited, hence I'm spending hours creating visuals for them to see, ponder and discuss. The animated and occasionally heated conversations that take place are humorous and heartfelt, naive and honest.

I direct the conversations from a back seat point of view, allowing the quieter ones to speak up and for all view points to be heard. This way all students feel part of the process and we all learn from each other, in fact the amount of learning that takes place in the short half hour is staggering if you compare with what they've generally all been though in the education system in their own lives; and they love it.

I thought I'd share with you some links that Ive found thanks to my twittering friends.

http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/hidden-logos-in-graphic-designing/

http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/more-hidden-logos-sequel/

Civil Service and the long wait

2010-09-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

First day – the interview

Article deleted.

Cows heard of the pleasure of the seaside

2010-08-14T04:43:00.000-07:00

Whilst holidaying in the best beach in the world, Three Cliffs Bay on Gower, Swansea, South Wales, we were joined on the beach by a herd of cattle. How they enjoyed the seaside. Thought I'd share these images with you as they make me smile.

Things that grow around here and competition

2010-07-22T02:43:00.000-07:00

Almost like scrumping for apples, I was out at dusk with the trusty beast and decided to harvest samples of the produce grown around my house before they are harvested. One of these items was given to me by a long lost friend from Australia.

This is the first competition of the new summer 2010 season.Spot the odd one out game!
Be the first to email me the correct answer. (starting top left as A, top right as B, bottom right as C and finally bottem left as D).

Contact me either through a comment below or simply visit

http://davidsymons.weebly.com/contact.html

and use the information listed to get in touch.

Prizes include an invitation to see some bands in Cambridge next Tuesday evening.

Closing date is late on Sunday 1st August 2010

Much thanks

Jail, Prison, Incarceration, holed up, bird, time, stretch, slammer

2010-07-14T05:41:00.000-07:00

I'm still waiting to hear if I've been cleared to teach in a jail, am looking forward to it, just want to start. I shall be covering photoshop, indesign and flash. Perhaps a bit of drawing and painting too.

If and when I start I shall keep a blog of events, happenings and my reaction to working in such an environment and will be fascinated to see what happens to my art output.

The reasoning behind the last part is that the more you do the more happens to you, the more successful your artwork will be and whatever eventually is produced from this activity could and should be very interesting.

I wonder if I need permission to keep a blog of this?

Tonight - the private view

2010-05-04T05:37:00.000-07:00

Well, opening of the show tonight and Im very excited.
Guess it must be real since its on the ACE' s webnews
...http://www.artsjobs.org.uk/index.php?id=25&ne_source=dailynews&ne_post_id=40631

Got go now and decide what to wear, a suit, a t shirt, or a wetsuit and magic face?

Hmmm, some photos coming soon

Hope to see you there!

PS slightly nervous, more because the children will be there who tend to create havoc and destruction. Have been cleaning the house all morning because the landlord wants to see it. Dont want to move, cant afford to and my girls are settled in their respective schools, so cleaning was a lot more frustrating than usual.

I might put up a list of the competitions Im entering. Its a shy mans tactic of getting exposure.

Exciting times ahead, an exhibition

2010-04-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

AA2A Artists exhibition

The AA2A project is a national scheme, providing visual artists and designer makers with the opportunity to undertake a period of research or realise a project, using workshop and supporting facilities in fine art and design departments of Higher and Further Education institutions. This gives participating artists and makers the opportunity to use equipment which otherwise might not be available to them, as well as benefiting the institution by bringing in ideas and techniques which may not otherwise enter the college environment.

AA2A is funded by the Arts Council England through the National Lottery Grants for the Arts programme.

This is the fifth consecutive year that University Campus Suffolk (UCS) has supported artists on the AA2A scheme. The artists’ presence at UCS allows our students to gain first-hand knowledge of different artists’ approaches and offers additional formal and informal opportunities to discuss contemporary art practice.

The 2009-2010 AA2A artists at UCS are Cab Weal, Sally Jane Webster, Jane Southgate and David Symons. UCS is pleased to support these four artists through the provision of workshop facililties and to offer an opportunity to showcase their new work in the Waterfront Gallery.

Cab Weal
My work on the AA2A programme has a starting point within sketchbooks, creating drawings and collages describing the objects and cultures that surround me. These collages tend to use the form of people from magazines, shapes seen in commercial environments and with heavy influences from graphics and illustration. Usually sketching in an automatic way, using fast and rough primary marks I feel I capture unexpected positions in juxtaposing image with the text and collage media.

A perfect ideal is what I’m trying to oppose putting images through printing techniques and other elements in a strange placement but still trying to hopefully create an aesthetic quality.

Sally Jane Webster
During the AA2A residency I have been reading and drawing. I have filled sketchbooks with images and ideas about skin and a sense of self. The artwork that springs from this is surprising - to me anyway!

I am making a large installation with a military theme and some other stuff with chicken wire and newspaper and some photos of the reflections in the windows of my mobile home. Oh yes, and I’ve chatted with some students about art and life, moved house three times, been in hospital and got a divorce. Enough about me – come and see the work!

Jane Southgate
To mother or to be mothered?

I have created an installation made up of many elements, weaving together their individual content to create a space for the imagination and emotions. I am interested in insides/ outsides, hiding nothing about construction, and creating personal space be it reassuringly transparent or suffocatingly private. Are these places of sheltering intimacy or threatening exposure? Many threads of thought, feelings and roles are held together to create a web of meaning.

David Symons
Scarecrow is an artist’s reaction of moving from the bright lights of the city to the pitch black of the country, a blackness so dark all you can see is your imagination, like in an immergence tank.

The scarecrow stares out of the blackness, startled by the presence of a flash, awakened and intrigued, it waits to be asked, but what do you ask? Are they stuck in a moment of time, discarded completely from the mind of the maker, whose only purpose of build is function, trapped in that one state of being until release comes in the form of destruction? The infinite blackness of the past, the invisible vastness of the future, the scarecrow stands forever in that single moment, watching, absorbing, wondering when will it be me? From the city to the country, an observation of everyday life, placing new meaning on to old tradition, empathising with the static and traditional; what is new is old.

For more information see:
www.ucs.ac.uk
www.aa2a.org
www.davidsymons.org
www.cabweal.blogspot.com
www.keyarts.org/index.php?title=Sally_Jane_Webster

Contact details for exhibition
Waterfront Gallery
University Campus Suffolk
Waterfront Building
Neptune Quay
Ipswich, IP4 1QJ
01473 338000
Open to All 9am to 8pm including weekends
Exhibition continues from 5th May to 20th May 2010

David Symons group

2010-03-02T02:26:00.000-08:00

I have a new project, that will run along side the AA2A thing and all the rest. On facebook Im trying to befriend all the David Symons and to ask them to contribute to an artists book that will contain artwork by David Symons.

Im sure it will be a great project. So far there are 13 of us signed up to a group on Facebook. If you want to see and if you are another David Symons and want to participate please click here.

The possibilities of online networking is considerable and there are David Symons from USA and Australia contributing to this.

Ive contributed to art books before and here are two examples.

I hope it works.

Illustration Friday

2010-01-13T01:41:00.000-08:00

Illustration Friday

This is my entery: Confined Click here to see it.

For some reason I put the image in my links page. Probably alright to do this because Ive only a few links there anyway. In the old days a website would be considered good only if it had a good links page. Wonder if this is still relevant and true today. Discuss...

Snow blogging

2010-01-07T04:27:00.000-08:00

Its all snow around here, UK wide shut down. People need time off. Things get done anyway, except that is the services (elec, water, gas, ER, road gritters etc.). Thanks to all those people brave enough to battle in and give us light....

Saw this the other day, amazed I was because it appeared to be coming out of the tree, then as droplets poured out the stained appearance starts....

Kids are at home, we've been out in the snow but a blizzard kinda cramped the fun so back in we went and had a hot chocolate hmmmmmmmm. Then a bit of painting, playing games and now Mary Poppins is on, hence the time to blog. So what do we do in the cold seeing as the heating is too expensive to put on all day? Blankets and hot water bottles....

Did a drawing in a day yesterday, well chufffed with it. A bit distrubed though as it poured out of my imagination. Will put an image up soon, need to scan it in etc...

Aiming to do another one today.

What does drawing mean to me? I think its the acoustic guitar of the art world. Like most great songs, they were written on the acoustic guitar, so when a band plays a famous song acoustically, it always sounds amazing. An idea with a great drawing will always work, because the strength of the idea is in the drawing...

Wonder if this makes sense? My fingers are actually a bit too cold to type and my brain has slowed down. (Its an excuse I shalll use again)

Sales and sales

2010-01-05T03:01:00.000-08:00

Was wondering about the impulse to buy new things, as I face another year in the same clothes as last, realising curtesy of QI that my body is actually younger than 98% of my entire clothing collection. Was it a dream or did I hear that people were actually queing up on Christmas day to get to the boxing day sales before other people??

Anyway, guess these freaks wont be buying anything ever again...

This little post is just a step, one of those steps I take when facing a blank page, an empty canvas or a new start. The first step is always the most difficult and as this is my first post of 2010, and as Ive collected a number of pointless photos, I thought that this little thing will be a good start.

Things to look forward to this year include:

1. Book art project. An artists book project between myself and Becky Adams where we send each other a page and respond to it and send a new page back....will be posting stuff here as I find time.

2. AA2A artwork. Spent most of last year trying to get inducted so that I can use a scanner, or saw, or print workshop. Things have indeed changed since my days in college where we just used stuff carefully and safely. Seems people have forgotten how to use common sense, or is it that we live in an insurance culture and people in small offices take time to think of every possible angle to infinity to prevent other people from actually just doing stuff.

3. Some freelance project stuff. Am sure I'll get a job this year.

4. More competitions with real prizes and not made up comments; promise.

5. Photos of the every day.

6. I love writing 2010.

Cannie wait.
xXx

Saatchi school of Art

2009-12-15T08:33:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed the final programme, it was interesting to see where the participants were at, although the final artwork was a bit dull, except the winning, found object.

As far as the result goes I knew that girl would win when she was selected. Whilst other shortlisted artists were sent home because their work was seen before, this artist was selected because the work was reminiscent of work done before; the judges couldnt decide if she was a genius or charlaton.

Its a job to remember when the narration goes on and on about artists, their ideas and the process when, at the end of the day, it is only and all about the perceived reaction of the audience to the artwork and nothing else, regardless of the intention of the artist, that wins with Saatchi. I imagine his advisors seriously worked hard to convince Saatchi to allow the runner up a chance to exhibit at the next show because it was so obvious he should have won. But maybe he did win, in the way that Will Young had won by coming second in that x factor type show, by getting to make work for the gallery.

Fairplay to the winning piece of art. It was truely a fantastic find. I suspect the power of television persuaded the housing authority to part with it; I wonder if they regret it now that its worth money? I do feel confused about how I feel about this artist winning, I wonder what R Mutt would have to say?

BT update - a result

2009-12-01T06:52:00.000-08:00

Ive actually had a reply from BT. They emailed me yesterday, mainly because Ive been too busy to answer phonecalls and have missed them in return calls. This all relates to the second letter found here.

I feel a bit guilty about the person who dealt with me getting told off, but perhaps they simply needed more training??? All of my queries have been answered satisfactorily, and we are going to have a refund for a service I should never of been offered.

Please use this number to get your BT problem dealt with: 0800 0852349

You go straight to a human being and their first language is English, and they deal with your querey there and then.

This is what BT said:

Dear Mr Symons,

I am writing to you in connection with your recent letter to BT regarding an outstanding query with broadband talk and other services on your line. I have tried to contact you several times to discuss the matter with you, leaving messages on your home number and with your Wife, but appreciate you are very busy. I agreed with your Wife this morning that if you were unable to return my call throughout the day, I would email you instead. I am sorry that I missed you and have been unable to speak with you personally, and hope that I can now address the points you raised.

Firstly I am very sorry for the experience you have outlined in this and your previous letter. I can see that you did write in and the matter was completely mishandled at that time. I have actually already spoken to the Manager of the advisor who called you regarding your first letter, as they misinformed you as to the follow up on your query, and should have sorted it out for you there and then, rather than promising a letter which would never materialise. They will be speaking to the person concerned regarding this, as it is an unacceptable level of service to offer a customer when you have gone to the trouble of sending in your letter.

I have read both of your letters and firstly want to address the issue of broadband talk. As a broadband customer, you are entitled to the broadband talk service free of charge. The free service allows you to make calls via a hub, and get the first 60 minutes of the call free in the Evenings or at Weekends. This works through allocating a second telephone number to the service which you then access on the port at the rear of the hub. I can see you have been led to believe that this is the service you have been on and that it would be beneficial for you. I have checked your records and have found that you are not in fact on the free broadband talk service at all. Since 26.07.07, you have been on a similar service called broadband talk anytime. It works in exactly the same way, only it allows the free calls at all times, however the distinguishing feature being that you pay for the service. It costs £17.45 per quarter and this is what you have in fact been paying BT since this date. I am very sorry that this was not fully explained and clearly from your letters you do not want, nor have ever requested having the service on your line. I can certainly cancel this service for you, and would like to be able to speak to you to discuss the refund, which was the main reason I had been calling rather than reply in writing. Please confirm by return that you do not want this service, and I can then arrange to remove it and backdate the charges for you. I cannot see who ordered the service originally as it has been active for so long, but would imagine that this has been set up from the time broadband was also set up or a contract was renewed on your account.

I appreciate your comments about not having the hub or hub phone to use the service. Those products would not have been sent to you as part of your broadband package at the time you originally signed up, however they are provided free of charge now to most broadband customers. If you are interested in getting these you could do this by recontracting your broadband package to a new price plan and contract as you are currently outside your original contract with BT. If you are interested in doing this or discussing a new price plan and package, please send this email on with your consent to my colleague as follows; stuart.2.hilton@bt.com, and stuart will then contact you in relation to this as he deals with current offers available.

And lastly you mentioned not having phone and broadband service between 24.08.09 and 03.09.09. I can see from the orders on your account that this is the arrangement that was made when you moved address around this time. These are the dates that were input as required for the move. There werent actually any faults with either the line or the broadband, so clearly if the dates were incorrectly requested when your move was requested this is another issue I will need to discuss with you.

In the meantime, please accept my apologies for all that has happened. I will continue to deal with this until the matter is fully resolved to your satisfaction. If you are able to call me that would be easier to tie up the various issues, however if not, maybe you would email me back in response to the information I have provided.

Kind Regards,

Ms Janet Jones
Enniskillen Call Centre

Saatchi TV

2009-11-23T14:54:00.000-08:00

Just enjoyed the Saatchi Television programme.
Here is a list of things that I found irritating:

1. All the shortlisted looked to be in their early 20's
2. We didnt get to see all of them present their work
3. One of the judges dismissed some of the would be's on account of having seen their work before, but decided to keep other would be artists, on account of their work reminding the judge of work she'd seen before???
4. Some of the work was decidedly weak
5. The programme reminds me of the design programme on in early autumn (as mentioned in the previous post)
6. A lot of kudos was given to someone who is a commercial but self taught artist. So what that he hadnt been to art college - he was free of the lingo.
7. I was too old and not in the shortlisted lot. Nevermind.

Have huge misgivings about next weeks programme when gallery artists get the chance to make some public art. Having had some considerable experience curating public art recently, Im sure it will prove to be riviting tv. Public art is really really difficult to get right - it will be crucially important to find out how much of a budget is given over because ultimately, you pay for what you get.

Radio 6 and another rant

2009-11-22T02:35:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to discuss, with myself of course, the greatness of Radio 6. Ive just realised how much I listen to it. Im convinced that if digital radio was on all portable radios, car stereo's, phones or whatever, then the dinosaur old men of bland rock n rnb, popular music, would suddenly shrivel up in to a plastic bag and suffocate alone, on a verge on the side of the road.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/

I listen to this everyday. The music is often varied and has old tracks and new tracks but one thing it doesnt have is the x factor.

Thank feck. I hate that programme and all, and I mean ALL, it stands for. At what point do the producers think 'what a minute, this is good'? If they attribute ratings to quality then we are all in trouble.

I am a bit worried about the Saatchi programme that will air next week. To confess, Im miffed because I applied for this but got rejected. Email rejections are a hassle; I much prefer the paper type. Anyway, have a look at this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/6624377/Charles-Saatchi-hunts-for-new-star-on-artists-answer-to-X-Factor.html

Recently there was a designer xfactor type programme on bb2 and the contestants were so feeble and dull as to make the watching horrendous. Philippe Stark wanted to fire the entire lot of them in the second week; so did I. But of course that would have ruined the format. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mx9y1

the problem could be that the saatchi programme will attempt to make, or rather reinforce the idea, that only one particular type of art is the best type of art to make. The art of the idea and the idea alone. Thus type of artwork is actually really good unless the idea is weak; and like a ripple in a pond, curators in the provinces pick up on the trend of idea only art and rush to show it in their spaces but forgetting to actually do their job which is to sift good ideas from weak ideas. Tabloid papers refer to this as YBA art, but those in the know know that Dadaism paved the way shortly after the first world war for this kind of thinking...

Im definetely watching this saatchi programme....but maybe listening to radio 6 at the same time? Im hoping to learn something from it.

Another letter to BT

2009-11-18T06:19:00.000-08:00

This article relates to this letter.

So frustrating, they still havent sent me a letter. This is going in todays post. I will copy my third letter to the ombudsman if nothing has been resolved.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr useless bastard bt

BT Correspondence Centre
Providence Row
Durham
DH98 1BT

18th November 2009

Dear Sir/Madam,

Reference: account number Bill reference

Five days after writing to BT to complain about a series of issues, I received a phone call from BT. The person on the phone acknowledged receipt of the letter of the 27th October 2009, and then apologised for the distress caused by BT, as described in said letter. The caller went on to explain that, within the next five days, a letter from BT would be sent to me describing exactly what options I am paying for. The caller then apologised again. I asked the caller whether any of the points described in my letter would be resolved in this letter or on the phone right then. The caller then said that a letter will be issued to me and again apologised to me for the distress caused by BT.

Whilst I appreciate the apologies from BT, I am more interested in getting the issues resolved. I find the continual, vacuous, script read apologies not only inane, but frustrating and wholly unhelpful and ultimately very disappointing.
I have not received a letter from BT. It has been three weeks since I wrote the letter and two and a half weeks since BT phoned me to acknowledge receipt of the letter.

Please write to me BT; I want to know exactly what I am paying for, when I started paying for BT broadband talk at £5 per month, who gave permission for this service to begin, who authorised that my complete service be cancelled and when am I to be refunded for a service I have never used and did not authorise in the first place.

I look forward to hearing from you.

David Symons

Competition four final photos

2009-11-17T08:34:00.001-08:00

Well here we are again, its as if someone forgot all about it, but these images reference the following competition.

The secret emailers out there are really on top form, but I am surprised that the clue wasnt discovered in the above link. Perhaps it was and the silence it has produced speaks volumes - yikes, you guys really edit, you know.

Then there is this one too.

I blame the parents.

BT really leave an empty feeling

2009-11-11T07:11:00.001-08:00

BT, a bit like politics, you kind of need them, there are alternatives, but they are far worse.

Its been about two weeks and no letter? Have they forgotten about me?

Was swimming today with my 2 1/2 yr old daughter and at 11am the tannoy announced a minute silence would take place shortly, the end notified by a beep. There was utter silence, which in a pool full of tiny people with their parents (mostly Mums) was really good.

The echo of pools still reverberates around my mind evoking fear of when I learned to swim, with mad sounding men shouting at the children in the freezing cold water of 70's public swimming. I still have that fear feeling getting changed in a large open area standing on wierd rubber mats, with a bloke going NO, KEEP YOUR HEAD UP UP UP PPPP!

My eldest daughter is currently having swimming lessons with lovely ladies smiling and encourging, in warm water, in friendly environs. THey don't know they're born....

Incidently, the public swimming pool in Swansea is now private flats, and by coincidence, an ancient bridge that was blocking the view of the sweep of Swansea Bay was removed. No one knows how public space was allowed to become private flats, where'd the money go? No, no one knows anything about corruption, back handed payments, schitziod planning authorities, historic monuments.

Where'd that come from?

BT saga update

2009-11-06T01:11:00.000-08:00

Well, they did phone me to tell me that they had received my letter, and during the phone call they apologised, so I asked 'Are you going to address any of the issues I have raised in my letter?'. They responded by saying that a letter explaining exactly what I am paying for will be sent shortly.

Im still waiting for the letter BT.

Im still waiting for the letter.

Im still waiting.

Im still.

Waiting.

Would you like an email notification of my blog?

2009-10-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

I wonder if you would like to be notified of my latest blog enteries. Features include competitions, opinions, moanings, latest artwork, latest news and the lowdown on my artistic career...?

Sounds too good to be true?

Then it probably is.

Please email me if you would like to receive email notification.

home at davidsymons dot org

Keep em coming. Competition number four enteries mounting and are dangerously humourless.

BT are shit

2009-10-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

If you have absolutley nothing else to do then have a read of this.

Its a complaint letter to BT for their service. As certain comedians keep telling me, you can always tell when a British is angry because he grits his teeth and Mumbles 'Im going to write a letter'!

I just hope the bloody letter gets there! Grrrrrrr.

BT Correspondence Centre
Providence Row
Durham
DH98 1BT
27th October 2009
Dear Sir/Madam,
Reference: account number Bill reference

I write to complain, in the strongest possible voice, regarding the following unresolved issues:
1. Explanation of why my BT telephone or broadband service was not available for the following period, during 24th August to 3rd September 2009 despite having informed BT of a change of address during early August and giving precise dates of moving and expected commencement of service.
2. I cannot see an alteration in the amount charged on the bill to account for this period. Are we being billed for this period that we had no service?
3. Broadband talk time:
a) How long have I been billed for this service? This is a question I asked BT in August 2009 when I discovered the billing information on my bill. I have not had any response to this question.
b) Why was the service not cancelled in August 2009, when I asked BT to cancel it? I was led to believe that the cancelled Broadband talk time service would be reflected in my next BT bill; this is clearly not the case.
c) Who authorised/ordered this service in the first place? I did not order this service.
d) I expect a complete refund for this package, from the original date it that it started, which I believe was sometime in 2008; I have the paper bill record stored at a different address and will try to find the exact date, I imagine you have the exact date that the service started and can easily inform me of this date.
e) Apparently a broadband telephone and hub is meant to be delivered upon ordering the service. I did not receive any such equipment. You will find, in my billing history, that there have been no charges for use of this service. This is because not only was I unable to use the service due to not having the appropriate equipment, I never wanted to use the service in the first place.
4. Regarding the 0800 800150 service. I find the service particularly frustrating, difficult and pointless to use because the options do not exist for any enquiry other than paying bills or telling you that we are going to pay a bill. Please amend this by creating more options in the list. When one finally and accidentally gets through to an operator, I find their politeness as believable as the promises they make to resolve the problem.
I imagine the telecommunications ombudsman will be particularly interested in your response to these issues. I look forward to your reply and explanation of how you plan to remedy the above points as quickly as possible.
David Symons

I am really looking forward to receiving any response at all.

Will of course keep you posted of any news.

How dull am I?
Maybe Im just turning in to an old man. Oh my god, am I turning in to my old man? Bless his cotton socks.... : )

Issue 13

2009-10-21T05:15:00.001-07:00

An online design magazine...have accepted a text based piece for their issue 13....

http://www.cut-click.co.uk/index.php

Have fun looking. I follow them on Twitter.

Competition four second image

2009-10-18T05:43:00.001-07:00

Hello
Thanks for your continuing support, the image below is another view point of competition four.

Ah ha, but here is a clue as to the final destination of all the animals....The origin of Tularecito and his eventual fate is where we'll all end up.

Competition Four

2009-10-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

At last, so sorry for the delay, and for those enquiring, no, I was not driving around Suffolk with my surf board on the roof just posing in shorts and no t shirt. The delay was caused by me having a drawing fit. Recovered now.

Anyway COMPETITION FOUR::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

THE QUESTION:

Where are they going?

Answers in the usual way, simply email me home at davidsymons dot org
or
write in the comments box below. Have considered publishing names of entries, but a significant minority of you want to remain anonymous, so there you go.

A new photo of the scene will be uploaded next week or maybe at the weekend if demand is high enough. Cant wait to read your replies. As ever, thanks for taking part. See you soon...

PPS if you want to go on my email notification list, please mention this in your email to me.

Yippee

How Light

2009-10-11T12:47:00.001-07:00

Blimey gov, Ive got a place in this years AA2A scheme, so now I can go in to Suffolk University art college in Ipswich to make art work, run a few workshops with the students and have an exhibition.

This is the best news Ive had for ages.

Ive also got to make some artwork for the St Davids hall christmas exhibition, so no time to waste.

Speaking of time and comparing what time I had before, when I had full time work, I have an extra hour or two to think and make artwork more per day than ever before.

Now I am in deep worry mode thinking about what on earth Im going to do. The college has a smaller developer than Ffotogallery but has a gigantic digital printer...and as I have had difficulty getting large boxes of paper recently and Im worried that wet colour darkroom will go the way polaroid did; so perhaps I can amend my practise through this opportunity.

Im also looking forward to meeting the other artists involved....

Finally, Bury St Edmunds art gallery are running artwork discussions and Im to attend one next week, better think about what this will involve as they want a work in progress....

How heavy

2009-10-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

Was just toying with the idea of weight and how external pressure makes one feel kinda heavy. Have a fear, building slowly, about tomorrow, so here I am banging away on these keys on this here blog. Am off to be interviewed for the AA2A scheme and Im to present my work to people Ive never met.

What will happen?
Will I remember to say all the things that rebound in side my head?
Should I say all the things that rebound around my head?
Do I have questions?
Do I know what Im doing?
What will they think?

This is the second interview Ive had since November 2004. And both those interviews were about my work as a project manager, easy in comparison to showing ones own work.

So I guess you'll have to wait, like me, for the result. Still havent had time to think of an appropriate competition idea. My ideas are too difficult to explain.

doisneau picasso

2009-10-04T03:06:00.000-07:00

Just in case you had no idea what references were used during competition 3, here is image:

Great news, Competition 4 is nearing invention; watch this space, or at least the space above this - release date - in a while...

Any way, about going back in time. If I visited myself in the past with a small bit of knowledge that would make me incredibly rich and that that money would fund the project that would enable me to go back in time; I think I'd keep that a secret.

Wouldn't you?

?

Competition 3 winner

2009-10-01T10:23:00.001-07:00

Ah you crazy crazy people.

My favourite entries for this competition are:

Crumble fingers

Trout fishing in America

Dali Delhi

The correct answer is Picasso

No one got it. That means the imaginary prize will roll on with the next competition.

New films - a question of shadows

2009-09-26T04:23:00.000-07:00

Please check here to see my new videos. They are unedited as I dont have the software to make them in to what I want, but I kinda like the limitations.

I do question the validity of video art but currently its so fashionable that curators dont edit their selections with enough gusto to make a trip to a gallery to go spend an afternoon there watching piss poor movies worthwhile and anyway, why watch something that seems to last forever if it aint good enough.

This years choice of having a musician to represent Wales at the Venice Biennale and letting him get students and freshly graduated artists to make the film for him begs the question - what was the real agenda here? Did this years curator simply think hmmmm what this needs is for a high profile musician to promote this existence of Wales as a land of high quality artists....or perhaps the curator thought, oh oh, what the hell shall I do here, oh I know, didnt that guy from the Velvet Underground come from somewhere in Wales? Lets get him? Its either him or Im going to have to go to Wales to see if there are any artists working there.

The Story of Iwan Bala

2009-09-25T09:21:00.000-07:00

One of the best and most intense days of my life occurred recently (actually back in August) when Walt and I visited Iwan’s studio to both say hello/farewell and for me to choose a painting that Safle could give me as a leaving present. The choice of leaving present has almost turned in to a tradition for people who used to work for Cywaith Cymru , in that, they all choose a painting from Iwan Bala.

Iwan had selected about a dozen pictures for me to choose from and laid them on a table in the middle of his studio. I have never been in that situation before where I was allowed to actually choose my own picture from a professional artist. I felt like an art collector, and like a rich man when money doesn't even get mentioned and where its all about what you like rather than what you can afford. It was really intense. It was great!

Eventually after much deliberation I got it down to four drawing/paintings. I had difficulty in deciding which one until Iwan suddenly said why don’t you take two?

I couldn't believe it.

How incredibly generous and kind.

Iwan went on to say that he owed me a painting from a moment a long time ago when I saw an advert in the Western Mail stating that Jobswell Art college in Carmarthen were looking for an artist to lecture in painting. It seemed to me that that job was written for him in mind and I suggested he go for it. He did indeed and is now a senior lecturer there. Great.

In the end my two pictures were:

Janws - Uno

and

The force that through the green fuse

Please click here to view the reference of Ceri Richards.

Please click here to view the reference to Dylan Thomas.

Hit the back button on your browser to come back here.

I will get some pics of them in time and put them up on this here blog.

I love them. Janws is in our studio and inspires me everytime I look at it. The force that through the green fuse is in the sitting room and is by the piano with the evening sun gently brushing it. They look fab. Looking at these pictures reminds me of friends and good times and of South Wales.

On my T shirt, worn on the last day of my work, it says 2 L8 M8

A very humerous touch from Cinzia, Nia and Walt and a present to me from them as a special goodbye gift. Damn I miss them. The T shirt gives reference to an incident during the dark days of the merge of Cywaith and Cbat. "Its too late mate!" became our mantra.

Competition number 3

2009-09-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

Hooray and hurry
Thought we'd never get round to having another competition. In a way competition number two was abandoned during the madness of the move and judging by the response way too easy.

This new one is hard. The artist pictured has been inspired by:

Please send me your answers in the usual way or simply log on to google and write some stuff on the comment option below.

This competition will run for September. Funny answers will be posted, winner announced 1st October. Prize to be announced.

Good luck and look forward to laughing at what you think.

Brookside cottages

2009-09-08T06:48:00.001-07:00

Ahh there they are. How that stuff in the van fitted in to this cottage is a miracle. The windows on the left are our studio, the ones on the right our sitting room. Upstairs are the two bedrooms. Its great. I have always wanted a kitchen table and there are double doors that lead straight out in to the garden. Perfect for the kids.

Our studio is great, we have a £10 table that is a fold out dinning table, which Emma and I share, she does drawings and I well I just waste time online...

I am recovering from full time work and rediscovering myself and am now getting ready to make some new art. How fantastic. Its super hot today too.

When you entire life is measurable

2009-09-07T08:34:00.001-07:00

Well measurable in the sense of 10 by 30 by 14 foot high. These little pictures illustrate the moment when you realise what is important in life. As the truck pulled away I realised that the only thing I'd save from it is the artwork.

Mind you, my guitar, photos, books and family were in several different locations.

Moving

2009-09-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

Things are a little hectic around here and the next few posts will be recollections and cut and pastes from a private journal I write to remember things by. The dates will be jumping from August to September, but I guess no one really minds. Its all because I have been off line for a fortnight.

Moving - 29th August

Things are going wrong. BT cancelled my request to transfer my phone/broadband account to our new address. They seem to acknowledge that there has been an error but wont tell me what happened until I’ve signed on for another 12 months. It seems completely wrong to me. Another thing that is not right is that there is absolutely no mobile phone signal. Is this a rural place? I’ve never lived in a rural setting before, fields, tractors, horses, lanes, fences, stables, stud farms, hedges and more horses. Is this it?

When ever I do come across hedges, lanes and horses I always think of Simon Whitehead.

It will always be with me that time working with Simon Whitehead during the Eisteddfod of 2002 at St David’s. Simon had made a recording of a journey he had taken with a horse, walking from the Maes right in to the city, ending up at a secret location, only to be revealed once arrived. Narration on the recording kept you informed that you were on the right track at the right time. I did this journey about 8 times and in the end I became a / the horse, stopping when it did, looking around, hearing background noises, smelling the same odours, and eating grass. My job was to walk with the participants (people from the Eisteddfod) and accompany them, eventually getting the cd players and headphones back once completed. Each journey I eagerly took part too. Along one of the journeys I realised that I hadn’t paid any attention to anything other than the moment and in that moment I came out of walking on four legs and thinking about finger nails.

Of course the other revealing moment was when the horse, about three weeks or so before the Eisteddfod, was taken along to a field to meet a male horse. I was there to photograph the artist with the horse and photograph parts of the journey. When the horse arrived at the field with the other horse, the owner gauged the reaction of both horses and decided that our horse was not quite ready for artificial insemination. How my eyes popped at the sight of the other horse....

Rivet puzzlement at Cardiff Bay

2009-08-14T02:33:00.000-07:00

Hmmm Ive always loved rivets ever since I first caught myself staring at them on the school bus and particularly in autumn when the driver drove up Mayles Road, Swansea under the beach and elm trees that turned the light yellow at autumn and the glazed reflection on the steel roundels absorbed this colour in to a dull sheen and somehow made me feel good.

So I was intrigued to stumble upon a Royal Navy ship called Severn floating in Cardiff Bay and noticed that the steel plates looked so thin you could see the ribs underneath, the welded joins and then the hole.

This hole was fascinating in terms of its shape and softness in all the hardness of the pocket battle type ship. It looked like a bullet hole in butter and the photograph looks like a painting with its planes and shapes.

Finally, this amused me, the stains and particularly how I felt and still feel at the time regarding work, my life and the universe.

My home is in boxes. For me its the right time to get on the ship, pull the anchor up and set sail for new horizons.

But what is that strange mark on the hull?

Yes no on off in out pos neg

2009-08-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

Lost a certain amount of time today trying to puzzle out the following sequence:

On Off
Off on
0 1
Yes No
Positive Negative
In out

This came about from open close, and greater than and less than symbols found on the train.

What I was trying to figure out was:

If open was 1 and closed was 0
and thinking that 0 is negative and 1 is positive; is open good or bad, O or 1?

And if the journey starts is good, but arriving is also good, how does this fit with on and off, good and bad equation? Does it matter?

Then the detail of the greater than less than symbols became interesting and how they equate with each other in the positive negative sequence.

Open is less than then greater than.
Close is greater than then less than.

Is less than 0 and greater than 1? If so then Open = 0 then 1
and close is 1 and 0. I realised that this then fits in with my earlier confusion of how open is both a negative and a positive.

The thought ended with a distraction involving

The fear of loathing in Lidgate

2009-07-31T04:11:00.000-07:00

Its all on now.

We, as a family, are moving to Suffolk so that my wife can read an MA Children's book illustration at Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge.

Its great news but means that I have had to give my job up at Safle, begin packing up our house, rent the house here, find somewhere to live and a house there, get a school for my eldest child and find a new job.

Its a very stressful time and a mammoth task. Its so expensive to live in Cambridge that we've had to look elsewhere.

I will try to find time to post stuff here but if there are huge gaps in articles please bear with me.

Luckily my wife is extremely motivated and organised and has found us a place in Lidgate, Suffolk. Click here to see the village website.

Next step is to start to throw stuff away. This is always a really good thing to do anyway, but in this instance its a massive necessity and a clean start. I'd love to be as brave as Michael Landy but I kind of like everything I own. Its a real problem I have with collecting stuff that may one day be useful. Gotta stop this and chuck that....

Rejection again

2009-07-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Boo humbug. Another rejection from Jerwood Drawing 2009. It seems they are unable to recognize a truely unique and experimental drawing when it is beneath their very nose?

I entered this.

Wonder what its going to take to get these works shown?

Third image released

2009-07-10T05:20:00.000-07:00

Hi
At last a third image - this is a continuation of the second competition.

Another image.

What could it be?
What are they?
Good luck
xXxXx

Second image released

2009-07-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

Hi
Very funny entries this time, for instance, its not a cup of cappuccino with hundred thousands sprinkled on it nor is it a

Anyway, to encourage more ideas of what this is here is another picture, a bit further out this time.

This competition refers to this.

Please keep them pouring in, send to drsymons @ hotmail.com

Much thanks
David

Web Garden winner announced!!!

2009-07-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

Web Garden lucky winner is Sarah Hill from Llandrindod Wells in mid Wales.

Her name was picked out of an enormous hat and although Im waiting to see if she will accept the prize couldnt wait any longer to write on this here blog.

My favorite answer amongst the other entries include:

Chocolate eggs
Bacon
Wheel barrow children
A TV from the seventies
Small soldiers made from plastic but melted in an oven
Icing cake plant
Pants and socks made from plaster

Thank you to everyone. Competition number two under way, a new image will be uploaded very soon.

Jerwood drawing competition 2009

2009-06-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are again, another go at trying to get a profile of some kind.
Decided to enter this.

Please let me know what you think and Ill let you know if it gets in.

Fingers crossed.

New Competition - Guess the object

2009-06-27T02:56:00.001-07:00

Hey here we go again. Another competition. This time I will show a massively enlarged photograph of an object and the game is to guess what it is. This competition will run for July and each week more of the object will be revealed.

I'm pretty sure you won't guess what it is but then you never know.

This competition is dedicated to the music legacy of Michael Jackson.

(that is not a clue).

Clues will be revealed as the competition gets heated.

Much thanks for your involvement and continued support.

Enjoy.

Its a very small photograph, click on it to enlarge the image but use your browser back button to return to the blog. Cheers.

Competition now closed

2009-06-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

Well done to all who entered and thank you very much, no more entries can be accepted after 5pm GMT.

The names will be scribbled on pieces of paper and put in a large box, I will then pick a winner. There will be no witnesses or external verifiers, you guys will just have to trust me.

This will all happen on July 1st 2009 and uploaded here at 8pm GMT.

I will contact the person and if they are unable to accept the winning prize as mentioned below, I will pick another person.

Thanks so much for your interest in this.

There will be another competition launched this month, so keep your fingers on the button here.

No more photos from the web garden

2009-06-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

Hi
I cant give you anymore photos, its now too obvious a growth to show, there are many of them. Strangely the plant that I thought was axed to oblivion is now larger than ever.

My latest test of my web garden skill are to tend to pieces of turf given to me by my friend and neighbor Jim. Ive placed one set of turf in a bridge that breaks up the front garden's border. The interesting left over chunks are placed in the worn bare sections of the back garden lawn.

Out came the axe again and after placing the turf pieces on the lawn drew a line around the shapes with the axe, removed the turf and spent ages hitting the hard baked soil to give a bit of chopped up ground.

Thanks to all those entries still pouring in, I may have to buy a new printer, its so worn with printing out all the names. I had a paper cut last night, gutted, still tearing up pieces of paper though.

One and Other

2009-05-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

How many times?

2009-05-18T12:56:00.001-07:00

Okay okay, I will destroy the hideous plant that is blocking the view of the ....? I didn't realise that some of you are getting confused by which plant was in the competition, and for those who have grown to like the weed, all I can say is, Sorry.

I will endeavour to do such a thing with an axe. Seems somehow fair.

A photo will appear when it has stopped raining and I can axe the thing to death, its either this or some giant bastard giant will start thinking that Im Jack.

Keep your answers coming though, my favourite so far is pineapple rind. I suspect that this is merely a joke for I have googled pineapple rind and was shocked to find out more about it.

Take it easy.

Web Garden gardening and growing

2009-05-16T05:51:00.000-07:00

Not that I have anything to do with the way things grow but they are doing well.

If plants respond to light by moving to face it, thus displaying an on off capability, how much is this response a sign of intelligence?

Imagine the ability to have a light responsive cell in a simple life form, with the most responsive and quick moving life forms reproducing in greater numbers until there is one little life form with a bunch of light responsive cells that can tell it where a shadow is coming from?

The competition is getting hotter

2009-05-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have entered I say thanks, but keep guessing.

I guess Im going to have to give clues and prizes.

This is good with salt.

It is not a new wheel barrow, or the children of birds that only answer phones in the morning.

The prize for the first correct entry pulled out of the hat (after the entries have been compiled on small pieces of paper and torn up in to strips) is:

A night by the fire with marsh mallows and melted chocolate.*

Come on, what you waiting for, only a few weeks left to enter.

Closing date is June 25th 2009**

* Transport to venue to be arranged by winner.
** Date may change according to volume of interest.

Web Garden

2009-05-05T12:54:00.001-07:00

Ahh the web garden, growing pixel like, slowly, 101, on off on, one plus one. How come a plant knows where the light is?

Watching the shadows move

2009-04-27T12:49:00.001-07:00

So it is, as the shadows drift round, making shapes and engulfing objects as it passes over them. I like it. Am full of ideas.

Vegatable patch

2009-04-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

Game on - guess that vegetable stem. Using your extensive knowledge of vegetable growing, your task is to guess the stem growth.

Enjoy, this post will be updated regularly with new growth shots.

Please post some questions, I'll give you a clue...and there will be a prize (to be announced nearer the deadline, which is to be made up too)...

Test

2009-04-23T14:10:00.001-07:00

So does email blog work?
If so this is most terribly dull text, apologies, am about to put a bunch of pics up about my vegetable patch.
I dunno?
D

Rediscover Hotmail®: Get e-mail storage that grows with you. Check it out.

Im shit Im not shit - the inner micro-cosmos of David Symons

2009-03-16T14:42:00.001-07:00

Sometimes the best of art is temporary. I used to experience this when drawing with chalk or a whiteboard marker, the freedom I felt was immense. Same with public art.

I made some art using this wall in Cardiff Bay. Check out the website here. This artwork was commissioned by Safle, the public art agency for Wales, their website is here.

Anyway, the best way to describe how I feel from moment to moment is summarized by these two images. My most favourite in the world is a Sans Facon project, which can be found here. This was an old Cywaith temporary project to help launch the new Waterfront Museum in Swansea.

Article for AN magazine

2009-03-13T07:40:00.000-07:00

Not many people read this publication, they just look at the pictures and study the opportunities. AN website can be found here.

This is an answer to a question that I have written for the next issue of AN.

Q. In your experience, what specific needs and support do mid-career/established artists have and how do you address these?

A. Only recently have educational establishments, arts organisations, galleries and agencies addressed the issue of support for students and graduates by running initiatives such as work placements, awards, competitions and opportunities but only for those who have graduated in the past 3 to 5 years. Do mid career artists represent a neglected area of support or is it true that mid career artists no longer need support because they have been working professionally for a long time or are represented by a gallery or agent?

As your work evolves, so should your commission experience and willingness to continually adapt and learn new skills. To be continually employed as a public realm artist you have to embrace changes in technology, taste and the range of opportunities out there.

The more experience you gain as an artist the larger the project you can potentially apply for. Artists will regularly collaborate with others on larger projects and can created teams to work with that address the fear of selection panels when it comes to the need to use widely different skills. From working with poets, landscape gardeners, engineers, architects and lighting experts to artists with differing background skills, for instance, ceramists and metal workers to web based practioners and scientists. The ability to work collaboratively is an essential skill to gain.

One of the most common challenges for more established artists is the need to move their practice geographically. This is particularly relevant for artists that work in the public realm. Once an artist has won a number of commissions in a particular town or county it will become harder for them to win future commissions. Artists who are the most consistent and successful are prepared to work all over the country and eventually aim to work on the international arena.

Organisations such as Wales Art International and Artes Mundi are prime examples of how organisations help mid career artists break in to the international arena. WAI can financially support, among other things, exhibitions or research travel in foreign lands. Artes Mundi has recently put out an invitation to Artists and Curators from around the world to nominate mid career artists and those about to break through in to the international stage for consideration for the £40,000 prize, still the biggest individual artist prize in the World.

Through the Stiwdio Safle programme we aim to support innovative international artist projects by contemporary welsh artists looking to push their work into new contexts. We are currently supporting artist a group of artists curated by Marc Rees on a performance project in Gijon, Spain.

A quick google search will reveal many organizations and galleries, including Safle, that support mid career artists through grants, exhibitions and residencies.

We also run the M&M Mentoring Scheme, which is designed to support recent graduates to shadow a more experienced artist during their project but it is can also help experienced artists develop new skills, build their career and move it into new arenas.

Randomness of thought

2009-03-02T02:19:00.000-08:00

Randomness.

My favourite artwork from the previous year is titled:

"Lost in the silence of my own thoughts".

It makes me smile because the goal of zen Buddha meditation is to achieve silence in ones own head. I achieve this state by simply trying to think of what to do next.

All I want is a steady flow of ideas, and bang, there is silence. It is bliss really.

But then this is the business in which the currency of ideas is king; people mine for ideas and sometimes they are lucky but do they see through their idea to the end? I suspect that people have piss poor ideas but somehow gather the nerve to show it to people...others have had one idea and have traded off that idea ever since; there must be thousands of people with great ideas that have never talked about them or gone past to the second stage of actually completing the idea...

Im wondering which category I fit, and whether it is possible to be in more than one category. (Not that these categories actually exist - its just another hurdle that I have made up that needs to be jumped).

Letters and applications

2009-02-11T13:12:00.000-08:00

I write on here instead of writing a letter to a gallery and an application for a grant from an arts council. Both are tricky for different reasons, and confidence swings like a pendulum in a truck.

In fact Ive just remembered that I'd promised my dog that its beach time...

This reminds me of revising for my o levels (yes Im that old) and discovering tennis. Never watched it since. O levels are those examinations that split the general public in to different types of learners and only catered for the one kind, thus making all the other learners feel worthless and fit only for shitty jobs.

GCSE's were designed to make all learners attain a set of qualifications but since the GCSE with a star was introduced, the same issues occur as before.

My Dad used to say that I was a great procrastinator...yep, guess he was right.

Avoid Dead Ends - David Symons on Twitter

2009-01-28T13:30:00.000-08:00

Yep, Ive done it and gone to a Twitter....look here.

Guess its more distraction. But if you really want to know what Im up to search for Avoiddeadends. It feels like a dead end at the moment.

My most beautiful wife just asked me who Im writing to and I replied that Im just writing a blog and telling myself that Ive a twitter account so that I know what Ive either just done or am about to do. Thing is, oh yeah, Im doing it, see there, thought Id forgotten what I was up to didnt you;

or is that that I forgot what I was doing..............

Transubstantiation

2009-01-22T12:58:00.000-08:00

The transubstantiation of an idea to a work of art is how I measure the passing of time, like stepping stones, each batch of work represents life.

To sell these items is a horrific thought but it must occur in order to obtain money.

Hmmmm. Selling these things is a distant dream.

Must try to change this.

New new year resolutions

2009-01-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, but everyone does lists, and top of my list is to switch off that rubbish TV in the corner of ou room. There is nothing on it that I want to watch.

Having been aware of how rubbish TV has been over the past 20 years, the last 5 years has seen a landslide decline in quality in every aspect of programme output.

The comedies, i.e. Have I got news, 8 out of 10 cats, mock the week, bollocks and even the recently revived one off shooting stars, all feature the same two dozen comedians, but are priceless. If it wasnt for these shows and imagine and culture show, anything that Charlie brooker does, (and my childrens obsession with Charlie and lola and night garden) I would have burnt that TV then smashed the ashes with a log.

So the compromise is to switch it off. How fantastic does it feel? on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being death and 10 being orgasmic then it easily hits an 8. Try it.

Kill your television

I am making art instead - infinitely more satisfying than a

Super excitement dj

2008-12-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

My old buddy Mark Davies is now a late night DJ in Aussie Stralia, listen to the late night slot on:

http://www.rtrfm.com.au/listen

or just click on this.

Mark dedicated songs to my wife for her birthday and to me for emailing...?
Great hearing his voice again, although we have spoken on the phone since his emigration a year ago. Funny that he is doing this, he loves music and can talk for Britain - a perfect combination for radio.

Good luck Mark, hope you get given more hours.

More rejections

2008-12-17T12:57:00.000-08:00

Why why why?
Oh well. Huge multinational companies cant cope with ideas beyond the box.
Cant work with them do it anyway....

cant tell you (me) what it is because I already know, and when I write this sort of thing wonder what on earth I am doing and and and

More rejections

2008-10-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

Seems that the Wales Photography 2008 open feels that my work is not worthy of their wall space. Feck 'em...

Links to Cliche Verre posts on the web.

2008-10-12T08:09:00.000-07:00

For ease of reference following an earlier diatribe.

From photo.dresden.de this is a brief but sussinct history of cliche verre.

From Peterfreemaninc.com this is a few historical examples of Clichés-Verre prints by Corot, Daubigny, Delacroix, Millet and Rousseau (1854 - 1862. Click here. (please review the 15 images nagivated by the little arrows on the bottom left of the image.

An artist called Jaromir Stephany makes cliche verre.

Silver print has this to say.

This is quite interesting from photograms.

Well you know, it is wikipedia.

There are 99,400 hits on google. If there are more interesting sites please do tell me.

Fame is but a fruit tree

2008-10-07T14:42:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about success and fame earlier and their intricate relationship with each other. One is not deemed successful unless one is famous, that is the marker of having made it.

But if you hate fame then how can you become successful?

Fame is your perception of what other people think of you.

In terms of making art success is measured in exhibition/books/magazine interview/writing/international exposure and ultimately wealth?

But really at the end of the day its the artwork that is the only true signifier.

I was thinking in terms of brightness of flames and length of burn for individual artists of the past:

A sparkler may indicate the success of a YBA.

Napalm burn may indicate the success of a renaissance artist like Titian.

I suppose I'm going to have to think of more analogies...

As far as below is concerned the prints are definitely cliche verre...

Photograms vs Cliche Verre

2008-09-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

I am trying to work out what to call this artwork that I like doing.
Is it photograms? Definitions include placing objects on light sensitive paper.

Is it Cliche Verre? Definitions include staining glass or film and allowing light to go through it on to light sensitive paper.

Wikiapedia says.

I still think its cliche verre...what do you think?

My Name is David Symons and I am an artist

2008-09-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

How many people in your life have you met who consistently pronounce your name incorrectly?

Teachers, work colleagues, aquaintences, new friends, bank workers, other office workers etc....

Symons is prounced in the following way:

The beginning, Sym is like you would say sym-metry, sym-biosis, sim=ple,

followed by mons which is as it is.

Am I right?

Cliche Verre photographic print

2008-09-09T13:29:00.000-07:00

What is Cliche Verre?

For the answer click here.

I really thought I'd invented a new and original/unique way of making images. It suited my personality down to a T. The name I gave it was asetad printing. Its a Welsh word for Acetate.

Then I did some research.

It still seems, after 10 years of doing this, that no one else in the world makes quality artwork using this method. If you make artwork this way please do email me.

I'd love to hear from you and collaborate.

david symons dot org

2008-09-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

I have bought davidsymons.org

The google account has enabled me to have an online calander, create email groups and now a new email.

home at davidsymons.org

Still thinking about things.
I guess its the season change, woke up last Friday and thought it was Christmas...

Re thinking art making strategy

2008-08-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

Am undergoing a rehaul in my thinking about my practise. Seems that things that have floated are falling in to a place in my mind, almost as if I am remembering past conversations of worked out consequences.

Bare with me as I float through this.

Energy, time and productivity...

Rejections

2008-07-24T06:44:00.000-07:00

I guess that Jerwood didn't want my artwork this year.
Got rejected. How irritating. How could they not select this?

They said that 3000 artists entered and 67 were chosen.

Hmmmm, two days to organise a pick up, wonder why they do things so last minute?

My emotions have been these:

Distress, hate, denial, empathy, frustration, renewed vigour, determinism.

Its all part of the game, Ive another new framed piece of work, another year goes by with out anyone knowing that I make artwork; kind of suites me.

Things that move

2008-07-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

The filming industry. I have been facinated with this medium for ever, and have no idea how they do it. I have worked on a film set once but it was such hard work and so badly paid I thought no way never again.

Well we all know about Bill Viola...

Anyway I have a new phone and it can make movies and its really easy to upload to a computer and even easier to put on youtube and if you would like to see it please go to here.

Are you 'aving a laugh???

Well, if you think this is bad, wait for the next one - going to be posted tomorrow...

Messages to me

2008-07-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

In the deepest darkest dreariest moments of the night when you can hear your own thoughts scraping along the empty barrel of your mango moustache is when often you realise how utterly futile it all is.

When your friends and colleagues, acquaintances and enemies all seem to forge ahead in all their respective careers, when especially after yet another rejection it all seems so unfair. Just because I don't network in a pub means that I'm not even known.

That's when it all seems so pointless.

Like this blog/website thing. What the flying fuck am I doing? Who am I writing to? Is it really all for me? This amazing technology, this innovative communication tool, this Internet bored band thing. But I guess that's it; at the end of the day all it is is a device to alleviate boredom. To stop thinking of existence and reality by making art to stop being bored by?

2008-06-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

This is a video I enjoyed watching.

Is it true?

Modern conspiracy theory, the manipulation of the masses. Total control over thought. The power to instantly eradicate. All my most favourite topics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuBo4E77ZXo

This video will be deleted, watch it now before it does disappear and history gets rewritten and if you display independant thought THEY will know about it and you will be destroyed.

Jerwood Drawing competition

2008-06-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

I have entered the second major competition this year.

The first, the National Eisteddfod, I was rejected. The time its the Jerwood Drawing prize. I hope I get the work in. If you need to see it click here.

Hope to get the work in. I use these dates as excuses for deadlines in order to make work and to get organised to copy work for distribution. Its a good risk all round.

Whole Hole

2008-04-30T03:38:00.000-07:00

Something has happened.

There is now a hole larger than anything I have ever known lurking, existing, floating, edging its way around somewhere inside my head. It's very difficult to describe and I try my best not to think about it but when I am distracted or not on my guard a little tentacle of thought acts like a slippery road and I glide straight in to this hole.

I hadn't realised the extent and size that this hole could reach. I knew it was coming, it comes to everyone at some point in our lives.

Something small, unrelated, unconnected will make me jump straight in to this hole and I try and get out as quick as I can. Sometimes I am able to just look at it and watch, uncomprehendingly at its magnificence. I find it very heavy.

It has put everything in to perspective, the reality and horror of life. The great, tender, fragile and beautiful memories of ones family life.

My Dad died, suddenly on 7th April.

Life will never be the same.

I miss him more than I'd ever thought I could.

Cliché Verre Statement

2008-04-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

Cliché Verre is a method of making prints using colour photography darkroom techniques. I make the Cliché Verre plates in the studio and use them in an enlarger as a large format negative. The marks on the print are made by drawing directly on the Cliché Verre plates.

Please look at some examples here.

New work 2008 - making titles

2008-03-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

Inventing titles for work is the final stage in the process of making art for a show. Its the stage that requires contemplation and reflection that allows an artist time to realise what the process was all about; well at least in my case. I am sure that some artists make the title first, or formulate one along the way, but for me its a full stop.

Making the title signifies that a piece of work is ready for public viewing, and that you have come to terms with the significance of it. I have made some new art, please look at it here.

I do enjoy the opinions of art historians and art critics who write so cleverly about art and about the intentions of artists, what waffle and poor judgement and wild guessing regarding the motivation and true meaning.

Artes Mundi preview

2008-03-15T04:17:00.000-07:00

Went to the preview of Artes Mundi on Thursday and its always great to see so many artists and art administrators in the same place at the same time. Must be superb to go to Venice and see the Welsh pavillion and the same faces.

The art work I have to see again, it seems over whelmingly video based with powerful imagery and meaning. This bbc site is great to see the artists work quickly, click me.

I am not sure why but ever since seeing Bill Viola at the National Gallery all other video artists pale in to a dull blur of tedious pointlessness. I know its wrong to compare the great with the rest but perhaps everyone should learn from Bill.

It is important for art n culture in Wales that Artes Mundi exists promoting our culture. The museum has had its upstairs redone to house major exhibitions and artes Mundi. It is of course a terrible disaster and piteful tragedy that Wales still has NOT got a contemporary gallery. ACW and WAG are seriously letting down the people and artists of Wales by this lack of forsight and resource.

What can we do?

Matters of organisation

2008-03-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

Like walking through treacle, shifting and sifting to thoughts of artwork, making art, making time to make art; finding the energy to do this.

Resigned to writing about it instead.

I always think that having a deadline is a great motivation, and I have three deadlines coming up within the next three months.

I know that I have to to something very quickly, it's just getting started is so difficult. Hence the need to be organised. I guess inspiration is gold too - then it's easy.

Without inspiration though...but the thing is you can't get inspiration without starting making - interesting catch 22 scenario.

Speed equals opinion.

2008-02-27T12:58:00.000-08:00

When walking around a gallery, viewing the work, thinking and enjoying, I find that there is a direct relation with the speed of the journey with the quality of the work.

If the work is terrible then the faster you walk.

I'd like people to run around the space in which my work is hung, preferably shouting and barking. It would be hilarious. If I was there I would be disturbed, of course, but what a conversation you would have if you could calm the person down.

Ever found a photograph?

2008-02-22T13:40:00.000-08:00

I have.
One day soon I will find them all, currently scattered between here, Barry and Swansea.
I love them.

But I also love these...

http://schmid.wordpress.com/about/

also (same artist)

http://photographicindex.wordpress.com/2007/04/23/found-photography/