Possibilities...

Well, I can already see riches. You know, this road atlas idea has legs. The Dumfries page is rich territory. Already I have Britain's highest village, Wanlockhead. There's also the small fact of Robert Burns' hometown. The birthplace of John Paul Jones, sailor, founder of the U.S. Navy and American Revolutionary War hero. I think the one that might work best for me though is Gretna Green, home of runaway marriages. Perfect.  Here are a couple of initial scribbles. I'm going to work through half a dozen more pages/places like this, before I make decisions and finalise anything. I want to see if any themes open up to me as I think around my ideas, see if I can find a thread. A work in progress. WIP. tbc.

... But Is It Art?

Love Birds.

             Him: "She is always in my heart."          Her: "I love him this much."

First Up - Dumfries

The first page randomly picked from the road atlas is Dumfries, now i just need to go exploring! It looks fairly promising, should be some good history... definitely a character or two. If you know of anything feel free to chime in.

Road Atlas - A Project?

Yeah, like i need any more projects to work on!!

I picked this up in a charity shop today, nothing super spectacular, but i liked it's compact size and strong colours (for road maps), great greens and reds! It's a decent age too and the paper is good... and nice rounded corners. Anyway, it must have been about 50p (i just bought a bunch of little bits for £2). As i walked down the street I had a thought for a little slow running project. I'm going to pick random pages and then head to google for any interesting characters, stories, places related to each page. I'll then do a drawing and paste it onto it's page as a background/frame. 89 pages, i wonder if i can do them all? keep it as a full book. Otherwise i'll cut the pages out and frame them up. People/Places Characters/Stories... what can go wrong?

I found this hotel info in this page, so that's already an obvious staring point... what's it's history? Any interesting stories? was it haunted? is it still there? I could even be a simplistic as playing with a dolphin and anchor just as a pure image based starting point... a dolphin based guy with a hefty anchor tattoo, ruminating on his favourite Isle Of Wight drinking den? (one i have visited, to keep it more personal) See, these things just grow... you "gotta go in, to find out"!

Thought I'd just drop this character on to get a better feel for how it could be. He's an early sketch for a different project titled HOME, working through what the idea of "home" means to a variety of characters. So far i have a fox, pig, wet dog, mouse, gangsta rapper, lonely old man, maggot, sword swallower and even a mezcal worm!... why not?

Momentum...

I'm moving forward again. I followed a path. I was looking into controllers for my kiln, so I can convert it to a digital set up, when i saw one on ebay and the seller was right here in Hastings. Then i decided to look at electric wheels for the first time in ages and i saw one being sold by the same guy. I could just pop down the road to pick it up, so I bought it! (i didn't buy the controller, i need to swot up a bit more on that for now). It's a Roderveld max.30 and is in good condition... the Shimpo will have to wait ; )  I don't know why the seller didn't just spend 20 mins cleaning it down a bit better for the photo though, it was pretty mint underneath and you never know people might even pay more!

It seemed a bit extravagant and optimistic to be buying a wheel considering the lack of pot action going on here, but I'm hoping it will move me forward... quicker! It's hard enough trying to teach yourself how to throw a pot without having to remember to keep it spinning! My kick wheels don't have a lot of weight for good momentum anyhow. I'm sure a good leach wheel is a different thing. Anyway it's a step towards getting it all going again and overcoming the problems that kinda froze me in my tracks. Well, those and the fact I've been flat out busy for the last year. I still love to make pots... so maybe I should! That f'ing kiln is the real key though. If I can get them coming out as functioning pots then I know I'll hit the accelerator hard, as all the possibilities start to become realities. I've been my own worst enemy... i AM my own worst enemy!... I'm pretty uncomfortable asking anyone for help, advice or favours. I just can't impose myself on others time. I just create magnificent barriers for myself instead! Then waste far to much time struggling to get over them... alone! I don't give up, but I sure make life hard for myself. Do you massively annoy yourself too, or is it just me?! Fucking hell i annoy myself : )
This wheel makes me happy though.

Signal Box Studios...Homes?

I've always passed railway signal boxes while travelling on trains and thought what great studios they would make. They often have that nice solid brick construction on ground level and then the wood and all those windows on the upper section. I'd have all the heavy, messy, clay stuff downstairs and a bright open area for computers, paint, paper and whatever else upstairs. They also seem like a great template for a small home, especially these days with the growing interest in the tiny home movement, reducing bills, debts and the crap we consume. I'd happily have a bedroom and bathroom downstairs and a bright open kitchen, lounge area upstairs (not that i know if that would be a practical set-up, i know the kitchen/bathroom is mostly back to back... but hey, i'm just playing creative games... not building my family home!) Anyway just a thought. They're great little buildings, thought i'd share a few.

These last two i would definitely put in the 'great studio space' category, yep even this all brick monster below. I'd love it, you wouldn't see me for weeks! ps I know that some folk already have these as workshop/studios and homes. It's not an original thought : )

In My Head

Addictive little ditty from Mark Kozelek/ Sun Kil Moon. Saw him late last year and he was one grumpy, grouchy f**ker.. made me laugh though. He has a LOT of stipulations at his gigs! Great music though. This new album Benji is getting all my ear time at the moment, i'm an addict. It's all good, but Truck Driver, Pray For Newtown and Richard Ramirez Died Today Of Natural Causes, are my clear favourites. Not that you care!
This one will run all summer, i can just tell..... "sports bar shit....."