..TUNNEL OF LOVE...

..I can feel the soft silk of your blouse
 and them soft thrills in our little fun house
 then the lights go out........

The Tunnel of Love - another piece in the on-going story of four buildings in my MA course. There are a lot of things going on here , but then this piece exists in two states - the ' Study/ Work in Progress ' piece , illustrated here , and the final completed work , still in construction .

 


The ' Work in Progress ' piece deals with and illustrates  the ideas , the possible futures for this piece ; the work is still ' open ' at this stage  . The  ' completed work ' will deal with just one of those possibilities , taken to a formal conclusion .

The starting point here is of course the idea that the ' Tunnel of Love ' , the fairground ride , is indeed an actual tunnel , running between the basement of the Art Lover's house and the House of the Dominatrix .

Our Hero is intrigued by the possibility that he can pass from the Art Lover's house to next door unnoticed , the idea being that the tunnel becomes a changing room , a 'Rite of Passage ' . Our Hero is of course in love with his alter ego and emerges from the tunnel in his female persona - the ' Reveal ' . The piece of work contains many points at which decisions must be made ; for our Hero , decisions on the colour of lipstick , the colour of nail-varnish. For me , decisions on what to include in the ' final ' piece , what to leave in , what to take out. References are many - fair-ground rides , pop-art ,  magic , transformation , penny-in-the-slot machines , the Hoerengracht ............

 

HHmmmm ..........decisions , decisions........

..I WAS SO MUCH OLDER THEN.............

........Ah , but I was so much older then........
         I'm younger than that now

One from the archives this week ; I was clearing out one of the drawers in the plan-chest , sorting out some interior sketches to take in to Stockport College for the Interior design students , and came across some photos of old projects. Once in a while - if you are lucky - you absolutely nail a job . For some reason everything comes together - the site , the location , the brief , the client , the time - and , putting no small part of yourself into the job , when it arrives , when it's finished , you know that it could not have been any better . If you are lucky you maybe get five or six or these in a professional career ; I can probably still count on the fingers of two hands the projects I am really , really proud of...........so that's eight fingers , then.

 

 

This one dates from 1974; yes, that long ago . I was still wet behind the ears , only four years out of college , and was asked to design a traditional London wine bar - in Manchester . God knows how it came together - it was all assembled on site , by eye , from reclaimed screens and panelling that at that time were being stripped out of traditional pubs all across the city . A wine bar - no beers , draught or bottled , just bottles of wine , and forty years ago Mateus Rose and Hirondelle were all that anyone drank - well , ok , maybe the occasional Blue Nun - so to design a proper wine bar selling Bordeaux , Burgundies , all chateaux bottled was another world to me 

 

Still remembered today with great affection , it had a wonderful atmosphere , suddenly appearing yet feeling as if it had been there for decades. If it was still there today it would make a fortune - only be duplicated , sold on , rolled out , the energy gradually

dissipating as it becomes just another high street brand. One-offs should be remembered for being just that.

Goblets , Bridge street, Manchester , 1974

 

     

..NEEDLES AND PINS......

Following on from last week's posting re the Art Fair in Macclesfield , I should note that I actually ended up buying three pieces , not two . Our time on the saturday was cut short as we had a train to catch , and I didn't have time to purchase the third piece when it caught my eye on the friday .

Fortunately through the catalogue I managed to track down both the piece and the seller , Louise at
www.drawntostitch.com  and the piece duly arrived , safely packaged , at the weekend . Its a small work in mixed media - ' Cottage on the Moors ' , really nice and moody , delicate stiching over brown paper . Check out her website and her page on Facebook for more examples of her work .

 

 

Many thanks , Louise

     

..ART FOR ART'S SAKE..

Art for art's sake, Money for God's sake....

The bi-annual Art Fair in Macclesfield , in aid of East Cheshire Hospice , has just finished and as usual the standard was very high - obviously a lot of talented artists reside in our local area.

As usual I was tempted , my justification to my long suffering wife being A )  ' well its all for a most excellent cause ' and , slightly pathetically , B ) ' well at least they are better than mine '.......... She made no comment.

I ended up buying two paintings ; the first a work by Jenny Hirst who lives in Alderley Edge . Apparently she ran an interior design business for some six years or so but wisely gave it up to concentrate on her painting ; wouldn't we all love to..........

Oil and mixed media , this one is ' St Tropez ' . We had bought one of hers at the previous fair in 2010 , and I really like her style . I sometimes ( most times ) wish I could just sit down and paint , rather than spend days thinking about and designing my illustrations....

 

 

The second piece was by another local artist , Renata Davies . This isn't it as I don't have a pic of it yet , but this is typical of her style - quite small watercolours sometimes collaged together on bits of paper and card with an intensity of feeling for local landscape. 

 

Both quite traditional pieces in a way , both technically accomplished and something to look at and aspire to as I sit at the drawing board getting increasingly frustrated and wondering just what on earth I am supposed to be doing.......... 

 

AND it's all in a good cause .....................