....WORKINGMANS DEAD........

......but at least some of the remains have been recovered............

( Heavily ) influenced by the ' Doctors , Dissection and Resurrection Men ' exhibition that I had seen at the Museum of London , one of the final pieces produced  for my MA show was another in the Archive series , this time proposing that No 2 , Canal Street - the House of the Art Lover - had previously been an inner city hospital , complete with a mortuary room in the basement . This later idea arose from our introduction to Jordangate House in Macclesfield , the location of our installation for the Barnaby Festival , which had indeed seen time as a hospital for the mentally unwell and still had the laying out / mortuary slab in the basement......

..........this time the Cabinet of Curiosities came complete with samples taken from the recovered metal coffins , together with some rather fine death masks produced by my friend Dr Jan Lewis-Eccleston.........  the concept is still based around the idea of ' architectural notation as narrative form ' with the 1/50 plan in watercolour forming the visual centrepiece to the story..........

This piece might well be appearing in the Macclesfield Open art competition later this year

Every picture tells a story................

.........LOST ...IN FRANCE.....

......He's old , he's grumpy , his right knee is knackered , his career is going down the pan - and they live in Moseley  ...........probably even drink in the Fighting Cocks........

.......They are having breakfast in Paris , not talking .................he's reading the Guardian , he's wearing a nice red scarf , she's looking out of the window..............What's not to like ?

Any resemblance is entirely coincidental .

" No harm done , just a-havin some fun at Le Weekend " ..Eddie Cochran

...............I love Paris.........

IF YOUR MEMORY SERVES YOU WELL............

" It is curious to note to what extent memory is unfaithful , even for the most important periods of one's life . it is this , indeed , that explains the delightful fantasy of history " . Marcel Duchamp

Memories , false or otherwise , seem to have been a constant theme of my MA experience , from initial readings through to the final works that I produced .  This one is based loosely on the idea of the Cabinet of Curiosities and takes as its' subject one of Manchester's ' Hidden Gems ' , the Cabaret Theatre that once graced Canal street....................

...........and once you open the doors................

Welcome to the Cabaret.......................

GETTING TO THE END OF THE LINE .......

Well the MA show at MMU is up and running , through until Sunday 13th October , and then that's it , at least for a while as I take a year out prior to signing up for an MFA.........whatever that is........

I miss the college and the discipline of producing work that is assessed / subject to constructive criticism , but it's quite nice to be able to doodle around now for a bit , and I am looking forward to The House of the Magus , together with The Fortune Teller's Shop............ both located in Manchester's Northern Quarter on Turner Street.

And in the meantime , some pics of the MA show.............the last two are of my latest pieces which should figure on here shortly......

COME TO THE CABARET

....Life is a cabaret , old chum , come to the cabaret.................

An appropriate title , I thought , as one of the featured works is ' The Cabaret Rooms '. Yes , it's showtime and having finished my MA course the End of Year Show opens up at Manchester School of art @MMU on Friday 27th September and runs through until Sunday 13th October.....

There is a lot of good work on view , so it's worth a trip if you are in Manchester...........

 

 

 

.............and now the end is near , and as I face the final curtain......with at least some decent work produced ................I ought to say a heartfelt thanks to at least a couple of companies without whom etc etc .- all of you at LCT in Chester who did a wonderful job with the framing - love you lots , girls - and the workshop boys at Bridgewater Contracts plus Geoff - a never-ending source of 6mm MDF. Won't be bothering either of them again for a while now.

 

.......just waiting for the show to start , then......................

...AND THE CARAVAN IS ON IT's WAY..

...and the caravan is on it's way............

Trawling through goggle images whilst researching for an up-coming piece of artwork -  ' The Fortune Teller at the Hose of the Art Lover ' - I came across these wonderful design drawings in standard architectural notation  ( front elevation , side elevation ) for the caravan that forms the centre piece of Terry Gilliam's ' The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus '...........this is a career ? People get paid for designing these sort of things ? Where do I apply ............?

 

 

 

 

 

 

........and the film was wonderful as well............

 

The Caravan is on its way................

Turn it up , turn it up...................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN ...............

It's been quite a while since I last posted on here ; put it down to working hard on the last part of my MA course , or sheer laziness.............

whatever.

Anyway , to return . Having relocated the entire family up to Manchester in 1980  and starting a new career / partnership in the area , one of the first projects I remember working on was Paddy's Goose , a city centre pub on Bloom Street at the back of Chorlton street bus station. seems a lifetime ago ..............

More recently I have been working pretty much next door at Richmond House on Bloom Street ,  both on the design of the Richmond Street Tea Rooms and - more figuratively - on The House Of The Book Lover , a source for a number of works on my MA course , so I pass Paddy's Goose quite regularly.....

And here it is again...........

...... this time the subject of a painting by Anne Aspinall , someone I know quite well as one of the artists running the Longden Gallery in Macclesfield.. It had never occurred to me that it might be a nice exterior to paint , but here it is in all its' glory............

Check out Anne's work and the rest of the artists at the Longden Gallery at www.longdengallery.co.uk.........
and I should be back on here shortly with my final MA work and news of an exhibition........