Work in progress

My original bricks were fairly small (child-sized); brightly matt coloured on one surface; with the photographic images applied randomly.  At tutorials it was suggested that the bricks should be bigger; should be painted all over (the grain on the bricks interferred with the images overlaid on them) in more 'sophisticated' colours and that the images should be applied to completely cover one side of the brick. 

I am currently working on these issues:

I quite like the colours I have chosen - each brick takes two coats of (commercial) paint and I think I will need them to dry thoroughly.  I will then sand and reapply two coats of paint.  I have a variety of wooden bricks, the larger of which can be held in the hand of an adult.  At the moment I have printed the images onto clear plastic and then applied to the bricks but I am also thinking that I could apply the images through permanent marker or through screen printing.

Photographs

Some of my favourite shots from the past couple of years:

The medieval dye vats in Fez Morocco

Flinders Range in South Australia

Roman Library at Ephesus

Cappadocia - Turkey 

Level 6 Module at BCU - addendum to previous post!

Here's the Welsh one:

The previous comment related to Dyer's "possibilities of simulaneity and random juxtaposition".

Level 6 Module at BCU

I've been attempting to manipulate and edit some of my photographs today - original ones from the Clemens Street trio of visits; some taken in Digbeth and some in Wales.  Here's a sample:

 

Actually I'm not doing too much to these - just cropping - as I think it is better to frame the pictures properly. 

I quite like these images - the colours are so beautiful when you get closer to them.  I really feel that they fulfill the 'juxtaposition' ideal.

Have finished Hackney, that Rose-Red Empire and am drawn to further investigation particularly round my own family history in Bethnal Green .... but am very much aware that I don't really have the time to deviate from my own Negotiated Project at this point.  Anyway I can't resist posting this photograph from my family archive:

Started to read Peter Ackroyd's London then put it on one side for the same reason.

Anyway, back to the bricks:

Music

Last night I went with some friends to see the great, the fantastic Courtney Pine at Birmingham Town Hall.  Take a look at his website http://www.courtneypine.co.uk/ where you get a taste of his new album Europa.  Wonderful line up of musicians - and I do like the way that he is so generous to them giving them their opportunity to play and thrill the audience. 

I came across Me'sha Bryan http://www.meshabryan.com/ when I worked at Wolverhampton Grammar School in the late 1990s and she was one of the very talented students.  I was delighted to see (in the school mag) that she had fulfilled her school dream of becoming a professional singer/songwriter.  She's been on tour with Bryan Ferry and is currently recording a CD - I can't wait for it to come out.

Photography

I've been spending some time today to learn a bit more about Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 both on screen and from a VERY thick book that I bought last week.  This is so that I can take some of the elements of the photographs I've already taken and hone in on the detail. 

Here is one of the pastels that I did at RBSA Gallery last week ....

I think that my technique needs alot of work ... but it's virtually the first one I've done.

Where does the time go?

I guess I shouldn't go walking in Wales (fantastic weather!) to the Len Lye exhibition at the IKON gallery http://www.ikon-gallery.co.uk/, to see friends in Hartlepool, on a couple of excellent courses at RBSA Gallery http://www.rbsa.org.uk/ - the first was Dynamic Drawing with Annette Pugh and the second was on Drawing with Pastels and I liked the work from the tutor so much that I brought a work which I am currently drooling over at home.  (RBSA Gallery are running a Summer School which look good starting 11 July with disciplines from textiles, to portraits and life drawing to watercolour and woodcuts and artists' books.  I've got the schedule out alongside my diary to fit in the ones I can do during the 'holidays'). 

I did a great photography day at the Photofilia studio in Brum with David Rann  and was pleased with the images I got but of course the model was professional and very easy to work with ....

We had some excellent Visiting Practitioner talks at BCU during the month - Shane Waltner http://www.shanewaltener.com/ who works across numerous disciplines, Dinu Li http://www.dinuli.com/ who works in video, photography and film and Robert Orchardson who is currently showing at the IKON. 

This last weekend I was on a Digital Photography/Photoshop course again in Wales with Mark Sisson http://www.marksissonphoto.co.uk/ where I learnt alot - have just brought a new Sony A390 camera from Focus on Imaging at NEC this week so no excuses for getting much better photos!