The power of threes

Threes turn up everywhere - in folklore (maiden, mother, crone), time (past, present, future), mythology (the fates and many other 'trinities') and of course in art as triptychs. I started thinking about hydrology and the water cycle, and how mechanical this is in many ways, and this led me on to ideas about air, land and sea. However, I didn't want to separate these formally as a triptych, but fortunately I had three small canvases that needed to be re-used and they turned into Hydrology (Air, Land and Sea).

First step, a metallic respray and bolting the canvases together.

Step 2: start adding the mixed media/collage elements. Yes, it is a seahorse!

The most 'mechanical-industrial' of the panels - Air

Not well lit, but here's the final piece, the way I envisage it being hung.

Close-up of the Air panel.

If music be the food of art materials

...get on and play! I was recently presented with the innards of a very dead piano by a friend who specialises in festival installations, interactive noise-making sculptures and other joys over at the Gypsyjam Collective.

Piano innards awaiting my tender ministrations

Lots of pianos meet a splintery end as they're hard to shift, no-one wants them etc, but at least this one would get used for something. I had no idea what, but, well, all those lovely little levers and springs... so I started dismantling and organising.

Piano bits all neat and tidy.

At this stage, I knew more about how a piano worked, but still didn't know how the components would be used except that there would be (a) articulation, and (b) non-piano additions. I began to tinker. And then some more, until...

Here it is Pianomechanical #1

...yes, wall-hangings - it's more-or-less flat, so hangs easily, and I shall be making a series of them, all numbered 'Pianomechanicals', and all different. They're for sale, so if you are interested, do get in touch. Right, back to the workshop...

To bin or to pimp, that is the question

We all accumulate unwanted stuff - clothes we don't wear, broken bits and pieces that look like they might be useful some time, jewellery gathering dust and so on. And why not - it's how a lot of artists collect art materials! So, what's to be done with them - bin or pimp? Well, I dug a plain black Next jacket out of the wardrobe the other day  - nothing special about it - I'd picked it up for a whole £1 years ago and barely worn it, only to find a line of moth holes down the back... grrr... However, I had recently picked up a couple of bags of pick 'n' mix buttons from the Art House (yes I mention the place often cos it rocks) and was wondering what to do with them. I also have a sack of fabric offcuts and some old braid and edging including from muchly ancient French ecclesiastical garments.

Bag of crafty joy - £4 - more than in a charity shop maybe, but I get to choose the ones I want...

So, out with the scissors, needles and threads... First remove most of the boring black office-wear buttons. Then cover pocket flaps with silk and add edgings. Then sew on splendid newly acquired buttons. Spinggg - 'tis revamped!

Newly pimped jacket - a bit punk, a bit military?

Some detail of the pocket, cuffs and buttons.

Ritz of bits

As you may know, my jewellery and hair-wear is made from reused and recycled materials, but I try to follow this ethic as far as possible in my other artwork as well. So, when I found I has an old printer's drawer and all manner of other bits and pieces accumulated in my materials store, an idea started to form, and that idea was 'Hotel'...

'Hotel'

So, why hotel? Well, the most obvious reason is that it is made of rooms - as simple as that - but, it has a little more depth as it is, in part, highly personal, so although some of these rooms are primarily decorative,  many are actually 'memory rooms' containing little segments of autobiography. A boot from a childhood Action Man, a small volumetric flask from my PhD, the sketch that became a piece of silverwork, a Rainbow warrior badge, items from my travels, an empty pack of Citalopram. Of course, it's designed to be looked at closely, peered at, scrutinised and zoomed in on - so, let's go on a little tour...

The central third of Hotel - there's that flask (second room up, bottom right) and of course a magic fish held down by a spider (top left)

Zooming in a bit more, the moulted skin of a stick-insect (I am also an entomologist), chainsaw links and postage stamps under a celestial arch.

If you been here for example, you'll know about my liking for 'cyber' imagery using bits of electronic gubbins...

I like pubs, well good ones anyway - here's a tiiiiiny one complete with posters.

The only room I've ever wallpapered...

Words, I love them so... to the extent of wearing out a Scrabble set.

Luv 'im or hate 'im, a little homage to Damien Hirst

That's all for now - I hope you enjoyed the tour, and if current plans come to fruition, you may get the chance to see Hotel hung in a gallery at some point...