What is the strangest thing you ever found on a beach?

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  BLOCK ISLAND, RHODE ISLAND, USA The 4 miles of beach past Southwest Point on Block Island in the summer is hot, littered with trees, boulders, the detritus of the shipping industry it is also empty of day-trippers and family beach parties. The wild ocean facing side of the island here evidence and artifacts lie everywhere but the people are far away, the arc of existence described by a million pointless objects. Decisions that were made elsewhere and long ago. GYRE, The piece I created for Reuse, Reinvent Reimagine started with the beachcombing ; the process of acquiring junk, trash,…

My creative space: finding a room of one’s own

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For years I have had a recurring dream. I am alone in an old house (or is it a flat?).  With a dark central hallway and a number of closed doors  it feels haunted,  intimidating but also exciting and full of potential.  I think I have been here before.  Should I be here? I start to open doors into dark empty rooms. Bedroom? Living Room? I feel an odd sense of propriety – I would like to  live here – but also that somehow I am trespassing.  I walk into the kitchen which is large and old fashioned and hasnt been…

You can never go back: the impossibility of memory

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In the late 1980’s at a time when more than 2000 people a year were murdered in New York City, Southside Williamsburg, in Brooklyn was an extremely hot and heavy neighbourhood and was also where I lived from 1986 – 1990. In April 2012 I went back there with my camera to capture the past, but where was it….? The video shows me in the studio working on drawings for the upcoming blood/MarcyAV exhibition and talking about the inspiration for the show. blood/MarcyAV is  me visual artist Michele Marcoux, sound artist Lynne Thermann and poet Sheila Black and explores the nostalgia…

In my studio – prevaricating

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Spending what feels like half my life in the studio these days – probably should be more than that given the show is only 6 weeks away….This weekend went to the Ambulance Depot to work out what kind of lighting I should use when there is 2D work and moving image in the same show. I was really lucky to be able to borrow lighting kit from Screen Academy and to have Drew on hand to run up and down a ladder but I am afraid I am no clearer….I need ‘lots of lights’ and then ‘no lights’ ? Really?…

Is Painting Nostalgic?

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  Memory is where I start. A core dislocation, the sadness, a lie that I tell myself.  To start. There is longing but also relief. There is no going back. There are limits but there is potential. I was meant to be here…….. When it’s going in the right direction nostalgia disappears. You don’t look back and risk that your experience of the potential of desire, of joy, of beauty will disappear, vanish before you have sense enough to recognize it. Leaving not much in its place but longing and regret. NOSTALGIA. The point is to keep going, make the…