October/November '21 moving forward, backward, sideward

Scrolling back through the images on my camera recently I realised that I have been productive over the last two months - although it didn’t seem like I’d been up to much at the time.

The first Saturation Point forage is happening in late January '22 and I‘ve been out and about investigating foraging sites - my research also led to the realization that there are actually very few remaining wild spaces in this part of North Lancashire and many hours were spent virtually hovering over my house and surrounding countryside via google satellite maps - scanning the landscape for random pockets of woodland or brownfield sites.

Accessing rights of way footpaths east of Carnforth I stumbled upon woods by Lundsfield Quarry, an old sand and gravel quarry now the site of af mysterious tarn surrounded by mixed coniferous and broad leaf woodland. It was an exciting discovery, abundant with fungi, mosses, lichen and bracken although it’s already a popular place for local dog walkers and joggers - it gradually felt less like an authentic wild space and more like a municipal park...

The hunt for truly wild spaces continues.

In the studio

Disturbing Content

gypsum plaster/snail shells on canvas.

Experimentation exploring materiality, patterns, order - chaos, texture, time, surfaces, layers- material and temporal. Lumps, bumps, trypophilia/phobia..

Exploring material manifestations of an encounter.

wip

I harvested some unwanted pendulous sedge from the garden over the summer and it's been drying in the studio while I research how to weave a skep. This little project has started although depending on how much time I have, I may decide its finished before it becomes skep size! I've really enjoyed learning how to use grasses for weaving and

seeing it slowly take shape as the coil increases in size.