Because it’s not all about me, but rather about building communities.
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Photograph by the author
: “I am once again pondering if/how to make some short video pieces for my Acid Renaissance series. I did do a very short, static camera Children of Winter clip back at the start of the series in 2019,…”
Read the rest of “Contemplating Acid Renaissance short video pieces”…
A view from my studio window over Hastings’ West Hill. Photograph by the author.
: “This is my inaugural monthly link dump, the first of a hopefully regular monthly series containing a mix of links to interesting blog posts I’ve read from the past month covering arts & culture, myth,…”
Read the rest of “The Inaugural Monthly Link Dump: October 2024”…
The Hastings Borough Bonfire Society’s Torchlit Procession, October 2024 (showing members of the South Heighton Bonfire Society). Photograph by the author.
: “One thing I’m starting to learn about Hastings is that the people here know how to make their own community entertainment. That’s probably because it’s considered too small for any major touring…”
Read the rest of “Collective joy & collective ownership of ritual”…
A detail from another shot in the Lamia photoshoot
: “Two weekends ago my studio in my flat here in Hastings got its first proper use: a session of life-drawing (drawings below) followed by the Lamia photoshoot (prints of which are available here). Although…”
Read the rest of “Lamia: my first new artwork made in Hastings”…
: “A lot of link dumps on blogs are about techie stuff. This one isn’t. While I do follow some techie blogs, the vast majority of the blogs I follow are about arts & culture, myth & folklore, landscape…”
HAG installation, by artist Beccy McCray
: “The Green Man was a term invented by Julia Somerset (Lady Raglan) in 1939 for the various foliate head designs found in European churches between the 11th and the…”
Sainsbury's Corn Flakes packaging from 1976 - © The Sainsbury Archive, 2024: https://www.sainsburyarchive.org.uk/catalogue/search/sapkcpro11321123-sainsburys-corn-flakes-500g-1-1lb-packaging/search/eweo-term:breakfast-cereals/action/ajax/c/1
: “It started off, as these things tend to do, as a light-hearted thread on BlueSky initiated by writer Ray Newman about Sainsbury’s slightly otherworldly Corn Flakes packaging design from the 1970s, which…”
Read the rest of “Corn Flakes, Stuck Culture, & the wrong type of undead”…
Michelangelo, David, marble, 1501–04 (Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence)
: “This post is a follow-up to my post from last year September life-drawing: not safe for whose work? and I draw upon a lot of the concepts I laid out there. It’s a little longer and rantier than I planned,…”
Two minute concept sketch in pastels on black paper by the author
: “Lamia is a character from Greek mythology who — like many other deities and monsters of Greek mythology — seems to have been reimagined several times during the classical period. The earliest version…”
: “The following piece written by me was originally printed in volume 3 of Lost Futures zine, published in August 2021 by the now defunct Exit Press. With Lost Futures now out-of-print, it is re-published…”
Read the rest of “Lost Futures: Dare to Dream of the Spring”…
My new studio, slowly getting there
: “I’ve been living in Hastings for just over three weeks now: slowly finding my feet. My new flat is very spacious compared to my old one in Brighton & Hove, and I’m still feeling like I’m rattling…”
: “It’s goodbye to living in my Hove garret amongst the rooftops, chimneys, and crows because last week I signed the tenancy agreement for a new flat in Hastings, and I’m moving in there this weekend. My…”
The political colours of south-east England.
: “Late last week in my current Hove & Portslade constituency the Labour MP (and now cabinet minister) Peter Kyle was elected with a reduced majority, and the Tories were pushed into third place behind the…”
Read the rest of “Some thoughts on the UK General Election 2024”…
: “This is a bit of a technical blog post, but I’ve tried to provide explanations of technical jargon where possible. It starts off with some summaries of what people have discovered over the past few…”
Read the rest of “The overlap between search bots & AI scrapers”…
Some sample pages of Myth and Masks
: “As I prepare to move to a new rented property next month I keep looking at all my belongings and want to lighten the load. I’ve got a number of copies of Myth and Masks, my hardback book of artwork…”
The Houses of Parliament, photograph by the author
: “When you’re planning to move home there’s suddenly a day when the place that you’ve called home stops being home in some intangible way, and it instead becomes a departure lounge, and then you feel…”
Ubiquitous Office ’97 clip art, as found on bad presentations and photocopied fliers everywhere
: “[Forenote: the title of this post references a volume of Spike Milligan’s memoirs, and its claim should be taken with the same degree of seriousness] Back in September 2022 I posted some initial thoughts…”
: “Three weeks ago I met up with visual arts writer Mark Sheerin to talk about my artwork. I’m delighted to say that the resulting interview has now been published on his site: I don’t believe in…”
: “A world-famous painting, worth millions of pounds, has been savagely attacked by activists earlier today. The activists have been arrested by police, who arrived swiftly on the scene to assess the damage…”
My living area/home office/studio - photograph by the author
: “I’ve rented a couple of actual artist’s studios in my time. The first was when I was living in the Earlsdon area of Coventry around 1992–1994 - it was a spare room above a gallery in a converted…”