In London last night, computerless, so this is yesterday’s square, Pay.

No need to say much; there’s a pay and pensions cauldron bubbling away right now and sooner or later it will boil over. (That’ll be the moment to post the square Strike !) If strikes there are, they will surely be born more of fear than greed.

Of course people feared for their pensions in 2003 too, then…the stock market went up and the hole in the pension funds melted away. Magic! (But did anyone who had lived even through the 80s and 90s actually think it was anything but a conjuring trick?)

As well as painting, printing and writing, I used stitching to ‘draw’ on most of these squares. I wanted the piece to resemble a patchwork quilt. When traditionally made of scraps and remnants and worn-out oddments – rather than specially-bought pieces of cloth – a quilt is literally a pattern of life and experience, one shake of the kaleidoscope. I hope there’s a bit of good mixed in with the bad here, even though as we all know newspaper headlines are not the same as real life!

Today’s square is one of the simplest in design, maybe just a symbolic tornado. This one hasn’t faded particularly and the text is easy to read: the few words speak for themselves. All, sadly, ever-topical.

For the original banner, made with collage on brown paper backed with cotton, I used a combination of light-fast and fugitive paints, dyes and inks. It was meant to be a bit of a lottery, like time itself – I wasn’t sure what would fade and how much, only that things would change unpredictably. I’ve never tried to sell this piece – I wasn’t sure how a buyer would appreciate a disappearing artwork! I don’t think it’ll fade any more now. But I love its current subtle, seasoned incarnation.

Among the fugitive colours were some holi paints brought back for me from India by my very dear friend. She’d seen people randomly throwing bright colours all over each other during the Holi festival. It sounded like delightful mayhem. I carried this on by experimenting with lemon juice, vinegar, salt and other things – don’t ask me what! – to fix or disperse the garish crimson, viridian and purple dyes. I combined them with other materials. More on those another day….

This is Square no.1, Fat Cats, from The Way We Live Now, my catalogue/snapshot of British society as represented by the news headlines in 2003. By coincidence I went to a film in a Brighton pub last night about the 2008 banking crisis. Called Inside Job, it unwinds the intricate network of reciprocal and astronomical rewards then (and still) operating in the financial world – and confirms my worst imaginings.

Now here we are again, in even worse turmoil, in 2011. So soon!

Some of the squares are a bit faded, this one particularly. That was part of the original plan and I’ll explain about the materials I used in another post. But I hope it’s possible to read the key words and get the picture. I imagined the headlines would fade with the piece: some hope….

So, no new post for ages. Reasons? Plenty! A broken ankle that won’t mend (Tim) a traumatic house move (removal men didn’t turn up), a wrecked back (me) not unconnected with both events. So some anguish and not much art.

However we and The Wolf at the Door are now installed, with new workshop and gallery space. I hope to make up for lost time with shows, workshops and paintings galore. Plus regular updates here on what’s going on.

Here’s a little project for our times. For the next three or four week I’m going to try and post an image a day, taken from The Way We Live Now, a banner nearly 6’x4′ I made roughly eight years ago and have hardly exhibited. I’ll explain how and why it was made as we go along. Each square contains a news topic of the day with its buzzwords, cliches and phrases: a litany of the disastrous and dreary.

The title came from the wonderful novel by Anthony Trollope about speculation, greed, opportunism, cynicism, credit bubbles, bankers, Ponzi schemes… Why isn’t it on telly right now?

The current flood of crises, deficits, redundancies, plagues, scourges, swindles (etc) deepens and widens. A new Age of Anxiety really hard to live with even if you’re lucky enough to survive it. (Will we?) And it doesn’t seem long since last time. Now I’m mulling over and beginning an updated Way We Live Now for 2011 – not absolutely sure what form it’ll take….

Our science-related Sunday was uproarious in parts with Richard Robinson making custard dance – indeed writhe and rear. In the meantime people were able to look at the truly lovely art on display, and artists showed or explained techniques, materials and inspirations with scientific connotations.

This coming weekend: Green Sunday. Kay Sexton will be reading from her witty and wise new book on allotments, John Collins showing his woodturning skills and Jane Napp how she restores and recycles old furniture. Judith Berrill has constructed a special ‘our street’ map for us, and the Garden House will be selling their seeds in pretty packets. All this in addition to the beautiful work on display in the house and garden till Bank Holiday Monday. Jewellery, painting, metalwork, sculpture, prints, photos, cards….

This coming Sunday, 15 May, is Science Sunday at the Wolf at the Door (Artists’ Open House). Richard Robinson, puppeteer and brain behind the wonderful Brighton Science Festival, is going to entertain and instruct us on silver and gold, the history of glass, paints and pigments and…dancing custard. Artists will also be trying to explain some of the science behind their work. Quite a lot of my own work is in one way or another science-inspired. So here’s a new anthropology-related piece from my ‘Origins’ series.

I’ll leave the pictures to speak for themselves: details of the artists in my next post.

Only a week to go till the the 2011 Artists’ Open Houses, part of the Brighton Festival. The Wolf is opening again with some old faces, some new: painting, mixed media, sculpture, anodised metalwork, jewellery, photography, work with recycled materials – and some special events. Another post will follow shortly – truly!

Another long gap in posts: a computer blow-up, a series of crises, a likely house move. And lots of unexpected activities – such as this one.

Last summer we visited the remarkable Dilston Physic Garden (near Hexham, Northumberland.) A chance meeting with its maker, the Newcastle University neuroscientist Elaine Perry. A long chat during which my abiding interest in gardens, herbs and medieval culture emerged. The result: she asked me to design a new medieval garden to complement other fascinating areas (Roman, shamanic, Bronze Age, lots more…).

We settled on a circular design reflecting the view of the world around the year 1300. Educated people knew it was a sphere; it was just hard to draw. So my little sketch is based on the schematic T-O map of the time. The Great Ocean, the O, encircles the world (blue plants!). The three continents, Europe, Africa and Asia, are divided by the T of the waters. Paradise (scented plants, lilies) lies in the East, at the top.

All the plants I chose have curative powers and were in regular use at the time. It’s probably being planted up at this moment. Such a lovely place:

http://dilstonphysicgarden.com

It’s only as the Christmas Open House season approaches that I realise I never posted any pictures of our wonderfully happy and successful Open House last summer. I’m not opening officially at Christmas this year – though I’m always open by appointment – simply because I have never caught up with myself since moving.

So, instead and belatedly, some souvenir pictures. The Wolf at the Door attracted nearly 1500 visitors and made me a lot of new friends. The artists were delightful and tantrum-free and visitors seemed to enjoy themselves and feel relaxed – and bought lots of work too. Just the record, last week I went to the first two meetings about next year’s event: this is when the organisation begins….

If you want a quick visit to my studio, no strings attached, just email me. And another post will follow shortly about workshops.