Now I am able, I am spending more time in the studio, but still not yet feeling I am back into a proper work routine. So each time I come in, it’s like starting again as I don’t really have anything on the go. I have every confidence that it will come back when it’s the right time. 

Meanwhile, I am able to concentrate on other things.

I am part of a group, working title being The Fish Collective. We have many conversations running all at the same time, cross pollinations as it were. The group consists of Helen Garbett, also known as Limpet Woman, Bill Laybourne, (her studio partner and sound artist), Rick Sanders, poet and artist, and myself. Between us we have many skills, and areas of interest, which overlap here and there. We have done a few things together before, on a more haphazard basis, but recently decided it would be good to see what we could do if we did this more deliberately.

We have been talking together about the impact of humans on sealife.

The story can be found here:

Our ideas come about when we talk and work together, when we make stuff, draw, write, record, read … sometimes we work separately and come together to show and tell, sometimes we might work in pairs, or as a trio, or all four.

We are hoping that the more work we do, and more we talk about the fishes, the more ideas we will have to make work that will raise awareness and give us opportunities to protest, in whatever fashion takes our fancy.

Last week we went on a field trip (sadly without Rick, but with artist Janet Tryner instead). We went to Kilve beach in Somerset. From the beach, across the water you can see the construction site of Hinkley Point C power station. The impact of the construction, even before it is up and running, is having a detrimental effect on the marine ecology. I’m not going into detail here, there are plenty of other places to read about it. Suffice it to say some of the statistics and methods being employed have shocked us enough to take some action, and make works in response. 

At the moment, in the natural dip of my own practice, I have time to explore this. I have no idea if it is a tangent, or if it will actually change my practice. I’m trying to keep an open mind. I’m not yet finished with my own topics… but I suspect for a while at least, the Fish Collective will be my primary concern.