My design therefore is to discover what others have published of this wonderful country, to compare them with one another and with my own observations in order to sift out the truth'
A new description of Merryland. Containing, a topographical, geographical, and natural history of that country. - Thomas Stretzer 1841

Mission accomplished? great! Well no not really but my day at the  The British Library turned out to be very useful. I had my moments of confusion but they involved lockers that need a £1 coin to lock, clear plastic bags and requesting books that are not, as it turns out, delivered to your reading desk (number 59) on a silver tray. I have to say that the staff there are very, very helpful, particularly when its obvious that the customer (?) is new to the place.

I got my hands on some bibliographies of British erotic fiction. The best of which had a section dedicated to the titles and any illustrations on the front covers of  books or pamphlets. Many of these are no longer in existence or if they are someone isn't sharing. So I made lots of notes and drawings.

What I had really gone for: The 1841 edition of Merryland. It arrived to me in an envelope, no longer in possession of its cover, much of it's binding had disintegrated but this allowed me to take a close look at the remaining stitched binding and the thick yellowed pages that had held on to  the remnants of some thick glue still clinging to the spine of this 30 page (or so) text.

I was so excited to see this book, my hands were sweaty which made me panic a bit which made my hands sweaty, and so it continued. The font was a nice surprise, large and rather graceful, not that easy to read but I soon got into it. This is a funny book (or at least it is now) a male author, of course, writing about the wonders of the female body as if it were a land mass with occupants. But I must confess, I expected some topographical maps...yes, I know. Having only read snippets from the book and a vague outline, I got carried away with the idea that this was a more deeply hidden nod to pornography, than in fact it was. However I intend to make use of my slight misunderstanding.

So next: Well I will return for another visit. There is an earlier version of this book called Bettyland, available in digital format (1684) and I have struck off my list but also added books to track down. The day helped me draw out what I'm really interested in and what I can let go of.

I needed to see an early edition of Marryland, hold it in my hands before moving on with some work, some of which will branch  off into the second edition of my zine The Collector. The initial ideas are starting in drawing form, inkjet prints and text.

'I was assured that when I was in Merryland my instrument was inferior to none, but from years after, happening to be there again and repeating the experiment I found both [my notes are illegible] increased by degrees. Though I tried in the same spot and with the same instrument as before it may perhaps be suspected that my instrument may have suffered since the first experiment was made as it is well known that the best are damaged by time and frequent use but that was not the case for me. I must confess that it has been often used but with such prudent care and caution that it was in great perfection...'
Merryland - Thomas Stretzer

I think its ok to embrace your inner immaturity and have a chuckle. Given the time of writing I was expecting a text where women were far more objectified than it actually turned out to be. Personally I felt that the author gave the female strength and ferocity amidst the ridiculousness of the concept, in some ways. But I do plan a re read, my opinion may change.


The Collector Zine Issue 2: Love Letters
Often in the texts I am reading at the moment the text or story are derived from letters found by the author or perhaps sent to him by a friend via another. All a cover up for the authors original writings and this got me thinking about letter writing in general while I was deciding the theme for the next issue of The Collector. I have asked friends on twitter & Fb to send me snippets of love letters either sent by or to them. I wasnt specific about what a love letter actually means I am very interested to see what I get back and then compile them into the zine. I am also working on some drawings to interact wit the text.

I feel like I have been writing too much so the next post will be the scheduled one for 1st September and, hopefully, will be documenting some drawing progress. Good or bad.

Working from home?: I kinda’ like it. It took me ages to get used to it and the down side is the space. There is none. But then the upside is making small work. I used to work on a huge scale, it was all a bit of a nightmare, now I work small and I am much happier. Upside-downside. It can be a bit lonely.

I am into novels, film and music. They are readily available around me, I have lots of them and over the last two years they have seeped into my work, after I gave in and allowed them to. I also collect Old photographs of an erotic and stage/performance nature, some obscure, some not so much. I collect them on my Tumblr. It's a digital collection replacing a studio wall, It works for me so far. Until, that is, I remember a picture that I want to find somewhere in the middle of the 4000 posted. Its a challenge.

I have a routine, of sorts, for most days: I spend half an hour or so in the morning being primary care giver to my diabetic cat. Blood gets taken and measured for sugar content, insulin amount is calculated and administered, food is given and finally water intake measured. I love her dearly but  who would inject a beloved cat when the wrong amount of insulin could kill her? Not me!.....oh.

After that its social networking time: Facebook and Twitter, but my heart belongs to Twitter. I could go on and on about the fabulous people I have met, some even in real life. Laughs, support, interesting
conversation, shows to see, shows not to see and opportunities. I try to limit my time to an hour or so before I start making art or researching but actually I tweet throughout the day. (some days this routine - much like today as I write this- goes to hell in a hand basket, an upside downside of working from home)

I have a website and a blog . A blog that is very different to this one, or that's the plan. The blog over there is a bit more formal, documenting shows I see and why I liked them, I like writing about things I am excited about. When I post my work it tends to be finished pieces along with references. There is never any real analysis of the work or my thoughts as I make it, I often wonder why that is. I think, possibly, I don’t want to clutter the website. Regardless, I love writing that blog and I find it useful on several levels.

So that’s why I am here, on this blog, to explore and play rather than produce and present. There is a huge unrecognised influence looming when I am working from home, I would like to look into that too. This residency gives me a focus and outlet  that I perhaps would not of had otherwise.

During August I plan to make a research trip down (from the Midlands) to The British Library, who have been very helpful with my  enquiries so far, despite emailing them, what I thought was a ridiculously vague question. I will be having a look at works of very early British erotic fiction. An interest that has some of its roots in Fingersmith by Sarah Waters which lead to paintings and a zine about collecting erotic objects, text and images. I am a bit anxious about my trip to the Library, I want to put my time to its best use with a minimum of fannying about.

Also during August, I will be playing with collage and drawing.  I have included three examples of those drawings here. When I was making the Collector Zine I got a  kick out of using ink jet printed drawings as a base for further drawing. I like the idea of over working and layering them then reprinting them for a further layer of drawing. The found/collected images are fun to play around with. They have limitations in some respects and then in others lead to more drawings.

There might be some work in relation to on going projects, depending on how I feel about the images I have been collecting for them so far. But my focus for the month will be on drawing and research.

This is a 6 month project and it would be glorious to develop a body of work from my time here and then exhibit it, but It might be best not to strangle myself and the work with thoughts of that. I am aiming for useful.

If we know each other on social networking then much of this post is old news to you and thank you for reading. If not, then thank you for reading this introduction. Posts shouldn’t be any longer than this, in fact I would say that this is rather a lot of writing for me. Possibly once in every post I will write something a bit daft, pictures should be a-plenty and comments on this blog are, of course, welcome.

Currently reading:
Fanny Hill – John Cleland
The queen of camp, Mea West and popular culture – Marybeth Hamilton
The hare with the amber eyes – Edmond De Waal
An Artist retracing the journey of a collection of Japanese carvings through his family.
Georges Bataille, essential writings- Michael Richardson
A nudge from a face book friend encouraged a re read

 In Other news: Space Shuttle Atlantis Launched for the very last time on 8.7.11. I was glued to the computer screen and NASA TV. I always get pretty emotional when space things are happening. It also happens to be the day that I made a real start on this post. Not that this will be posted until 1st August but I'm pretty excited about Reside and wanted to get on with making plans and writing.