The School Run

Cheering people up,
The thing that appeals to me about this project is that it is actually in the public domain. It is also “of our time”
-everyone is used to seeing billboards, it would appeal to me to have the opportunity to jog or a little loosely shake people from what they happily conceive as the norm. In a city, I also can’t think of a much bigger passing audience save for the T.V. one.
Another positive for me is that this project is non-profit based and also non-gallery. There are not the normal artistic dictates, although there is going to be a greater emphasis on health and safety.
I see my function in this project as being one of cheering people up, brightening their passing for a few moments.

The School Run is a phenomenon,
It happens in many countries in many ways.
Here I am portraying a typically English setting. An idyllic representation of families coming together on their way in and out to school – all sharing similar goals and aspirations, engaged in the same topics of conversation.
Walking through a park is a lovely way to get there, it happened to me as a child, it happened to my son as a child and I see it through my window in the park outside our house today.
Maybe it is a city thing, often in the countryside I see loads of cars pulling up at primary schools as the roads are too dangerous to walk down nowadays

Production of this mural,
I am quite open minded about how this particular mural is produced, (as long as I can achieve it in the time allocated). I would be happy with producing it painted on panels or blowing it up digitally. Both methods would serve the image objectives.
 I would be quite comfortable fitting in with what else is happening on the project. For instance maybe every body else is producing their stuff digitally and it would be nice to employ a different means of production, or there could be other work that is hand painted and similar to my own which would work together. I am quite willing to produce them in the form most suited to the layout of the project, I see myself as being part of a general whole as oppose to a grand master strutting in and showing off his wares in the best possible venue.

My studio flat area  (in a single complete stretch)  is bigger than an actual billboard and so can be built over a few months thereby dealing with constructional problems -and compositional issues related to that scale of presentation.
The emphasis on this banner would be the “blown up” quality, the change in scale; one could see the details seemingly blown up from a concentrated ink and line paper sketch, one would know that it had been deliberately blown up. In a kind of “Lichtenstein” fashion. Only in a more painterly kind of way.
There would be an emphasis on the way the paint had worked on the surface and the various idiosyncrasies that the lines had produced.

The initial roughs for this particular banner will probably not look exactly like it will do when finished and presented. I see it as a  journey starting with one image and slowly growing and transforming until it becomes a presentable format.
It will probably end up having more of a “toy-town” feel. Albeit a bit subtler, but it will be bright and to a certain extent cheery.

Construction note:

If painted on 8ft x 4ft panels the panels could be arranged in a jigsaw type pattern so that no edge actually went all the way from top to bottom or side to side.
In my view there are three different possible layouts:

Documentation,
I feel that documentation is a very important part of any artists practice.
I have documentation from the past of work that has long since disappeared. It is also valuable evidence of the process involved, a history of the making of the thing. It helps to explain what it is all about, gives its reasons and can also provide glimpses of ideas and images that get rejected on the way.
It would be very important to me to document this as a project.

At the end of the project,
I would like to give this billboard away.
Carving the overall image up into many smaller views, making sizable chunks that could comfortably fit into a living room or maybe a shop or communal area, like a play group or church hall.
Then placing this image on the internet with lines traced out on it and the various rectangles numbered. People could then reserve pieces of it to be sawn up and collected at the projects end.

Constructional Costs,

Sheets of Ply, £90
£50 for paint and brushes,
Large pot of varnish £25

Personal Costs,

I find the costs issue quite tricky as firstly there aren’t huge fees available anyway. Secondly I’m after the billboards because I want to do them rather than get paid to do them.
If materials get covered my only basic interest is that it doesn’t cost me to carry out the project – in fact that the mechanics of production are lubricated.

The Argonauts painted in 2009
filling the downstairs window of Birmingham Central Library.

Potted C.V.Born : 22-09-51, Brought up in Shepherds Bush, London.
Dip.A.D. Epsom 1974, Shows in Wales until 1980. Time in India, S.E. Asia and Turkey.
1993, moved to Birmingham, 2001 M.A. Margaret Street, since involved in various projects and shows.
I’ve painted and made things all my life, I never stop.
I have also involved myself in events and movements: musical groups, shows, projects.
I like to fit, into what everybody else is doing from time to time, concentrate on the group effort, feel comfort in the teams company, lend a hand, get stuck in.

The Rhondda Mural Team 86