On returning, it was strange readjusting to life after our "time Out" abroad.
Link to work and show "Immediate Response"
I took on a part time etching course.
The latest addition to the Wooden Om blog.
Originally drawn in April 81 in the form of three studies then made into an etching in Folkestone a couple of years later.
A boy accompanied me on a couple of visits to a favourite Siva temple of mine and wrote his name on that particular drawing for me.
We met again high up in the mountains where he had help herd his families sheep up to summer pastures.
Folkestone wasn’t as easy as I had hoped but I ended up at the end of that stint going back to Kashmir and staying on a house boat for about three months. Producing a body of water based work which I have yet to show!
Link to set of black x white photos produced from the houseboat in Kashmir.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150344514511424.399544.707526423&l=e58fd98a84&type=1
Better still, link to a whole site from Kashmir
We moved back to Cardiff at this point, academia and university for Anne and leading a murals team in the Rhondda for me. We worked up and down the whole length of the valley, quite an exciting time, quite an exciting team.
During this period, I had the largest studio I have ever had in the centre of Cardiff just by the covered market. It was half a pool hall with huge windows along one side looking out into the centre of the city.
This photo had obviously had a life within a studio.
possibly even on the table you see before you.
These, unfortunately are the only images I have of the studio. As such it is difficult to show how big it was.
It was big enough to have a small game of football useing a tennis ball. (if you moved all the stuff out the way)
This was my hut made out of discarded six foot art college canvases.
It had a roof and a paraffin stove, I had a balaclava helmet and a pair of fingerless gloves.
The dancing Sive in the background is the first nod toward the one I would eventually make in the late nineties.
I produced a number of mono prints here:
I held a show called "A Wooden Om" in Cardiff University following which we took off to S.E. Asia for a few months.
Catalogue Cover
I was able to work on a series of ideas produced from there in the studio (based around Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri lanka.)
Unfortunately during this time my father died of cancer.
Following which I held three shows in Wales.
The first being a kind of local show in Cardiff with Marega Palser who I had spent a period of time working with in my studio, called "For a Colour Fool".
Artists’ Statement.
We have been sharing a studio for nine months and decided it would be a good idea to have an exhibition.
Its’s been fun putting the show togetherand we hope you enjoy it in this spirit. We don’t think that this show will change the world, and we don’t expect to win any prizes – so, if there’s anything you don’t like, we don’t want to know about it ---------
Thanks to everyone who’s helped to put this show up and a special thankyou to Gerry for the beakers, Miranda for the transport, Muck for the printing and Tom for the wine.
We have been sharing a studio for nine months and decided it would be a good idea to have an exhibition.
Its’s been fun putting the show togetherand we hope you enjoy it in this spirit. We don’t think that this show will change the world, and we don’t expect to win any prizes – so, if there’s anything you don’t like, we don’t want to know about it ---------
Thanks to everyone who’s helped to put this show up and a special thankyou to Gerry for the beakers, Miranda for the transport, Muck for the printing and Tom for the wine.
The second and largest being "Spirits Need Homes" which was held in HaverfordWest Library and contained most of the larger Asian work.
And finally,
"Achilles Shield"
Which was held in Llanover Hall Arts Centre, Canton, Cardiff.
It contained mainly illustrations of the shield, which I have gone back to since and re-vamped and a few other spin offs from previous bur recent work.
This was quite enough for me in terms of art presentation, in fact, I dont know how I survived it. Anne and I took off on an academic grant to Western Turkey to look at some Archaic sites.
