The Geranium Project (R&D) 30

Monday 20th January, finally managed to work on the textures for the gardens and the bird knots. I painted another, final?, coat on to the installation as well.

Starling Texture One

I overworked this one a bit, so it needs to dry.

Starling Texture Two

This one is better.

entrance

This is the entrance to the installation,

looking back from the screen

Looking back from the projection,

towards the entrance

and back to the entrance.

I think I’ll have to call it a day if I want to get the other things I’m working on done for February 10th.

On Wednesday I had a visit at the shop from Juliet Farrar who runs Doncaster Creates for the council. She tells me that the target for the project is to develop knowledge of the arts presence in the town, at least I think that’s how it breaks down. There isn’t the investment for a city, or town, of culture, and there is little to no value in a festival yet. There is a strong offer in the arts in Doncaster but it is disparate and therefore has no discernible presence. Once again we seem to be at a point where things might happen, there is a lot going on, but it may be another false dawn.

On the Tuesday I made a new version of the geranium project installation projection. This is a low resolution version of it.

The rest of the week was interupted by Vets, Dentist, and rats in the garden. I managed to do some more work on the animated birds and Luke has pretty much resolved the AR for the installation. It may well be that we make a version that works externally to the installation, or can be carried in to it.

The Geranium Project (R&D) 29

On Monday I managed to do the second coat of the installation drawing, adding in some lighter shapes over the very black lines of the first version from Friday.

newinstallation back wall

new installation back wall

I worked on the VR world that I have to recover after the difficulties I had last week. There are still a few things that need to be resolved but it is progressing well.

This week I had to go in on Tuesday afternoon as well to have my photograph taken for the free press.

Doncaster Free Press Report

It was in on Thursday, fulfilling another project aim with publicity. I was intending to get in on Thursday to work on finishing off but toothache intervened and I had a trip to the dentist instead. On Friday I worked on the VR while Luke and Kim got the AR into gear and that will be finished up on Wednesday next week. I also got the installation lighting rewired to help with the AR.

This leaves very little to do to finish off now, I need to model the installation into the VR and have a final runthrough with the appropriate sound files and we’re there.

The Geranium Project (R&D) 28

On Monday I was back in the studio checking things over and with the intention of working on my 3d models. I forgot to take the disc with me so that went out of the window.

garden painting

One of the garden paintings displayed in the gallery

I took some pictures of the paintings I have on display downstairs and had a look at the VR model, I tried enlarging the sky domes I put on for the last run through but they were awful so I’ve taken them out and am working on some other options.

I also wrote a press release over the weekend and sent it to Doncaster Free Press, Sheffield Star, Yorkshire Post and Doncopolitan. Doncopolitan will put it out through their social media channels so I know I’ll get some traction there, the other press is a fingers crossed affair and unlikely to lead to any publicity. I posted the press release to LinkedIn, a-n (artists newsletter) and Axisweb sites under events and onto the local doncastercreates website where it is now sitting on the front page. I’ve emailed six or seven organisations regionally today and have a few more to do. I also sent the press release to bbc radio. I don’t expect a response from any of these outlets, the bbc have an automated response saying we might use it or we might not, but if you don’t ask you don’t get.

On Monday evening I got a reply from the Doncaster Free Press and they will be running a piece in the paper, as things stand they’re sending a photographer next Tuesday afternoon to take pictures for the piece. I got a lot of traction on LinkedIn, including new local connections and interest in viewing the piece.

On Thursday I had a visit at the studio from Marcus and Tim who are associated with the Doncaster TedX organisation. They suggested that I could showcase the work at the TedX Youth conference in April, and potentially have some involvement with TedX in October. We also discussed several other options for this piece and the installation as a stand alone piece. The Hexthorpe Park idea I had also got some traction with Marcus and he’s going to connect me with someone who might be interested in collaborating.

Luke came to the studio and with his help I managed to get the animated garden working, he also managed to get the AR element for the installation working, we now just need to finalise the interior and the installation will be finished.

Friday I started by painting the interior of the new installation, I got the first coat done before my meeting with Mike Stubbs.

one wall of the new installation drawing

one wall of the new installation drawing

The meeting was interesting and quite challenging. Mike commented on my blog that he wondered about my ‘philosophy’, and couldn’t pin it down, so this meeting went over some ground around this. Essentially he complimented the blog on its detail and comprehensiveness but questioned the lack of any discussion placing my work in an ‘art’ context. He believes that a clearer understanding of where you want to place yourself as an artist improves your work. He also gave me a list of artists to look at who he felt I might want to position myself against (not ‘counter to’, just relatively) and I’m pondering.

I shot a short video in the new installation, where the drawing has to be very bold and busy to aid the AR, but its incredibly dark.