Just to clarify, a response to rich's comment:

Hi rich, just read your comment on my blog – then re-read my blog.
I realised it sounded like I was complaining about your ‘puppet show’, which I didn‘t intend at all. Just wanted you to know that! In actual fact I found it fascinating how much everyone got into it, and was particularly intrigued by the interaction with the model, which I had only thought of as a stationary thing previously. Even though this playful interaction made me feel really quite awkward at the moment when it came up against a painful memory, I think this was possibly the most valuable moment of the whole workshop because it was the point where the personal element was exposed for me.
If the whole experience had been really easy and fun for me I wouldn’t have got anything out of it and I am thrilled (and a little bemused!) by the fact that everyone else found their own way-in to the project as well!
I think I’ll stick this on my blog to clarify things
See you thursday
cherry

workshop

phew its over! so many issues and interesting bits 'n' bobs raised by it, what a worthwhile experience. hmmm... where to start, probably with the whole thing of me framing it as a 'workshop', which I did for my own comfort really (so i didn't have to call it a show). What I hadn't really considered was that the word workshop automatically assumes a higher level of interaction than i had imagined. i had thought of it as a workshop for ME, not everybody. But that's not to say that I didn't enjoy the level of involvement that actually occurred, although in the end i felt a bit jealous and protective over 'my' drawing, hmmm... that's interesting too...

It's taken me a few days to be able to really think about it rationally because it all became rather personal, which i hadn't altogether expected. There was one particular point when Ming re-wrote one of my own memories and handed it to me and it was a really nasty memory so it was quite hard to keep drawing with everyone watching and rich's puppet show going on behind me. I've had a couple of comments from those of you who made it to the workshop (thanks by the way, I was amazed by the turn-out!). I find it really odd when people say it was 'good', I can't imagine thinking about it qualitatively like that, I can only think about the list of things I got out of it. These comments (not all 'good', also 'f***ing odd' and 'very you') have rather taken me by surprise and made me realise just how selfish i was in the planning of the workshop - I hadn't expected anyone else to get anything out of it!! So, looking forward to getting feedback from all the VLP people soon, thank you all for coming and thank you to the wonderful Ming who kept it all moving and was generally amazing. Here's some pics:

oh and by the way...

i went to see 'blue on blue' at the latchmere (theatre pub in battersea - i think its also called theatre 503). It was put together by The Shotgun Theatre Company, one of whom is Tom Hardy who used to be a student at the drama school where I work. So I went with the director of the drama school and some of the students.

it was really good, which was so lovely because, to be honest, i wasn't expecting much. I know tom's a decent actor, I've seen him on tv in a few things, but i didn't know what he'd be like as a director. So nice to be pleasantly surprised. It was written by Tom's father - Chips Hardy and was a really dark comedy about 2 guys with all kinds of psychological problems who become involved in various ways with a hungarian nurse, leading to a kind of examination of their rather sick co-dependant relationship. What a terrible description. Anyway, i think this one is sold out, but if Shotgun do anything else, would recommend trying to catch it.

thought for the day...

a man who can understand Buddha and has an intuition of the heaven and hell of humanity ought not to live in a world ruled by 'common sense' and democracy and bourgeois standards. It is only from cowardice that he lives in it; and if its dimensions are too cramping for him and the bourgeois parlour too confined, he lays it at the wolf's door, and refuses to see that the wolf is as often as not the best part of him. All that is wild in himself he calls wolf and considers it wicked and dangerous and the bugbear of all decent life.

steppenwolf - hermann hesse

workshop update

please keep those train stories coming, i'm getting together great collection, but not enough yet.

here's a pic (not a very good one) of the memory-space model i am building for my workshop, am getting quite excited about it now...

bad theatre, good food

i went down to salisbury at the weekend to see my mum and go to the theatre. salisbury doesn't have a lot going for it unless you're a japanese tourist, but the theatre is the one reason i still go back occasionally. For a provincial theatre, it does some pretty cool stuff, I remember particularly an amazing production of the Bacchae by Kneehigh Theatre Company. However this weekend it let me down! We went to see 'A Woman of No Importance' and even setting aside some unfortunate blips that couldn't be helped (lines fluffed, bits of set falling down), it was really crappy. They tried to throw in some bits of experimental dance stuff, which (even if the actors hadn't looked like they would rather take off their clothes than do them) seemed so completely out of place in the middle of a classic Oscar Wilde comedy. This was compounded by the, frankly bizarre, set design, which just couldn't make up its mind if its was 'period' or something completely different and ended up being just messy. the costumes were very nice but dull. Altogether it was really confused and rather disappointing. The saving grace was that a couple of the actors were really really good. Don't have any pictures to prove my point, could only find the poster image on the net - perhaps they're embarassed!



On the upside i had a very english pub meal of fish and chips and bread & butter pudding in the village pub on sunday and put on about 3 stone in one sitting. yum yum yum.

I HAVE REJOINED SOCIETY

i have finally got a computer! hooray! no more sneaking onto Alan's when he's not looking or blogging at work when i should be drawing...no actually, i'm sure i'll still do that. am also very excited to discover that it seems that the wifi on the train from brighton is free (it says for a limited time - but doesn't say how long), i'm a bit suspicious but i'm not going to complain.

the preparations for my workshop are going well and i am actually beginning to look forward to it. thanks to those who have sent me train stories, keep them coming - there's no limit on how many you send!!

have been reading 'naked lunch' by william burroughs, it has completely blown my mind, i don't really know what to say about it, i am simultaneously revolted and overawed by it. am fascinated by this episode about 'senders' and 'factualists', which is all about use and abuse of technology:

"Artists will confuse sending with creation. They will camp around screeching "A new medium!" until their rating drops off..."

made me feel very small and stupid for a while... i think that's probably a good thing.