A Break On Through To The Other Side...

The last exhibition i was in was in October, since then i shamefully haven't made any new work, mainly due to work issues and financial difficulties, but fear not i am settled and bring in a regular pay cheque everything should resume to normality soon enough. Before all that some time in November i had been discussing the idea of curating a show on Red Door 44, this would not include my work or any work from within the collective.

 This show was going to be the first example of What Red Door 44 wants to cater for, Outsider Art. Red Door want's to give the opportunity to artists or anybody who would like to have an exhibition but has never had one or been able to have one. Since the opening of the studio nearing the end of October Red Door had remained dormant. nothing was happening in the space that we opened especially to be used creatively. 

So i took the initiative and told a great friend of mine, Mathew Belcher that Red Door 44 will host an exhibition of his work. This was something that hadn't crossed his mind at all. Mat had created an album of work on a social network site entitled 'Happy things Happy'. Mat would photograph objects and shapes that resembled a smiley face. This album had some many responses to it that Mat created a separate page purely for this new hype of 'Happy Things Happy'. I saw the Album in the early months of 2011, telling him to print and exhibit his photographs. Mat wasn't an artist at the time, just someone capturing happy things, half a year goes by, and now i have the opportunity to give him a show of his work. 

Mat Helped me through a tough period struggling for work, by allowing me to Volunteer in his shop. As a thank you to him i wanted this show to happen for him. I have never been on the other side of the fence before, i have always shown work, it was nice to have a change of occupation for a temporary period of time. i thoroughly enjoyed the process and now can apply that experience to my C.V. and hope it helps with possible jobs opportunities in the future.

Had An Exhibition in Mumumumumunmum...

Please excuse the bizarre spelling in the title of this post, its an in joke between me and my good friend David Long. In a nut shell, Munmumumumumum is actually a place near Swansea called Mumbles. Hopefully some of you reading this will understand what we were joking around with. Anyway a few of my fellow course mates after the degree show in London wanted to put on a show somewhere in the Swansea area for those who couldn't make it to either the University degree show or the London show.  The show was to be called 'A First Chance For A Second Look'. This will have been my second joint exhibition outside of university, but my first since graduating.

I was concerned that i hadn't made new work since the degree show and was worried that putting up old work would appear lazy and boring to people. The thing was i hadn't realized that Swansea hadn't seen my light boxes that i put up in the London Free Range Show, and so that work was new to people in Swansea. This made the organization of the show much easier and faster for me and also the other artists showing. The Work was shown in a little Gallery in called 'Oriel Bach', this is a welsh name, translated to English it means 'Little Gallery'. 

The opening night was nice, with an appearance from two of my old tutors from S.M.U. Hamish Gane, my Photography Tutor kindly opened the show with a little speech. It was nice to see the work in a different space and curate the show ourselves for the first time, Tutors always took that responsibility in University. The work went up surprisingly fast for the four of us, i guess we were on the same wave length with where everyones work should go.

Its Your Blog Sam, Somethings Got To Be Done About Your Blog...

Well, i do apologize for the dormancy of my blogging, its not been the best four months since i last posted anything. After a very long summer i finally signed off and hung up the Giro jacket for the last time. In November i found a minimum wage job and have been working there since. Not going to tell you about it as its nothing to really rave about. So i am now finally earning an honest crust after 6 months since Graduating. 


Along side that stable job i now do a bit of painting and decorating, this helps spread the workload over the week so i don't have to spend all my time in the week, at the other job. I am enjoying being a ' handy man' not only is it good money but also gives me some good experience on the C.V. for any future job opportunities. I also get a big sense of achievement from the decorating job. 


Moooving swiftly on, i will create a montage of the happenings that have occurred over the summer.(minus the epic 80's power ballads), Red Door 44 opened in October with a crowd of a hundred or so attendants. This was an amazing thing to have happened to the Red Door Collective, it gave us a true understanding of how much support we had behind us. Since the opening we have been planning future workshops and exhibitions to see out 2011 and bring Red Door into the new year.  

What was it that i Bespoke about....

Throughout the process of turning Red Door 44 from and old function room, to a brand spanking 'happening' studio, tidying the place up had to occur in order to use the space. there was an entire labyrinth of odds and sods. One major thing that the collective all agreed upon, was to recycle as much of the sods as possible. Broken table tops become shelving space for art materials, old benches became dividers for individual artist spaces. Rather than throw away what may appear to be useless, we had a go at making things useful again. An example of this, was a pair of draws discarded amongst the rubble. The original unit was never found in the space and so the draws were soon to be tipped at the scrap yard. I felt that i wanted to make something out of these now useless wooden trays. And so with a little thought and perseverance i now show you the new and improved MISCELLANEOUS TRAYS.

I need to find one more tray same size and preferably the same design, just to complete it otherwise i may have to hack off the remaining Thread on all four bars.

As one door closes, a Red door opens...

With university life now over, for this so called graduate. I have had to venture into the big wide world that is the rest of my life. Over the past few months of summer, i have teamed up with a collective of artists. This collective is based in a sizable studio in Swansea. Red Door 44 as we are now known, has become the first studio space i am to make work for future exhibitions. My father always told me stories of his many studios through his career as a photographer, i had always dreamt of having a studio space. 2011 is the year to do so. scraping, painting, trashing are all suitable words to use to describe the work and process gone into making Red Door 44 a reality. I cannot wait for the next few months when we officially open in October this is where i alight for my artistic pathway and career into the working world.

Digital Monsters...

A phone doesn't just ring anymore, it receives little brief digital letters of congratulations or devastating news. The phone can organise your weekly appointments, record sparks of genius monologued earlier that day. and it can also capture those daft occurrences, that you come face to face with in a photograph or video, you'll later show your friends. The majority of my cameras are all analogue, what is meant by this is that i use camera film for those in particular. The minority, you guessed it, are Digital cameras. A mobile phone has a camera built in as standard. If you own a phone without a camera in it, your out of touch with the modern world. Everyone has their phone on them at all times, i know for a fact that i worry if i have left my phone at home, " what if people need to phone me or text me?". I get home and no one has contacted me at all.

Ok so most of the time people have their phones on them. i'll use the camera function to either capture something funny i have spotted, to show my friends at a later date, But most of the time its to record or make reference to an idea for a future project or inspiration in its physical form. I've had the same mobile phone for a while now, its getting old and its getting broken soon to die like the latter before. occasionally the camera malfunctions and part of the image captured has been destroyed. ( you can see where i'm going with this ) The image has been taken but failed part way through the transaction of capturing and displaying the image on the phone. I have currently, two images 'partly' destroyed, the subject matter isn't important at this stage. i guess the worse my phone gets the better the DIGITAL DESTRUCTION gets.

Sign on, you crazy Diamond...

It has been three weeks since Graduating with a 2:1 in Photography BA (HONS) and i have now passed the denial stage of having to sign on. i have searched hi and low and around all four corners of Swansea to find a part time job. I have been Littering the streets with CV's, i have heard nothing for about two weeks now and money is starting to be an issue. If i want to make work i'm going to have some money for equipment and materials. If i want to enter exhibition Submissions i have to pay a little entry fee, for a chance to be envolved. i'm not looking for a job in Photography Straight away, i know i couldn't walk right into the industry, I just need an average part time job to help fund living costs. IS THERE ANY BODY OUT THERE!! WHO CAN GIVE ME A JOB.