This morning we had a zoom meet with two staff members of Clare Haven- Trish who works in the refuge and has outreach duties, and Deirdre who runs the children and young people's services. BTW for anyone reading there are no names or identities mentioned in this post, nor were there in the zoom meeting. We spoke only on a generalistic level. One thing I [...]

Thinking about this and how to develop My mind returns to the idea of smiling through discomfort. But relatively mild discomfort, as is chopping onions. Like chopping onions is a mild discomfort that is not going to kill you. But mild discomfort over time is insidious, and poisonous. In term sof this work the banality of chopping onions with the strong painted on smiley imagery [...]

I signed up for a 3 week online (no other type right now) workshop with BBeyond Live, the Northern Ireland based performance art organisation. Started last weekend. As the procedure and the workshop space is confidential won't relay direct events but I wanted to record some of my thoughts around it and some of the utterances that stayed with me: Productivity is not important in [...]

'The days roll by' for Line of Thought - 80cm x 300cm, black acrylic, brown paper At the time of writing this post this drawing is finished, rolled up carefully, inserted into its cardboard roll, secured, sealed at each end, addressed, and posted, yesterday. It's to arrive in 2 days from time of postage, all going well. I thought about couriering but given the recent [...]

So I got emailed by Peter, director of Ps2 Belfast, about a short drawing show starting 4 March. They asked if I wanted to contribute. He was particularly interested in the brown paper scroll works I'd shown mainly here on the blog, as opposed to on insta. I had avoided putting this work directly on insta as it was unfinished and also for the upcoming [...]

I had my second meeting with Áine Philips this week. I want to write out the notes I took as again it was a very revealing talk. For me. All the reasons I'd hoped to speak with her are validated, as she perfectly understands why I want to make the work and she doesn't question its validity, or more specifically she doesn't question the worthiness [...]

I visited the offices of Clare Haven, https://clarehaven.ie/ this morning, with Paul Corey. Brief is to produce a walk through immersive experience of domestic violence. Using top floor of their office space. Siobhan the manager has a big vision and talks very eloquently about the chaos of domestic violence she wants people to experience when accessing the space. She mentioned making, among others: A court [...]

I edited the film I took of my performance idea keep smiling. It works ok as a starting point. I'd like to do it again against a black background with a black vest on, for a strong visual effect. https://youtu.be/Xjsxyv1O9JI I edited it down to 5 mins something. I had about 12 mins of footage. It was made easier to edit as I had to [...]

I got to try recording some film around my happy face idea yesterday. Paul, photographer, was good enough to allow me to use his studio. I had an hour, 9-10am, partly as that was what my day allowed and also as I didn't want to be in there too long. I filmed it myself, so as not to within distance of Paul and to maintain [...]

I have been thinking for a while now about an idea for a performance based around smiley face paint, but in a threatening kind of slightly off way. Manic, sick, dangerous smiley. I tried some face paint this evening at the studio. It as not how I had pictured it, I couldn't decide whether to do paint in a perfectly round, realistic smiley or cover [...]