Day: 14
Days remaining: 1

Today things rose from a horizontal sleeping state into one of vertical alive-ness, becoming more alive even than their maker, who was feeling tired today to say the least... it was a day of huge steps and huge changes, aided by the fleeting but much valued visit of power-drill wielding Terry Hackwith and leaf-painting Rachel Drazek. A tree stands now, broad and proud, ready to be decorated, embellished and cherished on stage, and a medieval king and queen loom above me slowly inhaling, ready to take their first steps...









But tomorrow is the crucial day. Tomorrow all the questions I have avoided answering up until now have to be confronted, but they are the very driving force behind the decision to take on this project...
Tomorrow I will pin a scrappy sheet of A4 paper to the wall. On it is listed the sequence of nine folk acts performing within the three hour time slot of this event. And inbetween each act is a strange scrawl of pencilled notes: "Start of spring, three blossoms on, medieval king and queen take one step inwards....." The notes detailing how this visual story will be told, in nine installments.
But how, how can pictures tell a story by themselves?
This scene comprised of pictures will move by human intervention alone, but how should a human perform this act? Is it an emotional act? A clinical act? How does the world of humanity interact with the world of pictures?
Do pictures carry sufficient emotional weight by themselves to not require any additional impact by means of how they are physically handled by the manipulator, the puppeteer, the individual placing them within the physical space?
.....Do pictures contain their very own language?
When left to their own devices, what power will pictures have over people?

"A Wall Against Vagueness"

Day: 13
Days remaining: 2





The panels of cardboard which edge my world right now are fuzzy through the sleep-deprived faculties of my vision. But to say that I have been confined to my North London cardboard-crafting cell over the past few days would be misleading, for yesterday a magic companion whisked me off to the Eastern fringes of London, to the William Morris Gallery itself, in Walthamstow. There we passed silently and blissfully through the rooms of Morris's life, gazing at stained glass panels, woodcuts, illuminated manuscripts and heavy wall-hangings, all bursting with life...life encapsulated by Morris in the curling hand-drawn stem of a flower.
Morris created his own mythology, via pattern.
"...Each pattern suggests something beyond itself, something of which it is but a visual symbol."
Morris, in his creative quest, referred to "a wall against vagueness". In my possibly misled interpretation of this, I see that with his patterns he strove for total immersion into the world of the imagination and it was important for the 'edges' of his patterns not to bleed into vague half-hearted incompletion. His patterns were geometrically designed to fill an entire panel, and to be repeatable. His fantasy world was whole, covering all available surface, its aliveness filling the surface to its very edges, the point where his world met the outer, ordinary world.
And in a funny kind of way this project is an attempt to fight against that same "wall of vagueness". Music can transport people but it can not fill a physical space..it is fluid, transparent and anchor-less. I am trying to create a fantasy world with clear cut, clearly-defined edges, which gives music a container.




Tomorrow...the vital stage of lifting these floppy cardboard pieces off the ground...

Moon Queen and Sun King

Day 8

“You may hang your walls with tapestry…cover them with mosaic; or have them frescoed…all this is not luxury, if it be done for beauty's sake…”

"If others can see it as I have seen it, then it may be called a vision rather than a dream." William Morris

Day: 6
Mission: to turn psychedelic folk festival at the Cecil Sharp House, North London, into visual theatre experience with ritualistic elements.
Remaining days: 7





Cardboard elements for my lifesize toy theatre are now complete - today was the first day of embellishment and decoration. 19th Century dreamer, environmentalist and craft-revivalist William Morris has been with me in my little box studio all day, with his views on investing ordinary objects with craftsmanship, quality and beauty. Surrounded by his swirling, nature-inspired patterns I took my four panels, made from mosaic sections of cardboard boxes glued together, mixed a shade of olive paint, clasped my paintbrush and began. The crucial remaining requirements were patience, and the desire to beautify cardboard. As Morris was quoted, “If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

I love the fact that a monotone shade of paint and a drab substance used to transport the world's goods can come together to create a crafted object. I feel certain that, were Morris alive today, he would be out there helping me to source nice clean cardboard boxes on a weekday morning.

And speaking of crafted cardboard.....



....the owl totem in the reception of the Etsy offices in Brooklyn, New York.

Toy Theatre Tree

He stretches out across the carpet of my studio cell, limbs spreading in all directions. He does exactly what he is told, laid against the carpet. But when the time comes to lift him to his vertical postition he keels over and I frantically try to save a dozen tree boughs from slowly, elegantly bending and snapping. Gravity.....is always against me.