Song, 2011, by Michael Powell and Laura Skyner

Here are images of the completed Shack. The Exhibition is now open at Pensychant Conservation Centre.

Here are some images of the shack as it nears completion. I have covered the outside roof with ferns and brash and made an outer archway with driftwood collected from local shores, and an inner arch with hazel. And after completing work on the outer upper cob wall with a wooden framed window have now begun working on the inside.

The building of the cob log wall. This was built in one morning by myself and the lovely Laura Sky. The cob mixture was made of 3 parts sand, one part clay (soaked for a day in water) and as you stamp it all in, add straw and howl!

This is the beginning of the documentation of my Welsh Arts Council Funded Installation ‘By Catching at the twigs that form between bliss and me’ as Pensychnant Conservation Centre, Conwy, North wales as part of Helfa Gelf 2011.

Above you can see image as the construction of the shack begins to take shape… I built the initial frame using donated timber (mostly ash and cherry) and scavanged bits and pieces, with the help and kind guidance of Woodchop Oliver Craigan, Daniel Quiggin and Lau Skyner. We dug 5 main logs into the ground, and after bedding these in with soil and stamping sticks, we then built the upper frame using lap joints and a self supporting roof structure, which I then covered with ferns, foliage and a plastic membrane. After this I then spent two weeks building and drilling into place the rest of the shack structure, aided by Lau Skyner and the Welsh August rain.

Imaginary Drawing School Year two aims 

July- Oct -By Catching at the twigs that form between you and me- completed

Three month personal development project leading towards building of the creature’s shack as an installation- Have now received funding for this through arts council Wales I will be building this installation at Pensychnant Conservation Centre as part of Helfa Gelf 2011.

Aug- Bristol exhibition of Rooms, Hats, Totem poles at the Runcible Spoon in Stokes Croft Bristol- completed

November- Big Tree Drawing, finishing it finally whilst spending the month writing- completed

November 5/6/7- To produce a 360 degrees drawing of Conwy, drawn over 3 days- completed

November- New Conwy derelict window display to be installed- completed

November - March- I am going to spend the Winter months painting, writing, recording and etching a series of work based upon my dreams.

Dec-Jan- Explore possibilities of a 145 Collective exhibition in derelict space- completed

March- May- One big Triangles drawing/ One Big Pattern drawing, influenced by Aztec and Maya research

March-May- To produce 3 illustrations to go alongside two stories and a poem I have written.

May- July- to begin research period of work on year 3 project based upon story I have written

Reading list-

Philip K Dick- as much as possible- completed

Borges- re read entire works.

Paterson- William Carlos Williams

Fairy Tales of Herman Hesse completed

Books about Aztec and Mayan Mythology

Whitman- song of myself

Campbell- Hero with a thousand Faces

Benedetti- Blood Pact completed

Imaginary writing school year two aims- 

October- May - working on ‘and the clouds’ story solely.

October- apply for writing bursary- to develop my book- working title’ and the clouds’ completed

November- Collaborative poetry book work with Lau Skyner. completed

November- Dec- Collaborative drawing /writing book with sonja Benskin Mesher

Jan-May collaborative postal poems.. different themes decided with each collaborator

Essay on why I draw and write stories ( to accompany this lllooonnnggg drawing above)

Some of the things that I have found which give meaning to my life, are drawing pictures and writing stories and poems. I enjoy using my imagination to create other worlds or characters, as this process brings me both enjoyment, satisfaction and also offers me a way of interpreting and explaining the world around me.

I also find drawing and writing to be cathartic when I feel emotional, or am trying to understand my emotions and the world I live in. I think that it is therapeutic in the sense that the act of doing it offers a sense of therapy or release from the self. A friend once described the feeling he gets from drawing as meditative, and I am inclined to agree; as I have noticed that when I really get into doing a drawing or piece of writing, my mind becomes clearer, and feels afterwards as if slightly more purified and calmer for doing it. I also think that in this stage when you are doing something, just for the joy of doing it, not for the fear or the glory of the outcome, is when you can create art that has substance to it; something that has a purity. As in this stage you are working within a realm of thought or imagination that cannot be explained or described.

There is also a part of me that knows that my art will give me applause from my friends, and peers, and this also pleases me. But this is not why I do it, though I would be lying if I did not admit that this occurs, as it is a natural thing to happen. I think having an awareness of it, and admitting it allows me to monitor it, and make sure that this is not why I am doing it. This is also why I am conscious of having many other things in my life that offer me meaning. I am always haunted by an image of a musical genius, who when he reaches old age, and the loses the capability to make or play music, has nothing else surrounding him that can offer the same feeling, so he ends up simply withering and dying very quickly.

I am very conscious of the need to focus and practice my art in order to improve it, and enjoy it on different levels,

“Know when to stay in, know when to go out, get things done.”

David Bowie

“The task in life for the artist who makes his life from playing, is to learn how to play on demand”

Alan Watts

But I am also inspired by and have great enthusiasm for the belief that anyone can write and draw, as anyone can do anything they want to when they turn their mind to it. It is just a matter of practice and enthusiasm. To Paraphrase Mohammed Ali very badly; If you think you cannot do something, you do not say you can do it, if you do not say you can do it, you never try it, if you never try to do something, then you never practise doing it, if you do not practise something, then this never becomes routine, if it does not become routine, it never becomes part of your life, and if it never becomes part of your life then it will never become your destiny.

Writing and drawing provide ways of expressing and exploring our emotions and imagination, offer the doer a sense of achievement and satisfaction and are also simply fun to do. All of these are useful explanations and descriptions, and it is natural of my nature and a by product of having a consciousness of thought that I need to offer an explanation for why I do these things, but ultimately I think there is no need for an explanation, as there is really no explanation. It is just something I do and feel I have to do. I think Philip Larkin described it best, when he said that he writes poetry because he simply has no choice, as he has

“To please that mysterious something that has to be pleased”

And with this Year one of imaginary drawing school is complete. I am away now for a few weeks, walking the hills of Wales and Bulgaria, and visiting Bristol briefly to see friends and help out with a final exhibition at the Emporium on the 15th of June.

Here are my completed series of Hats drawings, which will be exhibited in Bristol in August, as part of my Rooms, Hats and Totem Poles exhibition at the Runcible Spoon on Stokes Croft.

The cloud gallery rises!

www.thecloudgallery.com

On here i have also put my finished rooms and totem pole illustrations

My short story ‘By catching at the twigs that form between bliss and me’ complete with illustrations i did whilst in Buenos Aires and North Wales.