B to A

It was interesting to be in Stoke for such a brief but intense day. I was exhilarated by what I'd seen at Spode, such a vast empty space but quite a long way from a blank canvass, it has such a weight of memory on it. I think we managed to come quite far in our 45 minutes, towards seeing where our practices intersect, or perhaps repel each other. I think there are lines that excite us both, marked by flashpoints of opposite character. I think that tendency to identify our stark differences comes from the short timespan we're working within, we're desperately drawing up lines to structure a nebulous thing that doesn't exist.

It's true to say a real difference is that you work things out in public, you like to put things out there and see what comes back. I'm more contemplative, I'll go over things before I release them. But I do draw things in, I learn, sometimes there are people I talk to who leave me feeling buoyed and inspired to the point of white noise. I'm fairly private though, I wonder if that was in your mind when you added my photograph to the blog. You appear regularly in and around your work, I don't, it feels strange. It's private for now, but we know the intention is that this will form part of the work. So are we having a conversation or performing a conversation?

Permanence and ephemera. I think in it's purest form our project will turn out to be about this.

You were telling me a little about a garden festival that happened in Stoke. I'd really like to know more about it. You said it was the last biggest thing that ever happened there... I'm interested in that sense of rise and fall, this temporary blooming that you're still finding remains of in brickwork terraced lawns. I've just found out that I'm going to attend one of Rednile's Factory Nights next week. We'll be going to an Ironstone mine, walking along the shore, then visiting an archeological dig of a Saxon burial ground in Redcar. I'm ecstatic. I'm sure it will be in my mind when I return to Stoke a few days later.

I'll have a think about mapping my processes... they change.

I've mentioned to Zac that we'd like some bricks, some paper and some ink cartridges.