Studio build: Night painting

Its been a busy couple of weeks in our new studios as interior construction continues.

As I'm doing all this work myself I have had to take time off work, my leave consumed obtaining materials, putting in insulation, plastering, electrics etc and to be able to complete on time and with all my leave gone; I've had to resort to building at night.

All easy work just deceptively time consuming...

Its at times like this that I wish I had paid out more so that everything would have been built months ago,  however I keep reminding myself that by doing all this work I have saved thousands... but it is taking forever as time is something I don't have a great deal of, thanks to full time work.

Frustrating.

I've now begun white-washing after installing the ceiling, walls and floating floor, backbreaking but satisfyingly affordable. Walking around this white cube at night I'm surprised by how incredible it now looks, there's so much potential here.

It's also surprisingly warm inside and on these starry nights I can see us relaxing in here at some point with a nice bottle of the old splishy-splashy.

It's all bleeding coming together.

Studio build: Jovian walls

Beautiful but dangerous...having a cup of tea whilst admiring the wall, ceiling and floor 'insulation' I've installed into our new studios.

The installation was easy and by doing this myself I've shaved 2/3 thirds of the overall cost of this build. Shame to cover it all up...

This essentially consisted of several inches of heat reflecting foam insulation in the roof and floor and standard loft insulation in the walls, all picked up at my local DIY store. Every inch is also sealed in a weather membrane and I've coated the exterior in more weatherproofing paint. The actual building was also pressure treated.

All of this is really just to reflect as much heat as possible during the summer, otherwise I've got myself a human oven.

Secessionist

A lovely recollection of Egon Schiele: The Radical Nude - The Courtauld Institute of Art exhibition we went to not long ago.

A favourite artist and a great inspiration for my practice.

Book in a box

A nice reminder of an earlier idea for the publication of Just Waves In Space...loose pages inside a box...

B. S. Johnson 'The Unfortunates' 1969

Studio build: Choosing window frame colour...

Outre` Orange!

Studio build: Love is the devil…the building of studios…

© Love is the Devil – Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon - Artificial Eye

Its been such a long time being without studios and as such my arty energy was redirected into parenting or assimilated by the day job, hence my absence from this blog...

That was until a sizeable plot was uncovered in our garden and it seemed only logical to take advantage of and build our own studios. 

The obvious benefits would be I'd save on studio rent, expand the family home but most importantly it would provide an immediate space for creativity whenever time became available. 

For blog continuity construction began some time ago hence my absence, with ground-breaking taking forever to complete, due to various delays but mostly my own insistence on staying within budget; but thankfully the foundations and main build are now completed and we're the happy owner's of a very spacious, buildings regs compliant and rather cheeky modernist looking home studio situated at the end of our garden. So I'm just checking in to acknowledge that I am still alive and active...

But its far from complete.

The studio interior still needs building and as I opted to do this myself to reduce the overall costs considerably (insulation,  electrics, cladding, plastering) so there's no glossy photos just yet...again time is my ever present nemesis, my biggest obsticle, full time work exhausts me mentally, and I have little free time aftwards and I'm not the sort of person to sacrifice family time which for me over-rides my art-practise; hense why these projects take such...time.

But I'm no longer in any rush, I'm a happy new farther with a swell new studio and in no hurry.

I'll post more...I promise...

The New Studios?

Foundations are being lain, remnants burnt; something new will become apparent....soon...

Foundations...

Prenzlauer Berg is haunted

Current poster promotion for Splendid Berlin Magazine 'Prenzlauer Berg is haunted'.



© Splendid Berlin



Splendid Berlin

Recently our good friends - Heike Schneider-Matzigkeit & Mark Fernyhough have created the rather Splendid magazine - Splendid Berlin Magazine, which documents Berlin art, style, culture and the city’s most bohemian residents who live and think on an international scale.

They have very kindly used some on my prints from Just Waves in Space (the early swimming cap shoot) as part of their regular supernatural Berlin series. As well as the Tesla Helmet prints I collaborated with Heike Schneider-Matzigkeit.

Its great to see the work getting some further exposure.

© Hilton Vasey - 'Just Waves in Space'

Snow days...

Recently we became parents, so I've been pouring all my attention into making sure this new little person is my first and only number 1 priority. Obviously I haven't missed the studio one bit. 

I've still found time to be creative be it decorating the bathroom '2001' (Kubrick) style or making a whole bunch of silly 1970's toys for the new addition.

As well as shifting my embroidery skills to these various characters, I've been reviewing my practise. Previously in this blog I’d indicated I wanted to incorporate ritual, however this period away has allowed me to acknowledge that I already do this... I’d just become complacent.

Looking over the 1st chapter 'I fell' I realise I’d actually accumulated well over 100 images for 'Just Waves in Space' but I hadn't acknowledged them all as integral, at the time casting many of them aside as spoiled!

From this I could see I had been taking for granted many of the various actions I use in these performances, repetition, drawing, limb binding etc as I had over time begun to see them as just normal!

What's next I've decided then is a more concentrated direction at ‘documenting’ each physical step I take…

'Heres me binding my face with cello tape, heres me drawing out a square on the floor etc, the various little things I took for granted will now take more of a central stage and I’m excited to see where this will take me.
 

For the time being I'm holding out on practise-led-work until the little-un is at least toddling around, I'm also building a studio/sun house at the bottom of the garden!....more to come.