and another thing
Over time and between exhibitions, much of the work illustrated in this archive was kept on racks in attics, basements and spare bedrooms. Such is art making when the primary aim is exposure of ideas rather than sales. In 2015, came a need to downsize, a task that can be particularly daunting. But there is an upside to downsizing. Indeed, in many ways it is cathartic. Moving from a house / studio / workshop to an apartment encourages a long hard look at stored drawings, prints, sculptures and canvases. In my case, the final step was to cull, shred, rip, bag and say 'goodbye' at the kerb to much of what is often euphemistically identified as the collection of the artist.
art-in-a-bag: a fifty year summation. In the finest traditions of conceptual and performance art, this work was installed at the mouth of our drive on Grimes Avenue, September 28th 2015. But, the installation and its move from kerb to truck went unrecorded as did the identity of the actors. This put me in mind of Canadian sculptor/printmaker McCleary Drope who, in the early 1970s, travelled to pre-selected map coordinates where he looked at, but did not record, the scene beyond his own memory of the moment. The lack of a record notwithstanding, September 28th 2015 may have been one of the more inciteful / insightful moments in my career. In terms of space and time, the event summarised and spanned the residue of fifty years activity ranging across two countries, two provinces and fifteen home-based studios.
documentation
A further development of downsizing, was my reintroduction to a myriad documents that lurked in drawers, binders, and miscellaneous nooks and crannies. They include exhibition announcements, catalogues, newspaper articles and so forth. Scanning, shredding and recycling these documents was a significant step in the downsizing process. Posting the digitized files to this web site imposed a structure upon which I was able to create and maintain this personal archive.
Finally, I should acknowledge that it was particularly rewarding to rediscover records of when and where my work showed alongside that of my talented wife and partner of over fifty years, Gillian (Jill Clarke) Maycock.