beginning of photos for show

images from the show

Memorial with installation material remains...

View from south end of gallery...

Working on the labels...

View from north end of gallery...

more to follow...

Day 8 and Day 9

Finished and Successful!

Tonight is the opening. Everything was finished on time. I will enter the space this evening, take some pictures and sit it just in case anyone comes in. There is no official opening but I will go prepared. I have met a great many people over the last week but one person has left a lasting impression. All in all though the experience of interacting with the public has been special. I have given two tours, one a small group of public school students. The second one today was very informal and was given to a large group of high school artists, they were taking painting and had done a number of artistic attractions that day already.

The show looks good. In total there are nine works plus a small memorial in one of the alcoves. I made all the labels and the didactic by hand. I enjoyed it actually and they are floating on a small piece of foam core. Charlie, the tech at the gallery helped me extensively. He set things up, did lighting and helped me hang the pieces. Whenever I needed something he was there to helpout. The front desk staff helped as well. I am extremely grateful to all those involved and even though their parts may seem small, it comes together as a whole. Pictures of the works will follow this evening.

I am leaving a guest book and info on how to contact me, I want to get as much feed back as possible. paul.

Day Six and Day 7

Spent the last two days working feverishly. Monday from 10am to 8pm. There were a few breaks but I managed to finish two large ones and start a medium sized one.

Today I managed to finish the medium and start another. To date that includes two portraits with landscapes, two large landscapes, a small, and two mediums. That leaves me with one last large landscape and two small ones.

There are also alcoves in between the boards and they are suggesting very temporary sculptures made from the materials that I used during the show. I'm not sure if this will be too “confusing” for the public but little notes might be a good idea so that people looking at it will understand. It will also give me the chance to work on something a little less finished or commercial. The space is essentially mine to do what I want with. I wonder how far they will let me go to do this.

I have come up with the idea for making small memorials. I'm not too sure if this is something that will work out but the materials that I made the work will could be manipulated to make this happen. I have images of these individuals and I can make it work with some careful construction.

Of course all this is just a thought.

There are only a few things left to do. A guest book, labels and a small didactic.

I also hung the first piece today. It looks a little rough but is quite nice on the wall. There were fears that perhaps the pieces would not stay on the wall or would curl too much but the smallest most problematic piece is hanging well with only a small amount of tweaking.

I have three days left and a few things to do but all in all I am on track. I will work on Wednesday for five or six hours and then again on Thursday. By then end of Thursday I should be completely done minus labels/didactic and guestbook.

Response from the public has been favourable. The common reaction to what I am trying to do is raising eyebrows or a smile. I like both reactions. There have been a few people who are fairly sceptical but I have invited them to come back and look on my progress. I will be hanging a couple of pieces tomorrow morning so that there is something to view.

I had one gentlemen walk out of the gallery this evening after everything closed, he seemed to be dissatisfied with the amount of interaction the “performance” promised. Normally I would explain that it is not customary for the artist to be available for discussions or to see the work in progress, but he left way before I got a chance to discuss this. It was an unfortunate event that I hope is not repeated. I have done quite a bit of work in public spaces spaces and it seems that every time I put myself in that position there is at least one person who is not satisfied with my project/work. I will accept this as my status quo.

Dec 4th and 5th

Day four and Day five 6:31pm…

I have been working for the last two days on and off. I managed to get some work done in the common room of the British hotel where I am staying. I made the smallest piece which was a good tester. Although I have made countless drawings in my lifetime and I have been through the process that I am using for these works in my head a hundred times it was necessary to make sure that all will go as planned.

It worked rather well, the end result being quite attractive, though a bit rough. It is the image of the boat that the family travelled on to get to Canada. This morning I went to St James where I am being allowed to use a board room. The location suits my purposes just fine as I just needed space to size and cut the drawings and begin working on the first layers. I managed to get the two portraits of my grandparents first layer finished and will draw them completely. With these two smaller ones done, and the ship that would make three out of a quite a few. The larger drawings will take a lot less time as it is not as detailed work. After the grandparents I am working on a drawing with the great grandparents. When this is done I can move on to the three large drawings. I believe that given one full day of work uninterrupted I can be finished the majority of the drawing by Tuesday night. This will give enough time to do labels and hang the works. The first drawings are laying quite flat, I have no worries that they will hang well on the wall and will only have to battle the natural curve of the paper from its original roll.

So far I am not feeling very stressed. I am more worried about the fact that the temperature is dropping in Malta and that there is no heating in the room. This of course is expected as it is a Maltese way of life. I bought thermal underwear in London, this would be forward thinking at its best, and quite possible easier on my bones.

I am happy with the way that things are going. If all goes well I should have time to relax and visit relatives after the opening and perhaps spend a few days in Gozo sightseeing or somewhere else. I hadn’t really thought past the creation of the work because it was all I could think about, so I have not planned anything. Though I imagine that there is something that I can do and it will come to me.

I will see about posting photos, still no card reader.

Friday December 3rd 8:43pm

I am currently sitting in the hotel restaurant and have just finished my meal… I read a lot, mostly of the late 19^th and 20^th century classics. A lot of these authors glamorized the living abroad travelling for work. I always thought it was a bit of a romanticized notion that it didn’t really happen in the way that they were describing.

Though sitting here and realizing that the last time I had a self directed time off from life in the fast lane was quite a long time ago. Even then, I had to rely on other people. This time though things are a little different. It’s all on my shoulders and I feel as though things are heading in the right direction. That being said, these were the new obstacles that I seem to have found this afternoon.

I have been told that the humidity will ruin the work. Well not so much ruin as make it un-viewable. Luckily I have already tried out a solution at the show in Humber from October. I hung the work and it kept it more or less straight but not perfect. I’m sure that I can get it perfect this time. I will be using rocks from the debris that scatters back alleys and construction zones in Valletta. The city is made out of the stuff and is constantly falling off, breaking and crumbling. The bottom of the drawings will have these weights. It is a literal metaphor for my connection to the land. I am reconnecting myself to this place through the creation of the works. Like everything else, one thing leads to the next, and to the next. When I create like this is brings out the ideas that help illustrate what I am doing as a whole. It is almost as if someone is reading the ideas back to me after it is done. I feel like this approach is now a part of my process.

The next hurdle is the holiday coming up mid week, it is a feast day and it happens on December 8^th 2010. I wasn’t aware of it and unless I looked at a Maltese calendar probably wouldn’t find out. I have to work around it unless the center is open. I have a feeling that it is.

The crew in the office and the staff are absolutely fantastic. They were a little hesitant but I think that they are reading my confidence and understand what I am trying to do. Essentially the project has begun. Even with the letter of invitation and the space being booked for me it would not happen if they didn’t extend their hand and share my vision if only a little. It is important for artists to have support, especially ones that are operating under my kind of practice which needs to feed off the moment as much as constant practice. The only way to be prolific is to work in the moment and plan for the future at the same time. So both must be acknowledged.

I have finally chosen the final images, I have worked out where the family is from, where the original farm was and exactly how everything took place. The photos that my mothers parents took are actually a very stable narrative. Shots at the family farm engagement pictures, pass port photos, child photos of two births in Malta (Victor, Joseph), pictures of the family being left behind, pictures with Soldiers at the barracks (where my Grandfather was stationed with the British and Maltese), a shot from the docks boarding the customs officials ferry to the ship and then the ship itself.

Day One Malta

December 1^st, I just spent twodays in London. I have a suspicion that I brought canadianweather with me because it snowed the entire time. It snowed all day nove 30^th and didn’t stop till late in the middle of the night. This is described as adverse weather for the isles but for me not so much being Canada. I tt was nice to see the weather and made me a little homesick. I am use to seeing snow this time of year but lately in Canada we have had more rain than snow. When a few drops fall in London the entire city slows down. It’s a good thing that they don’t often get blizzards.

Right now I am waiting for my flight to Malta where I will begin the survey for the preparation of the show. I will be making a number of drawings that will be hung on the walls of the gallery with bull clips. I have yet to see exactly how this will be done. I have brought back ups.

Unfortunately I forgot to remove my cutting implements when I was shigting weweight onmy luggage and my box cutter and scissors where confiscated. I forgot to remove them. They are easy enough to replace but it is a terrible shame. It is more the fact that it is yet another associated cost of travelling to an international exhibition. I long for the future where I will have someone to handle all the small details. It is important that I find more time for my work and less time for the admin concerns of the exhibiting, etc. I should focus more on shows and opps in Mississauga than anywhere else, as long as I am in that area. It just ends up making more fiscal sense.

The stay in London was good, but I found no new inspiration for my work, I spent time on Tuesday afternoon planning my show and provided that I have enough paper I will be able to show what I want. I have worked out the source images and created a loose figuring. I may still make the collages yet for enlarge images through photocopying. I will not have space to work till the 5^th of December when I will be able to invite the public into the space and allow them to interact with me while I work. The website says this and I hope that I will fulfill this intention to their satisfaction. I have a small video camera and will have someone take some images. Possibly I will ask my relatives or some students to help document. I have a couple of people that I have been trying to develop friendships with that are involved with the arts here.

In Rafal’s studio for his masters at the London college of arts there are two maltese artists. Patrick Mifsud and Adrian Scicluna. I think that maybe my relatives might know adrians family distantly. Malta is not that big a place but scicluna is fairly common as a name. I will mention it.

I think that is it for now. I will be typing again when settled into the hotel and after I am spread out, comfortable and contemplating work. I will be making something every day.