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.