25/03/2009 by Karen Ay.

Went to hear Hew Locke speak at Tate Britain tonight. I need to do this more often. I liked the fact that he was so disarming in the way he talked about his work. I must confess, I never saw the work, ‘Hemmed In’, which was an installation he built in the V&A. Wish I had.

Also really liked his ‘Shares’ pieces, which will be installed near Portebello Road in a few weeks’ time. Interesting guy, and incredible work.

He has work in the show, ‘Mythologies‘ at Haunch of Venison in London at the moment, along with another fave of mine, Christian Boltanski, and others. I think it’s on until late April. Must see.

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20/03/2009 by Karen Ay.

Tomorrow is moving day for TangentProjects, and at the moment bikkies are baking in the oven as part of the bribe for the moving crew (thank you, thank you, one and all.) I’m thinking copious amounts of sugar-infested food will speed things along. That, and lots of tea anyway. We’ll be located in Bethnal Green just off Cambridge Heath Road, right near AP Fitzpatrick, which is rather cool. Can’t wait to settle in.

All packed up, above, and the new space, below. Dare I say it, Helene and I are looking forward to hearing the rain on the roof. I don’t think Steve is fussed, as long as it doesn’t leak.

And the biscuits, of course - mmmmmmm:

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18/03/2009 by Karen Ay.

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in what I’m doing or making that I forget what inspired me to be an artist in the first place. For me, it was drawing and painting, although most of my work is now of the 3D variety.  I don’t draw nearly as much as I’d like (or perhaps as much as I should), but my love affair with mark making is never ending and passionate. So it felt really good to take a break yesterday and go see the Cy Twombly show. Huge, lovely paintings in a huge, lovely space (well, it is the Gagosian Gallery…) The Richard Serra piece was a nice bonus as I didn’t realise it was still there - mark making of a different variety.

Afterward, we walked over to Kings Place, a space next to the new Guardian building to see what it was all about and were delighted to find an exhibition of fabulous mixed media drawings by Dale Atkinson. Lovely work:

(detail of top image)

I felt so well nourished that I wanted to run out and buy a new sketchbook straightaway.

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08/03/2009 by Karen Ay.

I recently attended a conference / workshop at the British Library Business & IP Centre, and in one of the sessions we were given three questions, asked to write our answers on a Post It note and put them up on the wall. Jamie Dobson, the guy leading this particular session, later compiled the responses and kindly emailed them to those of us who requested them.

One of the questions was, “How do you come up with ideas, can you describe your process?” and one of the responses really got me thinking, because among other things, it said, “Be a tourist (every day!)”  I really like that idea. Being a Flaneur has always had an appeal for me, and it was good to be reminded to simply look.

Seeing the familiar with fresh eyes is a Good Thing.

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04/03/2009 by Karen Ay.

Annie’s got new work in Volta - it opens tomorrow so all you NYC people, go have a look. I guarantee, you won’t be disappointed.

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