Unretirement

Well, my first retirement was an unpalatable six months and I’m glad to say I am back in the world of the itinerant artist thanks to Shrewsbury Museum, the good people of Wolverhampton and the agency that mismanages Post Office recruitment. And so to rebuild my frail confidence in my own work and my battered bank account…

First up is the Digital Content Development project for the Museum, including a treasure hunt of QR codes for scanning around Shrewsbury, which I’m in the process of designing. Young & New Curator groups at the Museum will be testing the hunt in the new year, which will include finding work by myself and artist Sue Challis, responding to that work, undertaking challenges and exploring some of the museum collections in a virtual environment. The engine driving this project is being built by James Grimster of Orangeleaf Systems as we speak, for the new Discover Shropshire website. The project, Strata, will have a live site too, more news as it happens.

On another note – 40 copies of my book sold so far – and that just among friends. Relentless marketing on Facebook accounts for all of that, I really should do a bit more for a wider readership…

Littoral

Coastal resorts are like dark places in houses, the places where the natural byproduct of life, the detritus of utility, finds sanctuary from the broom, the brush, the vacuum. People on the fringes of society, the forgotten people, end up dead, institutionalised, or trapped in coastal resorts. They drift in the gentle breezes and buffeting storms of their own unfixed, indeterminate destinies. Eventually they reach the coast, like so much flotsam, and drawn to the coloured lights of resorts they stop, caught, because the sea won't let them drift any further, and they can't turn back.