Settling People Like You into the Lighthouse Gallery space was not without problems, compromise and pain, but for me all of that paled into insignificance on discovering that Mirka's beautiful bowl had been damaged somewhere between being wrapped up and packed in Salisbury and being unwrapped in Poole - the day before the exhibition was due to open. The large chip on its rim is a complete puzzle, and the sadness is pervading. The bowl was part of a collaborative installation with ceramic...

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Needing my soft-sculpture to continue meaningful narratives in the context of its next venue, the Lighthouse, Poole, I have been working on a suplimentary piece inspired by the very different environment. I have described 'People Like You' as an exhibition bringing together the work of Liz Crow, committed and caring artist/activist; Sue Austin, bold and challenging artist/researcher and Gini, dreamer and poet, artist/social commentator. You'll notice that I don't actually think...

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Monday morning and time to get out. Time to remove 'People Like You' from the temporary home in Salisbury Arts Centre Gallery and place them in storage until May and their reemergence into the spotlight at the Lighthouse in Poole. And I can't help but make links to Bedding Out (Liz's bed was here on this stage)... that temporary visibility, the Big Splash in the limelight, followed by a period of rest, assessment, evaluation and repair - behind closed...

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Here we are and will you be coming? Could you be part of this interaction? 'People Like You' is still making noises in Salisbury all day today and tomorrow. It moves to the Lighthouse in Poole at the beginning of May... My journey to Salisbury Arts Centre following Sue's white lines has a (temporary) festival nature. I am cheered along the way, I point out that I wasn't the artist, but people shake their heads in disbelief. I'm given the thumbs up and knowing, acknowledging...

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White Lines; lead you to me. To 'People Like You', to glossy pink grab rails, to Kouros, Koure and co. They lead your thoughts to created geography, to the man-made spaces that largely unnoticed, influence and dominate our thoughts, our moods, and consequently our lives.   Wheelborne, I seldom interact with playful geography, confined by the history and imagination of architect and planner I roll oppressed by the hierarchy of power. The constant reminder of status in flights of...

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Grab me. They invite me and grab me; they sign to the Kouroi standing self-absorbed and utterly armless. The mountains you move with humour far outsize anything done from the shadow side of despair. Counted out!  Where did the time go? The Symposium has been and gone, but its too early to be taking stock - Liz Crow is Bedding Out and 'Creating the Spectacle! 360' has not yet been packed away. 'People Like You' will be there until Sunday with Kosta, Jessie, Fons and Kouros...

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'People Like You' - the final week of the exhibition:   This is a powerful combination, if you can take it all in. The wheelchair artist talks about a hidden secret and seeing this, the subtle sum of it all, I can believe there is one. I can believe I'm on the brink of discovering it.   Here, now, on the brink of Bedding Out, caught up in this wave of interconnected protest, it's possible to believe in better. Caught up in the global impact of 'Creating the...

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You don't look at it and think disabled. It's art, it ticks all the boxes. It's inspirational normal inspiration, you know? Not the sympathy kind. Everybody can relate to it, without all the usual triggers and it still makes you think. I think art like this really does make a difference. Around and during the Symposium (10/03/2013)  'People Like You' has the added bonus of Liz Crow and Sue Austin presenting live work. I first met Sue in 2009 when she came to document...

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Building up to live performances, counting down to the symposium, the tension mounts. Some great comments about 'People Like You', the assembled work of Liz Crow, Sue Austin and myself, include this one which makes me smile: If this is Disability Art, its very subtle, I can relate to it. It's mainstream, is that an insult? What I mean is it works for anyone. Everyone should see it. Since they first appeared in this exhibition, the soft-sculptures evolved from my Con.Text...

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'People Like You' conversations are already growing into a fascinating body of work: I have discovered my own thoughts echoing through your work. Words I can relate to. I've noticed the way you juxtaposition art and religion. I'm keen to move into this positive space where a new figure is taking form, but don't want to move too quickly. Next week will see 'Bedding Out' with Liz Crow go live, and there will also be live White Line art from Sue Austin as well as her...

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I believe in you, do you
believe in me? It's time.

Time for life, time for
change; climb, clamber, crawl,
wriggle and roll|
out of the straight jacket
of fear. Time to refuse
to be groomed as victim;
time to reject persecution.

It's time to come out
of hiding, it's time.
to be one with another.

I believe in you, do you
believe in me? It's time.

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Last week I joined an audio-description training introduction and as a result was offered a taster touch-tour and audio-described performance at Salisbury Playhouse by their professional, very helpful team. Touch-tours normally take place on a stage which is, unfortunately, not wheelchair accessible, but I did manage to wheel close enough to feel the grassy surface texture of the set. I had earlier been emailed a link to the Playhouse website's audio information, but had found the set...

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Like the children, you think you've let go, you watch those independent steps and move on from the wrench. But nothing prepares you for the way your creation takes off; gathers momentum and brings home the stories that you scattered; brings them home enriched with lives and links and lightening bolts. 'People in Con.Text' conversations are full of positive feedback, and a great sense of people's engagement with the exhibition. They are, so far, hugely enjoyable - there is...

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Now that 'People Like You' is installed in the Salisbury Arts Centre Gallery, I need to tidy up - housekeeping. My house, without the five soft-sculpture figures, is peaceful. Where they had spilled out into my personal space, I can reclaim room to breath. My studio however is a mess. And none the freer for the exodus of artwork - it still contains preparations and pictures I rejected for this version of 'People Like You'. Canvasses exploring the theme of angels - the visual...

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Not caring, not daring to leave a gaping hole, a vacuum through which I might disappear like the humanoid rabbit, I have already started on 'People in Con.Text'. Conversations with visitors to the 'People Like You' exhibition/installation will form part of its evaluation and already there are gems like the squealed, 'letter handles' that a small child used to draw her parents' attention to the grab rails. And the smiling gent who came to tell me that if his dog were...

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Wednesday was time to put in some overdue effort on the PLY Project. LinkUpArts members have gathered 'baby and now' photos of people like you, like us, for the 'People Like You' exhibition. These need printing out, 'baby image' on one side, 'now image' on the other. A few do not have baby photos of themselves so I have made simple boy and girl outline drawings. It would also be great if people wanted to draw their own.  No-one is excluded There are...

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Tuesday started earlier than I am comfortable with, but I needed to be there for the grab rails. They require a lot of holes drilled in the wall and I'd hate to have to ask the team to make corrections. I do have a very clear idea of how I'd like them to sit and I am very pleased with the result. The template supplied by Shaun at Ozweld proved really helpful. I'm also pleased with the initial reactions of people passing through, I've overheard some lively remarks from all age...

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I spent Monday in the chaos of the get-in - not easy on wheels when there is so much technology, people, and stuff. I had spent a sleepless night and was pleased to see the dawn of a dry and almost sunny day. The soft-sculptures travelled in with Sue Austin, the pen and ink drawings with Trish Wheatley, and I followed with smaller things. At Salisbury Arts Centre we hit an immediate low. The car park was overflowing, the accessible parking spaces were occupied and trapped in my car I dived -...

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Finally the grab rails are a reality; I have pictures! They were taken at the workshop before the letters went to be powder-coated, but suddenly the faintly niggling feeling that it might all be an illusion has been replaced with elation. It seems so very long ago that I had an idea for an installation and did the first grab rail doodles, then photographed my own grab rails and Photoshopped them into the right shapes. I enjoy making my own artwork, but months of pondering and positioning of...

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I'm in some strange limbo world. Five soft sculptures wait impatiently. Next week they will leave their overcrowded space and take up temporary residence in Salisbury Arts Centre. I wonder who I will be without our daily confrontation.   Creatives in Con.Text are People in Con.Text; these five, white figures reflect the conversations, echo the history of creative expression from the art of the ice age to the current search for connection and recognition that drives us into an online...

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Creatives in Con.Text, the work from which the idea for this exhibition exhibition evolved, is awaiting further conversation with a printer, Sue Austin and Liz Crow are finessing 'Creating the Spectacle!' (film) and 'Bedding Out' respectively; 'People Like You' is coming together. It's time to think about design; the positioning of the artwork in the space so that the whole will say more than the sum of its parts. The five...

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Distance is key. Moving away from intense emotional involvement with a piece of work, focusing elsewhere, will often reveal unexpected omissions and surprises both good and bad. This is a process I like to be in control of, so when I feel myself being torn away by random circumstance, I cling on desperately until I am forced to admit the untimely break. I make, I write, I draw to feel sane, to feel alive and in communion with something other and far greater than me. There are always...

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The past is a rogue horse. It stands grazing harmlessly until I am so familiar with it lurking in my background that I hardly see it, until something spooks it and away it goes. It rips through my present with heart thumping and erratic speed, flailing hooves tearing rifts in my careful togetherness. And I cannot watch it go, but must follow. And match. We trash countless blind alleys while I attempt to nudge this snorting black nightmare closer to something solid and dependable like a wall....

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My 2012 has been enriched by wanderings through the WWonderWeb (and I don't mean the hemming tape), thanks to innumerable people posting fascinating stuff, this absolutely has to include DAO and of course the amazing Maria Popova: www.brainpickings.org Somewhere in my recent past is a conversation with Colin (Hambrook) about 'the tortured artist' so I was fascinated to come across this in an article from the New York Times: Ray Bradbury, b. 1920 The Untortured Artist Shortly before his 90th...

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So that was Christmas. It'll soon be time to go back in the box. Mum, Dad, me - we get stuffed into an old Crock box with, I dunno, about 20 others. It's a nice box and she thinks we stay there 350 odd days of the year, yeah well... She thinks she made most of us, put together from wool and felt, bits and bobs, stuff you can see and touch, but like most good ideas we don't confine ourselves to the expected; or even the good. We come out every year to watch over the end and the beginning; we...

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