Gimme a break...

Please excuse this somewhat erratic post that I'm about to bestow onto you. My mind is running 20 to the dozen and thought it was high time I posted something, suffice to say I've been slack of late, is quite the understatement!

...As far as Art goes, I don't have too much report on my behalf, but I did visit my friend Jackie's excellent exhibition recently. We share a common interest of painting without a brush (woop woop), but she uses oils...I'm an acrylic boy, myself. Check out her stuff, it's great.

...As far as Theatre goes, I've been pretty busy. When I'm not seeing it (recent outings include: Jonathan Larson's 'Tick Tick Boom' (bravo, Leon) and a surprisingly good Gareth Gates in 'Joseph'), or being concerned about shows closing (poor 'Spring Awakening'), or distracting myself with intriguing announcements (Julie Taymor and U2 bringing us 'Spiderman the Musical' on Broadway(!!??) or the sublime Sheridan Smith opening in 'Legally Blonde - the Musical' in London), I've been hatching some directorial plans (possibly including a large cast, possibly not...cards-firmly-close-to-chest) and umming and ahhing about returning to the stage (y'aaargh, it's been at least 5 years and promised it was all behind me) in a potential Theatre Company 10 year anniversary reunion show...all in the light of 'Billy Elliott - the Musical' sweeping the board at the Tonys this week - winning 10 awards...!

My new website is very nearly ready to go live...as soon as it is, I'll post the link :)

Until such a time...

An Inspiring Theatre Company...

I've just come back to Columbus, Ohio...and within days end up at the theatre watching something rather stunning. It was a production by the Available Light Theatre Company called 'Dirty Math'. If you can get down to the Riffe Centre, downtown Columbus, I totally recommend that you do.

The play deals with the absurdity of the economy and the crisis we are all in. The amount of research and development that must have gone into this show is bloody amazing. Giving light and shade, this theatre company is a force to be reckoned with. Witty, satirical, informative and sobering - more people should see this show...click below to find out more:

Moving Art...

It's been a while. I'm working on a commission right now (more about that in another post), but for the moment I thought I would share with you a piece of art, of another kind. Film. I made this pop-video after a night out. Enjoy.

'The' comment...

Sorry it's taken me so long to update this beautiful blog. To say things have been hectic, is quite the understatement. I got back from DC this week and am now getting ready to go back to the UK, where I plan to rest for a while until my next travelling adventure.

A lot of people have been asking me about the infamous comment from Jenny, at my recent art show so I thought I would share it with you all now...

19th September – I’m writing this w/ my left hand since my right is currently occupied. Side note, I’m training myself to become ambidextrous…it’s coming along quite nicely – but you probably don’t believe me judging from the handwriting alone. So I didn’t read your entire description of the exhibit (short attention span…) but I just wanted to contribute this thought (I put down what I was holding…my L hand was makin’ me crazy…)
LOVE IS FREEDOM.
There are so many notions of what love is in this world, and I’ve only met one person who I actually understands what love actually really really is: Thank God he’s my boyfriend, right?..................
So many people think that love is giving or showing that you care or sharing or doing things for someone else. While you may do all of that BECAUSE you want to – that’s not love.
LOVE IS LETTING GO.
It’s letting everyone be themselves and letting you be yourself. People say ‘I love you’ as if it’s some kind of reward, and they say ‘but I love you’ like it’s a stipulation. Love is not a term reserved for the person you have sex with and marry. Love is for everyone.
I LOVE EVERYONE ON THIS ENTIRE PLANET.
I even love you. Not because we’ve had an intimate connection, but because if I were even to meet you, I’d accept you as you are and let you be you and me be me. There’s no such thing as ‘unconditional love’ because there’s no such thing as ‘conditional love’. I feel that so many people give their love under certain conditions – in which case, it’s not love at all. It’s slavery. It’s rewarding behaviour that you want to see. Like I said…
LOVE IS FREEDOM.
Be free, and you will love and be loved. I hope that this all makes sense. It’s kind of foreign to some people – they just don’t understand and that they’re actually destroying their boyfriends by trying to force them to quit smoking (like I did, for example) I finally read some books by Miguel Ruiz and discovered that love is something quite the opposite of what everyone I see does. Sorry to sound harsh – it’s just how I feel. OK, I’m wrapping up now. I hope this becomes good fuel for thought and perhaps comes out somewhere on the other end. I just don’t get a chance to tell people this because they just don’t get it. But I felt comfortable here because
1) I wrote it out
2) The exhibit is about love
3) I thought I should speak out how I truly feel about the topic.
…sorry it turned into a novel…it’s just that love is so important – it deserves as many words.
[symbol] Jenny

Ain't she sweet!?

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All Good Things...

...Must come to an End. If you didn't know already, my exhibition: "Love. A Condition of Absolute Value" (hence the picture I've added to this post) ends tomorrow, so if you haven't seen it, you have less than 24 hours to get down to ModMod on High Street, Columbus. It's been a long and at times, hard process, and I've learnt so much from the whole thing. For my first show, I must say, I'm very pleased. I can't wait to get my "Comments book" back and post some of them on here, there are some absolute classic...and of course, Jenny's epic comment, bless her. I'm off to WashingtonDC this weekend, so when I get back I'll enlighten you all.

In theatre news, this week I've heard that AvenueQ is to close in the next few weeks, sad news. I don't know what's up with the West End this year, but everything seems to be closing, or reducing it's runs. It looks like Hairspray is still going strong though, but who knows if the 'economic crisis' will take it as it's next victim. A strange rumour I heard this week also, is that Zac Efron is to take over from Daniel Radcliffe in Equus on Broadway...not sure I can see Disney letting THAT happen!

A Process...

A lot of people have been asking me, how do I go about creating a piece of art? It's a hard thing to explain, as I just do it, instinctively. To try and explain, here are some photo's detailing the progress of a commission I painted this summer (the process starts at the top, left to the right, then the bottom, left to right:

I hope you can see the differences between each picture. I start with a sketch then build. The hardest part is knowing where to stop.

If you want to see any more of my commissions, click here

Or, if you interested in having a chat about something I could paint for you, feel free to email me.

(or to see any of the other stuff I'm up to online, you can do so here)

An inspiring lady...

I'm not going to make a habit of posting things here that deviate from theatre or my art, but I just wanted to share this with you. It's an old(ish) blog from the UK artist Imogen Heap. In it, she talks about what she has been doing for her forthcoming album and how she has been experimenting with unusual sounds to fit in with some of her tracks. I find her process of creativity both highly interesting and very inspiring. A true artist. Hope you like it.

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