On the rails

A very long series of train journeys yesterday leaving london at 7.53am and arriving in Lund, Sweden at 2.24am! It was day full of peculiar little events and things you only notice when the environment feels foreign. A woman got mugged on my train, I had my palms read (apparently I'm going to very very wealthy at 40... quite a while to wait then!), met and drew a portait of a child soap actor and now kipping the night in a strangers house. I await to see what the next day brings!
TLB

Journey to Sweden

I'm leaving tomorrow to travel by train to Sweden. I'll be meeting my family out there and drawing/painting/writing as much as I can during our meetings but also recording my experiences of them and the places they live. There is something daunting but also very exciting about trying to collect my family history without camera or audio recorder. Somethings I am told I will undoubtably forget while other moments will stick in my memory or on the paper.... what will these be? I very much look forward to meeting my Granduncle, Olof Alin, who is 92 now and has some clear memories of his upbringing and family. The thought that perhaps this may be the last time I meet him is a powerful drive for me.

I imagine this trip will force me to listen, to look and to trust my senses more than usual!
I hope to update my blog as much as I can throughout this trip
over and out
TLB

SITESHOW and The Last Bock

My woodcuts reacted well with the natural light from the windows, highlighting the gold leaf
I drew a charcoal line directly on the rough unfinished walls between the pieces and wrote notes. It was a completely spontaneous idea but in doing it, gaves me ideas of how to express the personal narrative connecting these pieces.

The charcoal line goes out the window directed to my mural outside


Work in progress on The Last Bock

Characters/symbols connected with family stories fill spaces left by knots in the wooden wall. My thumb print starts to emerge
Unfortunately I ran out of time to fill the whole wall. However I found the process of creating a piece of work on site was really exciting. I was able to talk to visitors about my work and family history. I recieved very positive reactions and often quite emotional responses in relation to experiences within individual's family.
Photos by Natasha Taylor

SITESHOW EXHIBITION

Thank you to all those who made it to my last exhibition at the Rag Factory and for those that didn't here is another chance to see what I've been up to and this time its free to get in! I'm showing some woodcuts and will be painting live in SITESHOW @ Little Venice (Warwick Avenue tube ).

SITESHOW is a pop up gallery that takes over building sites for several days and this time its in a 4 floor house in Little Venice. When you arrive at Warwick Avenue Station walk towards the canal. Hang left. 9 Blomfield Road is two or three blocks.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Blomfield+Road%2C+London%2C+United+Kingdom

The best time to come is on Saturday between 12pm and 7pm

I look forward to seeing you very soon
Will

More info:

www.siteshow.co.uk

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=87679993251

Painting new work live at The Rag Factory -photos by Natasha Taylor

Last night I was painting live at The Rag Factory off Bricklane for a performance Art
exhibition







Hand Grain ink paintings











I was very excited to finally display some of my new pieces. I am fascinated by how my hand prints have such similar characteristics to wood grain. It seems to connect the the symbol of the family tree with my body. My drawings make me think of palmistry or reading one's destiny through the lines of the hand, just like you would tell the ago/history of a tree through looking at its tree rings.

Also the hands for me symbolize, work and craftsmanhip. Somehow many of the men in both sides of my family have been skilled as makers or draughtsmen. However some of them used their skills very little (or so it goes) My german Grandfather, William Bock, was apparently artistic, a very good draughtsman. My Finnish Great grandfather made some of his own furniture. his main activity was being a businessman running a tourist agency during the start of the 20th Century in Stockholm....

I'd like to see how enlarging these paintings will change how we visually travel through the picture. I'm thinking of it like a journey between these lines/grains...

Previous Work

Burning City 08'

The Battle 07
The Battle 07'
Family Tree 08'
Twin Aunts 03'

New Woodcut paintings for Sale!

winter 08

Phoenix Tree 08

Hand Painted Quixotic Quills for the Daring writer/illustrator

Art market Dec 19th, 20th 21th

Next weekend I'll be selling my work plus more at this Art Market.......

Anita

In memory of my aunt, Anita. Etching 08