The Secret Rose

'The Secret Rose'. An image I made for Valentines Day for the homepage of my agent, Heart. Far-off, most secret, and inviolate Rose, Enfold me in my hour of hours. Read the rest of 'The Secret Rose' by W.B. Yeats on The Poetry Archive.

What are they like? Jeremy Paxman

What are they like?  'The House of Illustration' asked 16 celebrities to reveal their favourite things. They were partnered with 16 artists who created images. The works were auctioned at Sotheby's in December to support the work of The House of Illustration. Celebrities included Stephen Fry, David Walliams and Florence Welch. Artists included Sara Fanelli and Graham Rawle. I was given Jeremy Paxman, who said he liked the Scottish Highlands and Dylan amongst other things!

Iceberg that sank Titanic

Tacita Dean + The Bournemouth Balloon

The 'Bournemouth Balloon' - tethered and magical as I passed at night together with a still from Tacita Dean's, ‘A Bag of Air’, a subtle 16mm black& white film I saw in 'New Eyes' at the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne a while back. Dean’s project touches upon humankind’s need to turn the invisible into the visible and to make something physical out of the immaterial. 

Madge Gill 'Myrninerest'

There is a major retrospective of the work by the visionary outsider artist, Madge Gill at The Nunnery in Bow, London till 16 August. Madge Gill (1882-1961) had no recognition in her lifetime - she was a spiritualist and created work through a spirit guide she called 'Myrninerest'. Many pieces include a female figure - possibly self portraits. She is included in Jean Dubuffet's Collection d'Art Brut in Lausanne, but most of her output is owned by Newham Council. Quite a few years back I bought a magical drawing by Madge - here it is.

Machines of Man Ray and Duchamp

Man Ray's Object To Be Destroyed (1923) combines a metronome with a photograph of an eye.  He said: 'I had a metronome which I set going when I painted - like the pianist sets going when he starts playing - its ticking noise regulated the frequency and number of my brushstrokes. The faster it went, the faster I painted. A painter needs an audience, so I also clipped a photo of an eye to the metronome's swinging arm. One day I did not accept the metronome's verdict, the silence was unbearable and since I had called it, with a certain premonition, 'Object of Destruction', I smashed it to pieces.'  In 1920, Marcel Duchamp made an optical experiment with the help of Man Ray. Making use of the fact that the eye retains an image for a fraction of a second after it disappears, he built a motorized machine. Segments of a circle were painted on glass plates and mounted on an electrically operated metal axis. Apparently the experiment was not a success. The objects from these 'experiments' are at MOMA, New York

Leah Fusco Gallery

The Leah Fusco Gallery opened in Rye, Kent a few months back. Leah has made some really interesting and sensitive work exploring a place through 'psyco-geography' - the hidden stories and formative histories of specific sites. She mainly makes work around the Kent coast, including a series about Beachey Head (the famous suicide landmark) and Dungeness (the windswept site of a strangely placed nuclear power station, and incidentally where artist and filmmaker, Derek Jarman lived). The image below comes from her work at Dungeness. Get along and have a look!