A day to catch up!! And my interview

Well I spent a day in London yesterday - RAMBERLING around Tate Britain and taking in the Turner Prize exhibition - the last chance to see it as it finishes at the weekend - I felt disappointed in the work!! It wasn't as strong as last year in my mind but I rambled on and discovered the Tacita Dean blackboard drawings (a roomful of them) now THEY made my heart sing Tra la la la la!!!
Today is pay back for all the abundance received while away on my jolly!! A big thank you to Leslie at Textiles,shapes and colour cos my name was drawn out of the basket and I get a lovely piece of her artwork (see it here)and there is a pile of emails to attend to and questions to answer from Mary Ann at Blue Sky Dreaming who interviewed me a few days ago. This was so exciting to receive and I am going to keep this great idea going by interviewing the first 2 people who comment on my blog and ask to be interviewed!! (I was able to give the questions the reflexion required on the train down to London so it is only a matter of adding them here) Thank you Mary Ann for great questions to reflect on......... Here they are with the answers
1.When did you begin the desire to ramble and where will you ramble next?
I think my desire to ramble began as a child. I loved exploring, in the fields, woods and along the river bank, building dens, climbing trees and building a make believe world wherever I was!! Now I ramble further from home and yesterday rambled in London around Tate Britain. My next planned ramble is in Venice later in the year - NOW VENICE is a city just made for rambling!!!
2. How has your recent trip to Bangladesh affected your art making?
Hmm this is a fascinating question and on reflection I don't think it has (not yet anyway!)Although in saying that it has made me think more about colour and my use of it in my work (my work tends to be quite monochromatic). I took lots of photographs while I was there but as yet I haven't done anything with them and not used them in my art practice. As I will possibly have the chance to visit again during the next year I will reflect on this some more (One of my daughters works for the British Council and is there on a 2 year contract - she may decide to stay on another year!)
3. You use alternative photographic techniques...tell us about one?
I love making photograms. It's a simple process but very hit and miss with unexpected and often wonderful results. The most powerful one that I made was in collaboration with my daughter, Natalie. A couple of years ago she took an overdose and I brought her home to live with me while she recovered from severe depression. It was not an easy time for either of us as you can imagine. Together we produced this piece of work which I exhibited as a floor piece (life size) The process was very cathartic for both of us and Natalie was proud that she had been the subject for a piece of important work for me. It is a reminder that my best work is produced when 'my art is integral to my life'
4.If you could meet your favorite artist living or dead, what would you ask?
Now this really perplexed me as I don't really have a favorite artist and I like lots of artists for different reasons, do I choose a film maker, a painter, a sculptor etc. etc oh what a dilemma. Anyway I settled on Doris Salcedo as an artist I discovered last year when I saw Sibboleth at Tate Modern and an exhibition of her work at the White Cube. I would ask her when she knew she wanted to be an artist and to tell me something about her student days and the earliest work she created.
5.What have you planned for 2009 with your art? More video? upcoming shows?
During this year 2009 I am involved in making an artists book for sub(missive) which will hopefully be exhibited at the Leeds International Artist Book Fair. My main project is working with some old slide transpariences which were passed on to me when my father died a few years ago. He was a terrible photographer and alot of them are out of focus and people disappearing from the frame, on top of this they have been the subject of decay and have some very interesting distortions! I have chosen 20 of the slides from around 150 and am using them in an installation with the battered old suitcase they came in. The idea I'm working with is of my parents memories which are not mine - I have different memories but the image of the person sparks my own memories. The images have a 'loneliness' about them which I am exploring alongside their 'materiality'. The other intention I have this year is to work on producing some 'saleable' work from the more conceptual stuff I create! And I will also make a short Super 8 film !!! Better get on with it all then!!! Bye for now - I'm off for a cuppa!

Here's the instructions:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "interview me".
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.