« February 2005 | Main | April 2005 »
March 23, 2005
about time i blogged....
I expect you are all wondering why there has been no blog for a while…?! So engrossed in new painting? (not really) Having a great new social life in Oxford? (not yet) Nothing really to say? (more like it). I am typing this as I try to recover from a mystery virus which has wiped me out for the last few days… which has left me with a back back and I can hardly walk…
So what have I been up to since the 6th March? Well work at Brookes has been pretty intense as the students prepared their UCAS applications and I had to help with their personal statements and write their references… Gosh it is amazing how little grammar is taught in schools nowadays. Except if you are a regular roblogger, you will have noticed how lazy with grammar i have become. The last three weeks have been good in that I have not had to travel anywhere and I have hardly stepped foot out of my work, home, studio triangle. Oh except to see a couple of films… ‘Aquatic Life’ and ‘Team America’. Both worth seeing. Also kept up my swimming at the excellent Rosenblatt pool (until I got ill that is).
But what I have most enjoyed about my new Oxford life is getting out and about on my bicycle, which was always a bit more difficult in Hastings due to the terrible hills. I did spent some of my weekends drawing about and about the town, but have become very rusty and unfocused.. Something did strike me as a potential area for development… Oxford is full of unfulfilled promise. So many of the Oxford University spaces are glimpsed through teasing small doors on much larger ornate wooden gates. Mortals like you and me are not allowed to venture into these seemingly idylic cloistered courtyards. So Ithink there is some visual and human potential for mirth and myth in this idea…
Anyone noticed that I have changed server for my website? If you had specific pages bookmarked you will now be automatically redirected to the homepage. You see I was previously using someone else’s web space and now I hae my own again. The address is still the same however (www.robbiebushe.co.uk).
Well, I get a week off next week for Easter. Chance to get stuck into my painting and make the new studio feel more like my second home. Hope I will be feeling better by then…
Posted by robbie at 1:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 6, 2005
Oxford Life (at last)
So. My first week as a resident in Oxford is over! Well I think the first people to notice the difference in me are my students. Being able to get up at 8 instead of 6 does make a big difference to my temperament.
Last Monday, it actually took a surprisingly short time to get my stuff organized in my new house. Well I suppose this was my fourth move in three years - so I should be getting good at it. Actually I have now so little stuff of my own as I keep pairing it all down to the essentials.
Student assessments this week which was a bit of a marathon and throng of uptight students. While I assessed, I set my fine art students a drawing project; make 40 drawings in a week, 20 from life and 20 developments from them. Some their faces were classic when they read this brief. I think I am a dying breed of people who think that artists and designers need to be practicing drawing all the time. I know that I am scared to start making work as I have not drawn for a month or two. And, you know, we get rusty and have to relearn it all again.
On Wednesday night I had to go to a meeting at the very cold Magdalen Road Studios. I was hoping to meet a range of the artists who are there with me, but only myself and four others braved the freezing cold. So, thank you Diana for bringing the bottle of wine.
Well after a week of getting to know my local grocery stores, pubs, take-aways and cafes, I finally made it down to the studio on Saturday. I decided to follow the brief I gave my own students and make 40 drawings. Well, almost. I made 16 tiny meaningless watercolours just to get into the swing of things. My concentration was low and did not last for more than a couple of hours.
So I went into town to visit Modern Art Oxford to finally see the JANNIS KOUNELLIS exhibition. This is a great show designed for a wonderful space by a significant artist. But, still only spent about ten minutes looking at it.
On Saturday night I was delighted to go and see one of my students, Jack, play drums in his band The Edmund Fitzgerald at the Zodiac on the Cowley Road. They are a three piece combo of drums and two guitar players (no bassist) and they do extraordinarily complex, jerky and relentless rhythm instrumental anthem (with the occasional John Lydon style wailing vocal). They were terrific and wonderful musicians clealry dedicated to their cause. They were by far the most interesting of the line up of the four bands that night (YOUTH MOVIE SOUNDTRACK STRATEGIES + THE EDMUND FITZGERALD + THIS TOWN NEEDS GUNS + NARCISSISM). The others were interesting, but how much of that Kings of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, Dashboard Confessional think can we take? Anyway well done Jack, and thanks to new housemate Claire for coming along with me.
Oh and you can read a review of The Edmund Fitzgerald here.
Well today (Sunday 6th MArch) felt much more like my life. I had joined the Oxford University Rosenblatt Swimming Pool and went for a more desired swim, my first in 2005. It was bliss and I felt great after. Spent about 3 hours in the studio doing a dreadful drawing, but loved every minute of it…
Oh and before I fordot, my studio is also going to be open to the public during Oxford Art Weeks at the end of May. Watch this space.
Posted by robbie at 10:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack