Happy Thanksgiving, not something that I think I have ever wished anybody before, but then again I have never spent nearly 10 weeks living in a half American household before. We are actually celebrating properly tomorrow, when more people are coming over for a big meal, and I mean big; I went to buy a lot of the groceries with Frank yesterday and it looks like it is going to involve the next two days cooking and baking. Should be fun, so I apologise now if my posting on Saturday is a little on the late side.

As my time here is drawing to a close now I decided to start today’s post with a photo of my studio with all of my accumulated work and “stuff” in; I’ve done this because I am thinking that it is probably about time I started to review what effect my experiences here  it have had on my work and myself. Actually I think it is my working practice that has been affected the most by it. Because of the dedicated time which I have spent working here I have realised that over the last couple of years my time has been increasing taken up by other things which have eaten into my “making time” and this I now realise has been one of my main drawbacks. I now realise that what I need to do is to consolidate my practice, on a daily basis, so that it more resembles the model I have worked with over the last 10 weeks. It may be more easier said than done, but if  I don’t learn from the experience it will have been pointless.

Work wise I am both very happy with what I produced and what I was producing before I came here. In those terms being here has affirmed the nature of my work; the outward appearance of some of it may have changed, but the underlying nature of my practice is actually solidified. I think the thing which I take from it is an even greater confidence in the validity of what I am doing.

Below is a link to something which I found on the web and thought was really cool, but now having seen this and other “YouTube” videos of it I am not so sure. What looks like a wonderful interactive piece of art becomes a half-hearted, hollow gesture when you really that not all of the Tiger and Turtle, Walker-coaster is actually accessible; read the instruction notice at the being of the video. Still have a look and decide for yourselves.