Two weeks of work before the exhibition opens.

First a catch up on whats been happening in the world of John Garghan since I last posted on “You Will Never Look at Them in the Same Way Again”.

A New Years Message from one of my lookouts

I have been one of the many who have been caught by this horrible virus flu/cold like symptom epidemic that’s been sweeping the country. Mine has been the cold flavour or should I say coldzzzzs, I have had about 4 one after another as soon as one fades away a new begins. One is on the way out now and I hope this is the end. While I was in the middle of one “cold” and feeling extremely ill I woke one morning to a text message from John the Park Cleaner who is one of my top scouts for finding burnt out cars. Oh no I thought I can barely sit up without my head spinning or is it the room that’s moving and there’s a burnt out car waiting to be photographed by me. The text was mearly a joke and a Happy New Year message, somewhat relieved I had been spared the dilemma I answered and went back to sleep.

The latest news of my exhibiition

I know I promised a look at some more blogs that I follow and I will do that very shortly but I’m in the thick of preparing for my exhibition.

Exhibition Title: You Will Look at Them in the Same Way Again

Venue: Solihull Gallery

Address: Solihull Arts Complex, Library Square,Touchwood, Homer Road, Solihull, West Midlands

Dates: 19th January - 7th March

You are invited to the Private View Thursday 22nd January 6pm to 7:30

We began the instillation yesterday and because there is a lot of new content in the show all printed onto toughened glass I have been backwards and forwards across Birmingham collecting glass or printing. Its worked like clockwork and I must say a thank you to The Glassworks and Action Graphics who supplied right on time. The only problem I encounter happened last week when The Glassworks called to tell me I could pick up the sheets of glass but I couldn’t open my car doors because the locks had frozen. Using a cocktail of WD40 and De-icer I managed to free the doors although now the central locking system is out of sync with doors locking when they should be open and visa versa and further

more they are never all locked or all open its random. Reminds me of the 1960s film “How I won The War” starring John Lennon who played a very raw recruit into the army; Musketeer Gripweed who couldn’t get the hang of marching or at

least marching in time with everyone else he then got everybody else doing it wrong. The Sergeant Major decided to isolate him from the others and show him how it was done but Gripweed ended up getting the sergeant major screwing it up too.

A trip to London to pick up a picture for the show

I decided that I needed a main picture for the show that would stand out above the rest of the work,

I do have a picture that is a unique one off print:

I will never print the photograph this size or as large again

The print process used for this picture has since changed and it is now impossible to calibrate the digital file to recreate the same result again. That photograph was down at the gallery of International Art Consultants in London. They represent my work into the commercial sector through Art For Offices. So a visit to London to pick up this precious piece also enabled me to visit and have a chat about how we can support one and other to sell my work

Trafalgar Square at 1:30pm, you can see how bad the weather is by the light or lack of light

Despite horrible weather I had a great trip, although I had to pay the London congestion charge of £8 I found the traffic moved freely through central London, the last time I drove through the city it was one big bumper to bumper crawl.

A trip to London planned to collect one of my pieces that is exhibited in the capital

The preparation work for the exhibition at Solihull Arts Complex is going well with the glass company and the printers able to deliver on time. I was worried because the Christmas break throws all routine out of the window companies close for the holidays so effectively this will cover this weekend through to 5th January, I have also known situations when individual workers will take addition holiday around this time, so consider if say Martin the operator at the printers who is responsible for the machine that produces my work goes skiing in January this would be a huge problem. I have 8 new art pieces to produce and Martin is central to my plans, he has worked with me over a period of time and is now able to interpret my digital photos and produces that image on the glass. Its taken time, trial and error and a great deal of sharing our respective expertise in print and photography to get our finished results, so imagine my relief when I was told that Martin had had a winter break last week.

I decided to use a large copy of one of the images as the focal point of the exhibition it is a one off never to be repeated edition of this image much larger than my usual prints,  I already have this printed but it is currently exhibited at “Art for Offices” in London,. normally I courier packages down to London, its very cost effective and saves me driving into the centre of the capital but this time I have decided to kill two birds with one stone by visiting Arts for Offices to meet the people down there for the first time and collect the piece, this will also ensure I can get it to the show without breaking it in transit, remember this is a unique piece that for various reasons can not be replaced.

After making this decision I worked out the logistics involved, I used to regularly drive through London from the M1 to the A23 when I used to live in Brighton, this was in the 70s and 80s when the M25 wasn’t even on the planners drawing board I knew the best times to travel to get that window of clearish road and also a little illegal short cut that would get me out of the heavy traffic in the West End rejoining the road signs for Hatfield and the North way past the Lords cricket ground, this could reduce my journey time by an hour.

 

My "London A to Z Street Map" purchased about 1984 still serves me well when I travel down to London on the train, from the stations I  just need to walk a few blocks down the road and of course I can use my reading glasses but driving from the M40 through to Tower Bridge, I don’t think so! I will trust to Tom Tom. 

No pictures to go with this post so I thought you might look at a photo I worked on last night this was after a few pints of Guinness at the Four Oaks Saints Christmas party so I got very creative.

Which way do you think is best this way or

This way?