Yesterday was the first of 4 studio open days. It was a bit slow at first, but like buses, a load of people came at once! As usual I gave print demonstrations throughout the day. But things didn’t quite go as planned….I was pulling a print, and I thought it was going quite well until LSH (Marcus) appeared and  uttered the fatal words, “and here’s the magical bit”. This led to the backing tissue smudging the ink and ruining the print.  He wisely disappeared back into the kitchen, the atmosphere of which now resembles that of a distillery: all the mulled wine palarva! 

Two of the pieces which sold were from the punk head series I made when at N.C.A.D in the early 80’s, and they were part of my degree show in 1983. I made them after a number of trips to London with the college. We used to travel over on the “Magic Bus”, which was an experience in itself. London was such an exotic place then, and I was mesmerised by the theatre of the street culture. The punk scene was flourishing and the Kings Road and Camden Market were like their mecca. They postured like warriors, or exotic birds, and were more colourful than the  punk scene here; which I first encountered when I had a stall at the Dandelion Market.

When had the “Making Space”/ sort-of-retrospective show at the Black Church Original Print Gallery in 2010, a young guy came in and didn’t twig that I had made the work and he thought it was so  “new and edgy”! I felt bad having to burst his bubble and tell him that they were “not so new.” It’s strange, the way these prints have become popular again after almost 30 years!