Sanderson dandelion cup and saucer

Still on a Sanderson theme I also have one of their lovely Dandelion Clock cup and saucers in the dandelion archive. As you can see i'm also trying to get good studio shots of all the objects in the archive so everything is properly documented.

I've not dared to use the cup and saucer and they still have their labels on, unlike the oven gloves (see below) that are well and truly used and abused daily.

Sanderson oven gloves

Here are my beautiful Sanderson Dandelion Clocks Collection double oven gloves that are now in the dandelion archive (well, actually they are now in my kitchen looking beaten up with a year's worth of oven marks on - very well used and loved).

Sanderson Dandelions

Ever on the look out for dandelion designs and objects I have a few Sanderson textile and wallpaper samples in the dandelion archive i'm making. A popular design it's used in various colour ways and on many objects - trays, pens, oven gloves, cups etc... Here is Sanderson's Dandelion Clocks Red.

Indian Dandelions

I'm here in Mumbai for 2 months - on a Gasworks International Fellowship and i'm staying on the outskirts of the city in the north at an artist organisation called CONA. It's wonderful here as we're right next door to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park so I can see kites, parakeets, sunbirds and lots of butterflies all around where I am staying.
However, I haven't found one dandelion specimen for the collection - which is a shame. And then last night i found this little gem on the bookshelf in the house: it's a book called Flower Thoughts, A Selection. Edited by Louise Bachelder and with wonderful illustrations by the incredible Eric Carle. The quote to accompany this illustration of a dandelion is by Henry Ward Beecher:

You cannot forget if you would, those golden kisses all over the cheeks of the meadow, queerly called dandelions.

Lovely.

Mandela House dandelion

Last weekend I went to see Mandela House at 8115 Orlando West in Soweto. Nelson Mandela moved there in 1946 with his first wife Evelyn Ntoko Mase and his first son. It's now a little museum. It's a very moving place, humble, simple - but that's what makes it such a powerful place.
There isn't a garden as such, but around the house it's all brick paving - and it's here that i found the tiniest dandelion in a crack between the bricks.

Dandelions in South Africa

I'm in South Africa!
I'm here for a month on a residency - it's just outside Johannesburg out in the country with amazing and wonderful plants I've never seen before.
However, as usual i've been on the lookout for dandelions and i found a few little ones in the lawns around the house where i'm staying. I've now found quite a few in different locations and will put some more images on during this week sometime.

Peter Scott Gallery

I'm really thrilled that the Peter Scott Gallery in Lancaster has purchased two of my dandelion prints for their permanent collection. Both screen prints were made as a result of a residency I did at LICA (Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts) in 2011. 
Here's one of the prints Dandelions x 20

Lewis F Day Dandelion

I'm always on the look out for dandelion designs in all art forms...
This incredibly beautiful wooden panel is designed by Lewis F Day (1845 - 1910) a British designer and author of many books on design and ornament.

Stanley Spencer Dandelions

I went to London last weekend for a couple of meetings and while there I got the chance to visit Tate Britain.
I'm always on the look out for dandelions in art and spotted these in The Resurrection, Cookham (1924 - 7) by Stanley Spencer. For more information on his work and this painting at the Tate go here:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/spencer-the-resurrection-cookham-n04239

Monster!

While in Transylvania earlier this month I saw this wonderful / freakish dandelion with 10 flower heads on one stalk. In the past I have noticed dandelions with two or three heads, but never this many - amazing abnormal thing.

Papadie

I have just returned from 3 weeks working in Romania on a residency for another project, but as always, I still managed to collect specimens of the dandelions there. I collected leaf specimens for the Dandelion Diaries from every location on each day - so I have quite a few to sort through.

The Romanian for dandelion is papadie and they were fully in flower while i was there - bright and beautiful.

Leeds Dandelions

I was in Leeds yesterday with my friend Elaine to visit the Northern Art Prize at the City Art Gallery.
As always I collected a couple of dandelion leaves, this time from a little derelict plot near St Thomas Row.

It was a mixed day as it took me over 3 hours to get from Preston to Leeds: the original train was cancelled, i was kicked off the next train as my ticket wasn't valid for that particular train company, i had to catch a bus to another train station so i could resume my journey with my particular ticket arriving over 3 hours later... Elaine pointed out the irony of it being on the day Thatcher was buried. 

Archetype

The dandelion is the archetype weed and its image is used on most packets and containers for weed killers. Lawn lovers who aspire to keep a perfectly green and pest free lawn hate the dandelion. Along with the many weed killers on the market there are also gardening tools specifically designed to help root out dandelions from your lawn.

I am really interested in how a plant species can insight so much frustration and animosity as if deliberate in its intention. I quite like the idea of irate individuals spending their time worrying about a flower in the wrong place. A continual battle, year after year striving for their ideal of perfection.

It's a mocking plant - beautiful, unmissably bright yellow and not bothered.

Liverpool World Museum Dandelions

I was lucky to be invited to see the herbarium at Liverpool World Museum the other day. I was able to look at some of their dandelion specimen sheets held in their extensive collection. I was particularly interested in specimens collected locally to Liverpool and Lancashire. The dandelions are so beautiful, but stark when pressed - the outlines so pronounced when viewed in silhouette on white paper. 
And it was really great to talk to both botanists at the museum Geraldine and Wendy who gave me masses of information and whose enthusiasm for the subject was infectious and very inspiring.

Dandelion Stamps

I got this first day cover the other day through the post - it's German and dated 13.10.77
The envelope features a dandelion design (and is embossed with a gold outline which doesn't come out on the image) and one of the set of four stamps shows a dandelion illustration.

I've seen there are many more postage stamps depicting dandelions on from: Austria, UK, Poland, Norway, Japan, Antigua and Barbuda, Mongolia, Estonia, North Korea, Ireland, Afghanistan and Iceland. I expect to find more too.

Symbol of Hope

I've been looking at the symbolism of the dandelion flower and its seed head. The seed head is often used to represent hope and making wishes and a while ago I collected a leaflet from Macmillan, the cancer support charity, highlighting their tribute fund.
Time passing, scattering our wishes in the breeze, the continuation of a life - one image of the dandelion gives us all this.

www.macmillan.org.uk/tributefunds

Simon Plum Dandelions

I was at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery here in Preston on Friday and on the stairway is an exhibition by Simon Plum - a local printmaker. His drawings and prints reveal illustrations of strange scenes with animals, plants and people in odd settings.

I was interested to see dandelions in one of his prints - shown here. 

Down the Garden Path runs until April 14th - so you've got plenty of time to see the exhibition for yourself at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston.

Jean-Francois Millet

I've been researching dandelions and their representation in art for a while now and i've been finding images of them in paintings, drawings and objects etc... 

Above is a painting by Jean-Francois Millet called Dandelions. It was painted in 1867 - 68 and is held in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston USA. Please visit their website for more details. It says it's not on display - so perhaps hold off going to check it out in the flesh.

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/dandelions-31640

In Residence

I have a couple of screen prints and a drawing of dandelions in an exhibition that opened last week at the Peter Scott Gallery in Lancaster.

The gallery is open Monday - Friday 11am - 5pm 
Saturday 11am - 4pm

The show In Residence runs until March 22nd and is free

Other artists in the exhibition are Conrad Atkinson, Daniel Sturgis, Rob Kesseler and Invisible Flock

Go and take a look if you have time - it's a great gallery.

www.liveatlica.org

More Tea

There are a few teas on the market with dandelion in - so i'm trying to collect examples for the dandelion archive - and also take photographs of the packaging.

Here is some detox herbal tea from Birt and Tang - that will 'help you cope with life in today's environment' apparently.

Sorry

It's been a very long time since the last post - over a year in fact - sorry.
I've been busy doing other projects (in case you're interested):

www.bronteweather.blogspot.com

However, i am still collecting many dandelion specimens from wherever I go and the archive of dandelion related artifacts and objects is growing slowly.
So, i'm going to try and update the blog in the next few weeks with stuff and things...

Here is a box of yummy looking pissenlit tea (looses it's appeal somehow in another language).

Up To Date

Spurred on by the last blog entry and the fact that i have time on my hands at the moment, i spent a few hours the other day sorting out all my collected dandelion leaf specimens and putting them into the Dandelion Diary. It works out that i hadn't updated it since last June (2010) so there were about 100 to catalogue and archive.

The diary is still not quite up to date as the most recently collected specimens are still being pressed in books.

Pressed

I've neglected to up date the Dandelion Diary recently. However, i still collect dandelion leaves from everywhere i visit. The consequence of this is a large backlog of pressed leaves in books under my desk ready to be transferred to the diary and also into my archive of specimens...

I have to admit the longer it goes that i'm not updating my records, the more i'm putting it off.

Windows

Last night was the gathering at Harvey Nichols in Leeds for the work i have there on the restaurant windows.

There were summer cocktails and lovely canapes and beautiful little snacks etc for the guests. It was a bright sunny night so the vinyls glowed in the light. And, so the customers weren't blinded by the brightness the blinds were lowered. The vinyls then created a lovely soft outline onto the blinds with their shadows (image above).

What a fun night!

Week Print

Above is another screen print recently finished:

It's a week of collected dandelion leaves gathered from around the Lancaster University campus (during my residency there last month). Then printed onto paper used in a machine to record humidity in buildings.

The number of prints in the edition is 5

Red Dandelion Prints

Also on show at Harvey Nichols in Leeds I have some screen prints - red outlines of dandelion leaves overlapped many, many times.

Along with the red screen prints I have some Polaroids and also a series of Japanese dandelion screen prints on Japanese newspaper collected while on my trip last year.

Harvey Nichols

A while ago I was asked to design some vinyls for the windows at Harvey Nichols in Leeds for their restaurant.

I went over a couple of weeks ago to see the finished designs and also to hang some framed works to accompany the window patterns.

The windows are now decorated with the overlapping outlines of dandelion leaves that i've collected from UK, Japan, Canada, Germany, France etc... The work will be up for a couple of months at Harvey Nichols, Victoria Quarter, Leeds.

Outcasts

I know a poet called Mark Ward.
We have worked together in the past and i asked if he might consider writing something about dandelions when i saw him during the Curate the Campus project last week (he's studying for an MA in creative writing at the uni). I was really chuffed when he said yes and am delighted with the result:

Outcasts
Prolific: profligate,
they emulate the stars in their boldness
and intensity.
Unsung by poets, persecuted by gardeners,
the wrong type of flower
they stand defiant on the lawns and pathways
mid-Spring.
Outcasts, banished to the edgelands of our
towns and cities; flourishing on the sidings
and embankments: the mean backstreets
and the decaying monoliths of our industrial past.
Bouquets for the homeless.
In time the brash garish flowers transform
into opaque globular seed heads: light, delicate
they await the breeze to stir.
Dandelion clocks.
Pluck one; take a breath and blow.
Count the hours – spread the joy.
Come Spring there’ll be another star-burst on the lawn.

Mark Ward, 2011

CTC Day 8 - Final day

The final day on my residency proved to be another successful day. I finished my concertina book of drawn dandelion leaves collected around the site (there's a total of 72 drawings in the book) and I also met with Eduardo Medina, a PhD student studying biological sciences: we had a really fascinating conversation about the British ecosystem assessment and lots to do with habitats and the value of land.

I then had a great meeting with Dr Rebecca Ellis a lecturer at the Lancaster Environment Centre whose background is in Social Anthropology - Emily Adams introduced us as she thought we would have a lot in common. A really interesting conversation which i'm still thinking about.

What a great few days - absolutely packed with things to think about from conversations and chance encounters. I loved this project! It will continue further into the future, i know it.

CTC Day 7 - Encounter

The weather wasn't great yesterday - still grey and rainy most of the day. Aarrrh - the British summer is here.

I went to find the green roof on top of the Info Lab building at the far end of the campus. In the wind and rain me and Richard went out onto the deck outside the cafe to what can only be described as a dishevelled, weedy patch of yellowing plant life - pretty miserable looking. I was happy to see that some of the healthiest looking plants on the roof were dandelions - popping up where they shouldn't be. I collected a couple of leaf specimens and we left.

I had lunch with Mark Ward who is studying for his MA in creative writing. He has agreed to write a poem for the dandelion project and asked for an extension on the deadline (he fits well into student life).

The afternoon ended with a chance encounter - i met with Dr Felipe Otondo who has an office on the same corridor to me and is a lecturer in music technology - and we had a great discussion about dandelions, sound, art and such over a cup of tea. A great day.

CTC Day 6 - Rain

It rained all day yesterday - it was horrible.

But although i didn't get out onto the grounds much I had a really great day.

I managed to get in to Bowland Tower - the big disused tower block right in the middle of the campus. It's been shut a few years - it used to be accommodation for students, but became infamous for the amount of suicides of students leaping from the top.

Pete Moser is doing 24 hours in the tower as part of the Curate the Campus project - writing a piece of music and broadcasting every hour from the 12th floor of the tower. That's how i managed to get in - i delivered a heater to him.

I have to say it is really nasty inside - bleak, wind swept and drizzle soaked. The window sills were covered in a blanket of dead flies - apparently the whole floor was also covered, but they cleaned it up before Pete stayed there. I admire Pete for his determination - a night in there must have been a real challenge.

I took lots of shots and also noted Wall-rue Asplenium ruta-muraria growing out of a crack in an outside wall 12 floors up, and also Groundsel Senecio vulgaris growing inside the building in a glass sided stairwell.

The day ended with a meeting with Ian Sturzaker the Landscape Manager here at Lancaster University. It was such and interesting chat - we talked about the university policy concerning weeds and management of the grounds. The boundaries of acceptability regarding weeds is interesting in this case: to let weeds live and grow in the pavements and landscaped areas would reveal a lack of care and disrespect for culture. However, the university is situated in fields and woodland - the site is 360 acres in total - so you can't continue a strict regime throughout, therefor weeds are part of the balance in the surrounding habitats.

CTC Day 5 - KCUF

My fifth day on site started quite well with another bus trip where the kids were far better behaved, subdued even. Perhaps by Friday they are burnt out. While unloading the kids off the bus i noticed across the road someone had made an unsuccessful attempt to write a swear word backwards on the perspex of the bus shelter so people opposite (like me) could read it - it read: KCUF. Made me laugh for the rest of the journey.

I did lots more drawing: i think i've finished about 40 odd pages now, plus I wandered the grounds to collect leaves. I went to the lake and saw scrawny coot chicks and noted many flowers: cuckoo flower, meadow and creeping buttercups, forget-me-nots, figwort, daisies, wild pansy and foxgloves (i've left my note book at the office - so i can't remember the whole list).

CTC Day 4 - Drawing

I did lots of drawing all yesterday afternoon - doing line drawings of dandelions leaves i've collected from around the site. It was a sunny, windy afternoon with cloud shadows skidding across the landscape.

Today is different - grey sky with some drizzle, a cooler, stiff breeze whipping in from the coast.

I've just had a great meeting with Roger Lang who, until recently, had his CLEO* office here at Balerigg House. He knows the site pretty well and we chatted about dandelions - he told me of a poem he knows about pulling up dandelions - i'm going to try and look it up then i'll put it on the blog.

I'm now going out to collect more specimens to finish the drawing work - a concertina book with a different drawing per page - i've done 20 odd so far and need to do about 60 in total.

*Cumbria and Lancashire Education Online

CTC Day 3 - The Journey

The journey here was a trauma. I set off from the house at 7.20 and caught the bus from the centre of Preston.

It was the school bus.

There was only a few other non-teenagers on the bus: huddled together on the lower deck. The collective noise of screeching youths was indescribable - god only knows what the driver had done to get that shift. Thankfully the duration of the school run was quite short and when they all got off the driver stopped for a well earned break and give us all time for reflection.* He kept the doors open during the break - presumably to clear the heady smell of Lynx aftershave.

It took me two hours to get here.

Anyway i just got back from a fab meeting with Emily Adams who is studying a PhD here on Understanding and Managing Honey Bee Health in the UK. We had a lovely walk to a seat below Balerigg House where we sat and chatted about dandelions and bee research while having a cup of tea. While we walked further she gave me lots to think about and how so many different subjects overlap with the dandelion project. We had a great time and we're going to meet again tomorrow.

*I reflected on the thought that i've just bought a weekly ticket.

Curate the Campus Day 2

It's been another fab day here at the Lancaster University campus. I first met with poet Mark Ward who is studying for his MA in creative writing and we arranged to meet later in the residency. I'm hoping he might write something for the project.

It was a drizzly start, but i went over to the far end of the site along the woodland walk. There was only me - i expect all the studes were busy studying and not having time to walk about the beautiful grounds...

I collected a few dandelion leaf specimens in my press and walked back to my office. I have an office! I've never had a job where i had an office (i've had jobs where others have the offices).

After a long walk to the furthest part of the campus from my office I met artists Jonathan Raisin and Elizabeth Willow by random chance in the garden they made last year for the Making Time project. We had a long chat about dandelions and the project - they used an image of a dandelion seed head on their Making Time postcard.

It's really sunny now so i'm off out to explore again.

Curate the Campus Day 1

I started my residency yesterday here at Lancaster University at the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts.

When i got here in the morning it was a bright sunny morning. Richard Smith, the curator here, showed me around the campus: it's massive - an incredible array of concrete buildings set in some beautiful grounds surrounded by woodland with lots of trails and paths and open parkland with various sports fields.

I spent a couple of hours exploring the woodland and then a walk to the little lake and onto the rugby pitch - where i found this dandelion - and then back up to my little office where i'm based for the project.

The afternoon weather was totally different: it absolutely poured down. But i still managed a walk in the grounds with Richard as we chatted about the project and then i continued to explore the site and gather specimens and get my bearings.

Curate the Campus

From 9th May - 20th May i'll be artist in residence at LICA Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts based at Lancaster University.

I'm going to concentrate on the dandelion project while there: i'll collect specimens (as always), but also i'm going to try and meet with as many people as possible from different departments to chat about dandelions within their own area of study.

More info

Outlines

I'm working on some designs for window vinyls this last week and have decided i should go through my dandelion leaf archive and trace lots of the different leaves.

I realised i have been collecting leaves since 2007 and from many locations. The window design will contain outlines from Canada, Japan, Germany and lots from around the UK. There are about 50+ outlines on the windows.

Weird

My housemate was working away from home the other day. While he was driving back he said he noticed a dandelion flower head was on the windscreen, where it stayed for the whole journey.
It had been picked - but he had no idea who placed it there.
Weird.

First Seeds

I was in Lytham a couple of days ago and walking along the prom in the sunshine and blustery weather and I saw this dandelion: very low on the grass battered by salty sea water, it had already flowered and was in seed. In the last couple of weeks i have noticed one or two dandelions beginning to flower, but this is the first i've seen with a full seed head.

I picked a couple of leaves that are now being pressed in a book under my desk - ready to go into the Dandelion Archive.

Spring is here!