What's all the excitement? Has education finally been cut altogether? That's the only reason I voted Tory.

I've been hibernating inside my flat until i get a studio space next week - two options , part of a old pub round the corner (casa) or  Lisa from curve has helped out finding some space in the building i had a studio last year. Sleeping, working and thinking in the same space has  been a fucking nightmare, especially when your reading Foucault.

When i was chatting to June Lornie from Liverpool Acadamey of Arts she said i should have painted the side of my canvas, which i thought was bloody awful advice and i told her i liked it raw. I have been thinking about the nature of canvas, stretchers, paint etc with my recent pieces. The raw quality is understandable to the flatness of a painting for what it is....flat and i think you need to accept that as a painter. Paint doesn't sit on the canvas until it works within multitudes of layers and constant re-evaluation.

The social/political space of galleries in Berlin is extremely different to the UK which was fascinating and landscapes can be a weird part of political imagery now.

A friend told me to read part of a chapter from a book by Malcom Gladwell What the dog saw about the myth of geniuses. The morality of actually working for what you passionately believe in, and finding a body of work that is progressive after a lifetime of studying it. It refers back to leaving this huge part out when talking, discussing or writing about certain writers, painters, directors, scientists etc.

Wolstenholme: http://www.wolstenholmecreativespace.blogspot.com/ BAM show for three weeks was impressive, the curating/ some of the performance pieces were fantastic.