Up in frames

I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time with picture frames. Yesterday was artwork drop-off day for the Didsbury Open, the second of its kind, and the second I've shown in. The exhibition is being hung this week to coincide with Didsbury Arts Festival getting underway on Saturday and this time round it takes place across multiple venues in the village: The Art of Tea, Smoak, Home café and Didsbury Library. 

So yesterday morning saw me busy printing and mounting and cleaning glass in order to get "Concrete Icons" ready for its close-up, and dusting down "Blue Magic 4" by David Gaffney to take along with it in the grasshopper-singing, searing heat. My Open piece last time round, "Rivers", was snapped up, so my fingers are crossed for "Concrete Icons", which I created in two sittings: one at the end of November, just before my op, and one in February, once my grey matter had started to thaw again after.

Visible/invisible is the theme for this year's Didsbury Arts Festival (running 27 June to 5 July), and "Concrete Icons" is a diptych comprising two concrete poems representing two iconic south Manchester buildings: the still visible Toast Rack, or Hollings Building, its letters creating a ‘beau présent’ anagrammatic poem, and the now invisible Owens Park Tower, with ‘Cosmos I’ mural by Didsbury artist Mitzi Cunliffe. (The pic is of Mitzi working in her studio, in the garage of her home on Cranmer Road, just up the way.)

Today and tomorrow, I'm prepping six smaller frames, to hold one of the "Drought Thoughts" poems I'll be premiering at my solo performance on Saturday. I spent yesterday afternoon – once I'd snuck back home sticking to the shade – reworking this number especially. So now it has a second life, even before it's aired, as a concrete poem, the form of which reflects the content, so it can be enjoyed both viewed and read, and will make a nice little addition to a wall, maybe your own? There will be six limited-edition framed prints available on Saturday – get your tickets to the event here.