and work on my blog. I am starting to plan my return to the UK.
16th March...
Graeme and Maggie return back to the UK, Via budapest. I come home and finished the last things I need to tidy. I feel a little sad realising I have to go back home too soon. I have loved being here...
14th March...
Grame and Maggie visit Budapest while I tidy up and take down the rest of my exhibition. I feel really tired. it's been a busy week...Graeme and Maggie get back around 10 pm...They have had a great time...
13th Mar...
I am feeling a little hung over...Not suprising...It's a lovely day and we visit the Brasilica and look around esztagom. Graeme and Maggie go to the pool in the evening while i wait for the band to come around and pick up their equipment. I am exhausted....
12th March...
The exhibition is all set up and Jovilagvan, Palkos band set up all their equipment in the garden. The exhibtion is a great success. About 60/70 people visit the show and I do a short speech which makes me smile, with the translation. The Band are brilliant in the evening. I drink quite a few beers and thanks all the people whom have helped me with my work.
11th March...
We spend the day putting together my exhibition. I am happy with how it all looks in the end. Graeme and Maggie are very helpful. Actually I couldn't have done it as well without there help.
10th March...
We have a walk along the river in sturovo and in the evening visit the pool. We stay here for 3 hours, chatting away and visit the green pub afterwards...
9th Mar...
I meet Graeme and Maggie at the airport. They are in good spirits we spend some time looking around budapest. We have a lot of fun visiting the Island and pottering about before we get the train and get back to sturovo quite late.
8th March...Film...
I spend the whole day editing. It is hard to decide what to keep and what to take out. I have finished my final edit. I am really happy with the final film. It's strange and magical. The music which Palko has made is wonderful. And another friend Attila adds the final audio taken from Hungarian and Slovakian Cartoons. These are moody and help complete the feeling of the film. I feel satisfied.
7th March...making film
I film the last scenes for the film at a night time party next to the river where i get people to wear my masks and dance around a fire. Its really good fun. The stars are shining brightly and it's a magical night...
6th March...setting up exhibition...
Lots of tidying up. Moving things around and finishing my film which I will preview here. This is taking up lots of time. Editing always takes much longer than I plan. I should realise this by now.
5th March...setting up exhibition...
I have been getting all my work ready for my exhibition on the 12th March...Also my friends Graeme Walker and Maggie Tran are arriving on the 9th March. I am really looking forward to seeing them.
17th Feb...my sister arrives...
My sister sarah has come to see me...she has brought her boyfriend Mat and her two wonderful children Star and Kobi...I have been so excited waiting for them...they stay here until 25th Feb...I go to the airport in Budapest...Star and Kobi were so thrilled as they had never been on a aeroplane before...they are 8 years old and 5. It's a nice journey back to Esztagom and we get a taxi to get back to sturovo...Everyone is tired...It's so nice that they are here....
25th Jan...
I had very strange dreams last night. I dreamt that i was in a fantastical world. Like something from Avata. I was at a big warehouse space in this world. They were building art studios in this place. However these spaces were to small and they weren't able to use the huge capacity of the space. In the dream there was someone whom wanted to be with me. And i became close to them. However everyone else in the dream knew that she wasn't right for me. I knew they knew!!! Later I was staying at my friend Andy and Helens house however it wasn't their old house. This was being rented. This new place was part of the art studios I think. I was so happy to have the santuary of the room they provided me with. The land where the studio was like a magical Grand Canyon. And the platform to see it was very high up. I knew that in the past i would be scared to be so high up. However this time I overcame my fears. I just stared in wonder at this magical world. I was scared but i chose to sit with my fear. I wondered why this place had to be so high. But i knew at the same time people need to see the world from high up to remind themselves of their humanity.
Now i have woken up I am thinking about many things. I am thinking about my own and other people's desires. I am thinking about my past. What i have left behind. This dream parallels the place i was living. Newcastle. It was a New Newcastle. I guess when i was there, people could see and know my mistakes, caused by desire. I lived in a place which was very high looking over the old Newcastle. I always liked this. That I could overlook the place I lived. In the dream everything was hyper real. The people were struggling to make their place in the studio place. As I guess they are doing in my old studio in Old Newcastle. And in the Old Newcastle i guess my friends like Andy and Helen provided me with santuary. By allowing my to make art in a free and unhindered way. I guess in the New Newcastle, which is in my mind. An imaginary place where I will live in the future. Here I will also take this santuary with me in spirit. But I guess i need to trust my friends too. In the dream i didn't, and this made me feel lonely and apart from my true identity. The person I should be.
As I sit here in Slovakia. Writing all these deep things. I listen to gypsy music, which stirs my soul. I guess my dream is my past stirred up to show me how to proceed and from this dream. I feel that I need to be more aware of my dealings with people and to avoid putting myself in situations where my spirit can't be free. Easier said than done. These gypsy voices I hear are certainly free. I guess I will always struggle, and freedom itself isn't a given but something we should struggle for on a daily basis. Also it makes me realise how important Andy and Helen and my other good friends are in my life. They are real people that aren't afraid to search for freedom and truth. I am glad to have these inspirations in my life...And to inspire them back!! I lift my fist and shout: liberty, faith and creativity...Lets give each other the santuary we need and sit on this high plateaux of creativity and not be afraid. Look at how magical the world is...
24th Jan...
I wake up in a good mood. Inspired by my filming yesterday...It's a beautiful spring day. I work on some photographs and my film. All is good...
Sunday 23rd Jan...
I film Boris wearing the Pig man mask and doing some hungarian folk dancing. He looks really good doing this and is such a great sport. We drink some spirits and listen to gypsy music. It's really fun. I also make a Gigapan photograph of him. All the filming is by the Danube, overlooking the Brasillica. It's great to spend some time with Boris. He has such good wild and fun energy. Later I meet Reka and Benard. I take some pictures of Reka wearing the Stork mask I have made...It looks good on her.
22nd Saturday...
I spend the day working on my film. I am making a film with 15 different superheros wearing 15 masks which i have made. So far I have film a Crowman (me), Wildman (peter) and Combman (Joszef). Tommorow I will film Boris as Pig Man.
Tuesday-Friday...
I have been working on ideas for the film a am making. Thinking of who to be in it and what character will they play. I visit Toms grandfather and video him with the comb mask drinking wine. Also i finish of a few masks and do some small drawings.
17th Jan Monday....
I go outside and the weather conditions are really atmospheric. It's very sunny and foggy at the same time. I feel like I am in the film The Never Ending story. This is very strange and unusual.
I go to a cafe here and think that I recognise one of the staff. Only to recognise that they are the spitting image of someone I know in England. For a split second I think it is them and I say in English. Hello how are you. They talk back in Hungarian and this freaks me out a bit. I buy some shopping and return back to where I am staying. I decide to tidy up and start group together all my work to see where i am at. Peter arrives at 2pm so it should be a good day!!!
16th Jan...
I went out filming with Peter. I asked him to wear a wild man mask and to some karate moves in the trees. He is very good at this. I wear my crow mask and he films me flapping around pretending to be a crow super hero. We have a lot of fun doing this. I was worried that there may be some hunters around that might try and shoot us, thinking we are real animals. Or scary creatures. Paranoia is a funny thing. But generally in life I am trying to overcome my fears and doing things like this helps. I have been thinking a lot about many things and also have started thinking about what I will do when I come back to the UK. A new start for me. I realise that I should have faith that everything will be good. As of course it always is for me. I am a very lucky man. And i feel that I have many lucky opportunities heading my way soon.
15th Jan...Saturday...
A very lazy day. I just pottered around and did some planning as what to do next with the project. Got things ready for filming tomorrows filming.
11/12/13 Jan...
I havent written by blog for some time as I have been having a break from writing opting instead to take some photographs. However to say something about my xmas. I spent two weeks with my good friend Matthew Cowan. We drank and were merry. We went swimming, went to a great new years party. We walked in snowy Siberian weather conditions. We did some sewing...and laughed a great deal. It was so nice spending time with him here. Its nice to show someone I know so well what I have been experiencing here. He described this place as visiting another planet. In a good way. Anyway January is here and the in the last days a friend from here called peter has been making a mask and I have been showing him various techniques etc... Peter is a very spiritual man who is interested in Marshal Arts and Buddhism. He has agreed to help me do some filming. He lives in a village called Nana near here and he has introduced me to the wonderful countryside where we saw some wild deer, eagles and storks...I had never seen a stork before so this was a rare treat...
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