I’ll be honest – blogging has fallen down my list of priorities this week.

But exciting things are afoot. 

Spring Fling preperations are really starting to come together (somewhat suddenly, and miraculously all things considered – although that maybe a dangerous assumption to make given that the new last round of golf balls are still in the kiln… However I’ve already decided I can live without them if needs be….

So regardless of your plans for this weekend, make sure you have slotted in some time to visit me and various other Artist’s who open their doors for this year’s open studio events. Paula McQuiston is a natural place to stop at in Annan –

Here follows a snippet of our recently recorded conversation for the SF blog: 

“

hat would be the future development of your work and its relation to the region?

Katie:             I find more and more that the kind of work I make is really influenced by the context of where it is put, so I make a golf ball in glass or in ice, but it is not anything until it finds a place to be sited in.

And when the relationship between site and object comes into play something more exciting and interesting happens.

Paula:              Definitely.

Katie:              So, I’ve started to explore sites a lot more in terms of my work as a context for the other elements, and I think that that becomes a much more immersive experience for me.

Paula:              I think working in Dumfries & Galloway lets you use site a lot more as well. From being based in Carlisle for the last three years.

Katie:              One of the things I noticed when I started at WASPS was that almost for everyone, you can see the influences locally of where their work is coming out. When I was driving on the A75 and I looked across and saw pretty much a painting that I’d seen the other week. Or I was driving somewhere else, and you start to notice the shapes and the colours and the tones, almost for everyone who is here, the environment inadvertently effects the kind of work that they make. So I suspect it will seep in gradually.

Paula:              I am hoping that it will for me too. And after Spring Fling is finished, my work on maternal interruption would have come to–

Katie:              Would have come to the culmination point.

Paula:              It’s a culmination point for this topic, and I really want to start exploring more within the region, doing more site specific work. And within Dumfries & Galloway, because it’s such a beautiful environment to work within, rather than being in cities that – you could be in any city.

Katie:              Yes, cities are great, they’ve got a lots of personality and character and the rest of that, but I don’t find that they work at the pace where I can still make work. I need that kind of easing off…”

Want more???

We can talk all day!

When I’m not running around mad, headless chicken style – I’ve been hanging out with YES (Youth Enquiry Service for those of you less in the know) to discuss a new project heading to Dumfries very soon – Watch This Space!!!