Monday morning, this time four years ago we were sitting in the late Summer sun enjoying the last glorious throes of summer and my solo show at the Dissenters Chapel and all the leaf colour of Kensal Green cemetery. Today, I’m in my bunker over in Hackney, slightly under siege and reacting to this environment, to things found to paint on, to the mess everyone makes, to the beauty that can occasionally still be found in the unloved abandoned state of it all – abandoned people, abandoned things, the arrogance of the new, blinkered destruction of so much.        .

Feels like it might be time to evolve again, London is cloying, Folkestone was exciting, people really making things happen together, Vyner Street is frustrating, communities fractured, destroyed, everyone for themselves as the property developers take over, a once beautifully unique and special street and a creative community, a shared energy, almost destroyed now – “It’s London Design Festival week! We’re showing Ermacora & Carmody Groake’s exciting plans for LimeWharf version 2.0” said the developer wolf in his sheep’s clothing.

Working on this found “blank canvas” today with a view to the We Could Not Agree show…. beautiful rusty hinges.Found it in a back alley just off Emma Street, deepest East London, gloriously weathered textured wood. The We Could Not Agree show is another adventure in another car park, this time on level three in a multistory in Cavendish Square, London, W1 (opening night private view thing on Monday October 13th and running until Sunday October 19th). More about the show soon – a show where a number of rather active London curators invite a selection of artists I assume they could not agree on (or maybe they could?). 

There is still beauty to be found in the greed and grab of East London, there are still real people, real things, real life, beauty in things thrown out and left for things to grow on, things left to be taken back. I’m not from London, I have been here for a rather long time now though (too long?), surely it should be about coming along and joining in, not taking over and destroying what was here?  Taking part rather taking over? Time to paint, someone else can fight for the community and the street for a bit, I;m under siege and painting the hope of growth on this beautiful found thing left in a scuzzy back alley just off Emma Street.

“EMMA STREET, E2” WORK IN PROGRESS (left in the studio while things to grow on it)