Wearing several hats this week, most of them have paint on, I try not to get paint on anything other than the thing I’m actually painting. My curating hat is being worn quite a bit at the moment with the Cultivate Columbia Road takeover and a six week residency that we;re currently in the middle of, a residency at East London’s Shipton Street Gallery that runs until the end of October. There’s been two shows at the space so far, both documented on the Organ webpages and the busy Cultivate website – there’s plenty of words and images and thoughts on the other artists and their art over there on those pages, we’ve had some exciting art on the walls as well as impressive performance and installation, Emma Harvey‘s Riot Grrrl painting are looking good on the wall right now alongside Jessica Scott‘s pieces and James Bell’s slice of luxury. I rather like wearing my curator’s hat, there’s as much of a buzz to be had in showing other people’s art or discovering new exciting artists as their is in showing my own work. we must be getting close to curating something like two-hundred shows or events now, exhibitions and such that have featured the work of well over a thousand artists by now – it can sometimes be tense, stressful, frustrating, and Joshua Compston‘s thing about feeling like an aircraft carrier that people just land on, use for a bit until they’ve got what they want and then fly off without so much as a thank you does ring true – wouldn’t it be wonderful if artists actually worked together and supported each other just a little more, putting on art shows can be a thankless task. Putting on art shows can be brilliant as well though, especially when a show works and people are engaged, when people come in and react to the art or the artists tat we’ve invited to be part of it all. Hang on, stop, today isn’t the day to go into it all…

Hang on, stop, today isn’t the day to go into it all, the second Columbia Road takeover show is happening right now, a show called I Saw it First, I Want it Worse (yes that show title did come from a Seven Year Bitch lyric), the current show along with the first one and the art and the other artists involved is all documented on the Cultivate pages and the Organ pages. here’s a taste or two of my art and the fresh stargrowth and the leaves and the the new layers and the notions of the Cheap Art Manifesto and the daily paintings and the beautiful old till and such – the gallery was once a greengrocers shop called Sylvester’s, back in the 60’s, I’m having lots of interesting conversations with people who lived in the area back then who can remember it, that might be something to revisit in the space later in the year… For now then, a taste of what I’ve been doing with my art in the space so far, there’s more to come before it all ends on October 29th, I do love painting, I much prefer my painting hat… Oh and by the way, just updated the on-line shop again, do please have a look, I’m going to need to buy a new hat before the cold weather kicks in…