Congleton Antique Mill

Greeted by a lost partridge or a pheasant maybe at the car park in Congleton this morning. Pouring with rain. Went to meet up with old chums Tony and Pene and look round the antique emporium. Prices seem to have gone up since last time so didn't get anything. Hazel found a bit of 30's stained glass to prop up in her workshop or summerhouse.Nice coffee and toasted tea cake for elevenses. More antiquing. Lunch in cafe on top floor. Soup was a bit salty Hazel said. I had mushroom and cheese toastie and salad which was very tasty.Braved the weather to look in the most boring museum in England . Home through massive puddles. Splish-splosh!

Online Interview

Online interview with Mark Watkins HERE.

Archie - Open Studio - Galleria ACME - Peckham

Strange isn't it that nearly 40 years later Archie is renting his studio from ACME as I did back in the 70's except then mine was a pre-fab in Stepney for £3 a week or something stupid and I could live there as well! Good to see ACME still a going concern - helping out artists in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Stepney was pretty basic but very cheap to live back in the 70's and 80's. I got to exhibit at the Whitechapel gallery a few times and made enough work to get my foot in the door of a couple of galleries in the west end. All run by crooks sadly so didn't last long. Mail art came along and rest, as they say, is history. Our 40+ year archive "Curious Things" opens in Manchester on Monday and on for 6 months. #mmucuriousthings

More Tweaking at Curious Things

Nice day depsite the drizzle in Manchester again to sort out the vitrines and print some labels etc. Also made sketch of where everything was in the mailed objects cabinet and did a diagram and key to find everything which will be added to wall. Hazel printed more labels with her Victorian rubber stamp set. The invites are printed and look very nice. Posters look amazing! More soon! #mmucuriousthings

Vagrants and Stella and Brian Visit.

Busy day today so just got round to putting our boot sale bargains on here. Our old chums Stella and Brian came with us to the boot sale at Vagrants near Nantwich. They are on a road trip to see friends and family in their massive campervan. They stayed for lunch and we went for a nice walk to Marbury Woods this afternoon and then to Hazel's Mom's for a cup of tea and slice of lemon drizzle cake. Stella was a neighbour of Granma and Audrey's and hasn't seen them for 19 years so they had a lot to talk about. They came back to ours for cheese and crackers and now on the road to Bolton.

Curious Things install

2nd day of install at Special Collections, MMU in Manchester. Hazel and myself sorting out lots of cabinets ( we need more!) and directing framing of posters, artistamps, postcards etc. One of the biggest, if not the biggest overview of the mail art scene in the UK. To be opened on 25th September ( PV 3rd October ) through to April 2002. #mmucuriousthings