Sunday, January 18, 2009

back on the street











The autumn saw me covering the scruffy old windowsills in broken plates and tiles. The only ones I bought were the grey ones for the edges. The first sill incorporates some numbers. These were taken from a Spanish sundial tile I bought when I was a student in Alicante. When I smashed it up, I had no idea what I was going to do with the numbers, I just wanted the sun part. In a flash of inspiration, I decided to use the numbers 56490, the post code of this village. The second afternoon I was working on it, someone who lives nearby stopped her car outside and gave me a load more old plates. They are on the second windowsill, which I started a couple of days later. I incorporated the letters eap, my initials, and also the initials of the person this street is named after. So, it is a signature and a reference to the street. I also put in the number 8 - the house number. On the front of the sill, I added the Breton Triskel, the Celtic design which appears on all things Breton. I'd bought it from a lad at yet another car boot sale for 20c, not knowing at the time what I was going to do with it. I realised I was addicted to mosaics when I found myself working into the end of the afternoon, in drizzle, in a wind tunnel, wearing fingerless gloves and layers of T shirts and jackets. It was only autumn starting!

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