Hello hello hello!

Last weekend we went up to Chicago and visited the cities amazing sites: Millennium Park-with its huge water fountain, Anish Kapoor’s unreal ‘Cloud Gate’ sculpture. We went to Lake Michigan beach- where me and Tristan ran like English madmen into the icey lake! burrrrrr. Then saw a spectuclar site of Chicago when we went up The Hancock Tower, saw a couple of some monkeys in the zoo at Lincoln Park and finally went to the Museum of Contemporary Art.

There was a lot of things to see and do there and like the other cities we went to, we walked almost everywhere. We decided to visit all the art galleries and museums before my best friend Alex, arrived. The Museum of Contemporary Arts had one of the most exciting visual exhibitions on I had ever seen. The show was called ‘Take Your Time’ and work from the Iclandic artist, Olafur Elaisson. She used materials in the natural landscape- light, air, water and moss -and used them in a varitey of ways in different rooms where you were less of a spectator and more of a participant. Unfortantly, that evening we missed the free entry to Chicago’s Art Museum, and didn’t get another chance of going there again (mainly due to the fact I got wet running in the Crowd Fountain in Millennium Park…oops!).

My drawings, I find, are becoming less descriptive and more to do with the abstract line and the movement you can create within the page. The 3am drawings are giving me a whole different perspective into how I can experiment with drawing and sleep deprivation; where the body and mind are not functing simultaneously. Like the Surrealists who used their unconsciousness to create automatic drawings, I find that performing a drawing every six hours has started to make me think of a different way of seeing. One morning in Chicago I woke up not realising I did my 3am drawing..bizarre!

Myself and Tristan are now off to St. Louis in the morning, then to Nashville and most likley be in New Orleans by the weekend. I might not be back in touch for a while but I hope you are all enjoying what I’ve been writing and drawing

Speak to you in the South! Ed

Dirty Clothes, smelly socks and stubbly faces are all a part of living in the car. We’ve managed to have touched base with the normal world. I am at my Aunties house resting up and having  some delicious meals on deck chairs- it feels good be in a place where the last thing on your mind is when your next wash or meal is.

This week has been one of the best. Me and Tristan have seen the signs of Washington, the beaches of Cape Cod and the dive town that is Atlantic City. There were some wonderful places we passed on the way to Washington, but we couldn’t help noticing all the English named towns: Tiverton, Taunton, Exeter, Falmouth, Bristol, Plymouth, Winchester..just to named a few! Province-town in Cape Cod distinctly reminded me of St. Ives because of all it’s intimate galleries and seaside shops that overlooked the beach. Travelling from one extreme to the next we headed to Atlantic City- a casino town, but without the Vegas- where the buildings hung like stage sets in a forgotten film. It was an abomination; what only made us both stay was the cheap beers.

That weekend we stayed in Washington, seeing the signs and soaking up the atmosphere and culture. Me and Tristan went up the Lincoln Memorial, where we could see the whole city. Every building looked grand and glorious; until I noticed the White House. That cant be it?! Umbereigh Estate is bigger that that! I was so shocked: the American films do play it up a bit. In the rest of our Washington adventure, we went to George Town for the afternoon, then to a couple of student sports bars. From the five nights we had crashing in the car we luckily managed to grab a shower from a nice girl who we had met on the first night. It felt fantastic! After that it was one stop in Pittsburgh then straight to my Aunties for a shower.

I hope you like the drawings I’ve been doing and you can see how some of the drawings relate to what I’ve talking about.

Cheers,ed