Days out, whether at home or abroad, are always made better by encounters with art, history or a combination of the two! This month saw me taking a few days off to explore Bordeaux and to visit La base sous marine - formerly a WW2 U-Boat base and now home to a contemporary art gallery. I was also there to check out the memorial to the Spanish prisoners who were forced to construct the base. (Left Image). On the way back, walking through Chartrons, I chanced upon the last day of a stunning exhibition by Spanish artist Gonzalo Borundo whose installation in a disused church offered not just the usual scale and spectacle, but also detail and depth. (Centre Image). Just as moving, and nearer to home, I went to Dublin and the Irish Museum of Modern Art to catch Doris Salcedo's Acts of Mourning exhibition just before it finished. Shown on the right, a detail from one of the sculptures from the Disremembered series , delicate garments made from silk and pins - the artist's response to loss through gun violence in Chicago. Amazing how something so delicate can be so powerful. All in all, an inspirational month and so I am back in the studio processing , drawing and making - details to follow!

June was quite hectic - busy and enjoyable! Three conferences - Durham, London and Edinburgh , a workshop in Newcastle and the official launch of QSS Studios. Taking a cue from the Kubrick exhibition at the Design Museum in London on the perils of  all work and no play (see above!) I also found time to be inspired by David Adjaye's wonderful memorial exhibition , also at the Design Museum and to make new work for the opening night of QSS. Highlight of the month for me was the First World War: Past Present and Future Conference in Edinburgh. I presented a paper which gave an overview of my practice which, for some twenty years, had creatively responded to WW1 through themes of memory, forgetting and commemoration - both public and private. It was a real treat - and very moving - to have the opportunity to explore the  Craiglockhart campus  and to walk around the grounds where poets such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon had spent time recovering from shell shock. Beautiful grounds, wonderful literary archive and a fitting way to end the month!