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!

As it's May, and I missed the opportunity to say 'may the fourth be with you!' I am (more seriously) sharing some very early memorial work which I have recently started. For those interested in process, the images above illustrate one way of working. In thinking about concepts for memorial forms, I begin by creating small scale models which are playful experiments in texture and form. Photography and digital manipulation add another layer of thinking (through making) which in turn leads to offshoot ideas and concepts. These in turn, might become drawings which suggest other ways of re-configuring the original 3-D form. It's all about trial and error, experiment/failure and letting the art follow its own path through the research. I will be posting more updates as the work develops and I am excited to see where it goes!

What a great few days away in Copenhagen! I had never been so I had no expectations and no agenda other than to see the famous Gundestrup Cauldron at the National Museum. Photographs can't do it justice, but isn't it wonderful when something you have always wanted to see, and have only known from books is even better in real life? The rest of Copenhagen wasn't so bad either! Back to work now and hope to post some images of my new, tentative memorial designs in next post.

The first signs of Spring, rather than the start of the calendar year, always heralds - for me - signs of growth and personal productivity. This March, the new studio has started to take shape and most boxes and crates are now unpacked! I was delighted to receive - all the way from Australia -  my copy of Paul Gough's new book  'Dead Ground' - which features my work alongside  other artists, both historic and contemporary, whose practice focuses on war, memorial and ways of remembering from WW1 to the present day.  This is a great signpost for my  new work which will focus, almost exclusively, on war memorials. Watch this space!  

This time of year is traditionally marked by saying goodbye to old things and hello to the new - so in keeping with that tradition, I said goodbye to my much loved studio in December and hello to a fabulous new space in January! I will miss the beautiful arched windows of Bedford Street (left) but the views from my new space, towards Cave Hill and the Shipyard are just as amazing - you will have to take my word for that at the moment! At QSS, we have increased our numbers from 25 artists to 35, and en masse, we have moved to East Belfast. Once I have finished unpacking, I will post some updates!

,'Standing at the Cenotaph at Belfast City Hall at 11.00 am on 11th November, 2018 I thought of many things and how many of those things had changed in Northern Ireland since (and perhaps because of ) the First World War. Standing with local dignitaries, MLAs and Councillors was Tanaiste Simon Coveney. He laid a wreath of behalf of the Irish Government and this gesture speaks to how WW1 has become  one way in which reconciliation and understanding of our complex history can be articulated. More personally, I remembered, again, Frank Ritchie, 9th Btn. Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers who died in France 1918.  Now that this significant centenary of 1914 - 18  has passed. I wonder who and what  we will remember next year - and how?    

It has been a busy month - enrolling at Queen's University Belfast and delivering my first talk as part of the project Women, Aging and Film. My talk featured a series of small scale paintings depicting women who never got to make it as older actors - for many reasons -  most of them dark. The event was supported by the School of Social Sciences, the School of Arts, English and Languages and Arts Council Northern Ireland. Under normal circumstances, I will be located within the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics and focusing on all things relating to memorials. Looking forward to it!

Things are memorable in different ways , for different reasons. I knew the films of Orson Wells, but nothing about his lifelong passion for drawing and painting. Cousin's beautiful film inspired me to do more with my sketchbooks - they are not just for scribbling to do lists! I don't think I will forget yesterday. Like a scene from a film, a reminder of how Belfast must have been in the Blitz, or the Troubles, smoke billowed from the old Bank Buildings in the city centre. Today, this 233 year old building is just a burnt out shell. It has served the city as a bank, a department store and for a long time was the site of public executions. For as long as I can remember it has housed Primark retail. I had my purse stolen there whilst Christmas shopping some years ago - I won't forget that - but the memory does not diminish my love for the building. I hope it is restored. 

Another great research trip to Berlin and - new for me - Leipzig. From the crumbling remains of Anhalter station to the vast expanse of Gatow airfield there is always a sense of history in Berlin. I took a few days out to go to Leipzig to see the 91 metre tall monument to the Battle of the Nations or Volkerschlachdenkmal for those who like a spelling challenge! The monument was complete in 1913 - one hundred years after the defeat of Napoleon. Well worth the climb to the top for panoramic views of Leipzig and worth remembering that despite its re-purposing by the Third Reich, it is now a monument for peace.