An archival digital print, 40 x 40cm, with and accompanying explanatory booklet, £75.

Available in other sizes on request.

The accompanying booklet details each of the bits of the picture and explains them it a little detail. It has its own scratch and sniff card included. It also has a dust jacket that when unfolded reveals a copy of the the picture, all be it in very poor quality.

This picture will be on display in The Mill, 7 – 11 Coppermill Lane, E17 7HA, June 2nd till the 8th of August, which covers the duration of the E17 Arts Trail, No 20 on the map, and there will be a “meet the artists” event on the afternoon of the 6th. A larger version of the print, 80cm square, will be in Winns Gallery, Lloyd Park, No 54 on the art trail map, from the 6th to the 14th of June, 11 – 5, with a “meet the artists” event on the 5th, 6 till 8.

THE STORY…

This was a tortuous print to produce, not because of the print itself but the surrounding circumstances. I lost computers, hard drives, data and friends. I was in and out of hospital, and surrounded by doubt, I had got to the point when I thought it would never happen. But here it is.

Originally this started out as submission to an exhibition in the Pictorem Gallery, organised and curated by David Sullivan , under the title “Cover”. The idea being to create a work in the style of another artist. Although initially I had dismissed the offer, after all he had written to me saying, “I didn’t realise you were still alive”, but I had an epiphany, not to clump him the I next saw him, but to make something, time was short and lots was happening, but I had an idea.

I was going to do a montage of Walthamstow based on the Peter Blake Beatles album cover, “Sargent Pepper”. I managed to get a good way into it when I lost my hard drive in a puff of smoke. The voltage regulators failed, allowing the whole thing to burn out. Predictably I only had half of it backed up, and being pressed for time and unable to complete it I submitted something else instead.

But the project stuck in my head and I plodded on, through what was a very difficult year. I rebuild the artwork, carried on researching, made field trips to do brass rubbings and take photos, consult archives, delve into the world wide web, read lots of books, I even had to grow my own marijuana and knotweed . All good fun. But what I anticipated being a few images tagged together with an A4 sheet for an index turned into a 32 page booklet with cover, and a fold out fly-cover / dust-jacket, to cover the 115 entries.

It must be said, it is a very personal history, it will not be the same as your history and different again to your neighbours, what was important to me, or caught my eye, will not necessarily have caught yours. But Walthamstow is my home I’ve lived here for 50 years, known the place a lot longer, and I am very attached to it, these are my memories.

At some point I will redesign the booklet, it is very poorly laid out, and possibly make a good quality dust jacket. But that is for the future.