Laura M R Harrison - Artist

Working during the night isn't always easy and the further I go from home the more difficult it tends to be so I have been looking at ways to make working more straightforward. Over the past month, with the help of some VIPs in my life, alongside filming I have been slowly converting my car so that I can sleep in it. It has been remarkable straight forward and it is amazing what can be done with a relatively small space. The process in a nut shell: Removal of back seats Removal of rear seat belt buckles Base platform made from wood battens Base platform topped with thick plywood including to lids for cubby holes, one so that access to the spare tire is still possible The platform also has a sliding extension bar. When the front seats are pushed all the way forward the bar can be slid out and two hinged bits of plywood fold down so that maximum length can be gained for sleeping One small hole drilled into the frame of the car near the boot to add a metal brace so tha

Carlisle Living, Issue 106, August 2017, pp.114-115

Sometimes the simplest things are the most effective. I was reminded of this once again when out on the river last week. This folding handy grabber, which cost me all of about £5, never fails me. As I do all of my filming on my own I sometimes have a lot of equipment to be holding, or at least monitoring, at the same time. The grabber ends up being my extended arm and being folding can be angled depending on what I am trying to do. At the moment, I am using the grabber to hold a diving torch across the surface of the water for some lighting experiments I am doing. During these tests, I was reminded once again how wonderful this piece of kit is and how glad I am that I bought it. And in turn thinking about the simplicity of a piece of equipment got me thinking about trying not to overcomplicate the project I am working on. From the ideas and production of the work, right through to the way the resulting video/s are exhibited. Sometime I overthink things so this has been a rem

This river that I stand in In the darkness of the night I bear it no malice No resentment  No ill will This river Whose waters Late one night Snuck under the door And flowed Then ebbed Under the sofa This river That has flowed More miles than I will ever see More years than I will ever know Perhaps if I listen hard enough For long enough This river  Might share with me Some of the wisdom of its time Perhaps if I stand still enough For long enough This river will touch my soul And share with me Something of the unknown  Laura M R Harrison August 2017  

Last night was a difficult night of filming.  I got wet feet due to a misjudgement of position within 10 minutes of stepping into the water. Thankfully I have some decent waterproof trousers otherwise I would have had a very soggy bottom as well. Normally I'm fine but the sound of running water made me feel like I needed to pee.  There were some teething problems with the camera floatation device which meant that filming wasn't very easy. The device will need more modifications before I'll be able to get the camera to sit in the right position in the water. It also means that the footage I recorded probably isn't usable. Being an artist is like any other job where there are bad days however, I know that by testing the floatation device on location means that I am one step closer to decent footage. It's really important that I keep this in mind as sometimes it is just too easy to allow the negative to overtake the feeling of progress. Onward