Continuing Lives of the Temporal Sequences

I spent 12 years making something every day adding to a long procession of elements, each one part of the whole as well as a member of any number of groups and a single entity. I have taken some time to review the work and revisit it without any set idea or predicted outcomes. Please see below for non-regular dips in to what I have been doing.

February, 2026

This is a new time based piece, started on 15th September 2025 and the plan is to continue until 15th September 2026 – yes that day will be represented twice. I was proud to finish the twelve years of making something every day for every year and don’t choose to think of this as part of that group. After a few conversations with other artists – me saying I thought I was going to start the daily making up again in January but felt I wanted it to be a new standalone piece – and a couple of people pointing out that things don’t have to start in January, it was liberating to just start on an arbitrary day without much thought. And, because it’s not tied into the other years, I feel freer about it and less responsible for it.

I add a rectangle of something I find growing outside for every day. I can miss up to about a week and add seven on one day – any more than that and the previous leaf would be too brittle to stitch into without breaking. I like the leeway and the fact that it also has a limit, imposed by the structure of the materials and the way they change as they dry out.

The video below comprises photographs of all the additions so far (when looking at about three weeks worth at a time). I think it will end up being about a meter and a half long, so long enough to carefully hold between two outstretched arms. At the moment it still fits into a large flower press I made a couple of years ago but I need to make another longer one.

The next video (below the first) shows the whole line growing.

September, 2025

Still organising and photographing the circles from a couple of years ago. Here are the January ones.

And here are photographs of some of the February circles:

And some more painted flower presses:

Late August, 2025

Having been through all the pressed arrangements from 2023, I am delighted that every day is accounted for. I knew there were some days throughout Sept, Oct and Nov when I was experimenting with ways to finish this whole twelve year project, before a final splurge of one every day for December. I remembered that at least one month was represented by circles cut from elaeagnus leaves, rather than cutting and sewing. I counted all the arrangements, including the plain leaf circles and was ridiculously disappointed that there were some days not accounted for. Looked through all of the flower presses, getting increasingly frantic, and eventually in the last layer of the large flower press I found the right number of tiny little cotoneaster leaves – nothing done to them – just picked and placed in the flower press as modest place holders. The video above is made by photographing the August arrangements – have been experimenting with different way to photograph them and (a gentle setting) on a light box seems best. So I plan to photograph them all over the next few weeks, while I am deciding how to store them/show them.

August, 2025

Been revisiting the leaf and flower circles from a couple of years ago, now sitting in their boxes, pressed and unseen. Have amassed a collection of different sizes of flower presses and have painted some of them as I like the shapes and solidity of them, compared to their paper thin contents. I like the idea of showing the circles in their presses, with the painted versions in the diaries. Perhaps with a special showing of the circles and the opportunity for people to create their own.

July, 2024

Took the July pieces outside in their birth-month. Find it interesting and nervous making how delicate and vulnerable they are – even more so when outside. When arranged together in wild areas of the garden they remind me of a swarms, flocks or herds. A couple of times I lost one in the process of photographing them – happily found them eventually. The ritual of counting them in and out of their box has become important to me – always a relief when they are all present and correct – reminds me of taking the register at school. Here are a few pics of one sketchbook work in watercolour and a few sections of larger works-in-progress using watercolour and oil pastels.