Jamie's blog

The Bar tailed godwit

My alarm chirped at me and it was 3am.  I’d not had much sleep on account of my head been so busy with grids, measurements and images. and I was rising so early to finalise designs for the day to come.  In an hour and a half we were to descend onto the beach to make a protest against a proposal for a coal fired power station on our shores with the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds).  The proposal would destroy a wading area for birds and significantly contribute to climate change.  There is no need in this day and age for Britain to source such energy; is it not so windy over here after all.

I woke Andy Moss at 4am.  His face was uncharacteristically blank and like a zombie he clothed himself, carefully taking one step after another, slowly becoming more alert as his body arose from its deep sleep.  At that moment there was a knock at the door and Jo Billingsley popped her head through.  Our quartet was almost complete.

We drove down to the beach in the dead of night, me desperately trying to see through the windscreen all fogged up by the warmth of our bodies snatched from our beds.  It wasn’t far to the beach and when we arrived there was no one but ourselves, the beach lit up for a moment by our headlights and then black as I turned off the engine.

The Super Nova sequence with the solar orbs at Druiridge Bay

We were to make two drawings that day.  One set of images were to be birds flying down the beach.  The negative space would be highlighted by the signatures of those people who had signed the protest, it was to be a visual demonstration.  This idea had come from some work we had done the week before.  Working with a youth group we had made some solar orbs in negative space with squiggles as the flares to highlight them.  Some of the kids had made pictures instead of squiggles; others had signed the images with their names.  It dawned on me that it would be poignant to make the birds using the signatures from the protest.  The Signature Bird was born; this was to be done by me and Jo with the help of the RSPB volunteers.  The second image was to be a face of a girl cracking as though it was in a dry river bed.  This was to be done by Andy Moss, the Mexican, the Major, the Moustache; he goes by so many names.  Joining Andy was to be Pandorà.  The quartet was complete.

Pandorà was waiting for us on the walkway.  We met her last week in Bradford whilst we struggled with some preparations.  She offered to help us.  She is an unassuming character and at first I was not sure what is was that she could do.  But now I feel a little embarrassed at how I underestimated her and I think I speak for everyone to say that we were blown away by her insight.  In the hours that she bestowed upon us sand drawing was changed forever and it seems a revolution in how to draw large images occurred that day.   I cannot tell you who or what she is exactly as I fear she may blow your mind.  What I can say though is that she is the Truth Teller and the All Seeing Eye.  She has such a noble and regal air that I feel she must be some sort of princess in another far off country that is perhaps not even of this world.

In the dark the four of us began plotting out the main points of the face image, overcoming obstacles that the darkness posed against us as they arose.  Like a drone Andy buzzed around the beach plotting the markers whilst Pandorà instructed him where to go in her calm stately fashion.  If it were me and Andy alone trying to plot the markers in the dark, then we would be fumbling around with frustration for hours only to get it wrong.  But Pandorà instantly knows where everything should go without any tapes or string; it is quite remarkable.

Soon the RSPB volunteers began to arrive and the drawing commenced.  Jo and I went to make the bird images that were to be photographed by the Aeroplane which is piloted by Nigel King.  Nigel is an incredible character and I feel that he needs a story of his own.  For now he is the magician of the air, taking incredible photographs that are far superior to any others that we have had in the past.

Jamie posing for the cameras with The cracking face. Drawn by Andy Moss and Pandora

It is characteristic of large sand drawings that you are often isolated in your own space as the team is so spread out along the beach.  Occasionally there is talking on the radio reassuring you that you are not alone.  Hand poised on stick, stick drawing in the sand, making marks that are yet to be signed with the rake.  We drew for four hours right until the sea was lapping at the wing of our final bird which was my favourite the Bar-tailed Godwit.  Myself and Jo drew it together in haste to try and beat the tide and we got the raking team to come and sign it before we had even finished the drawing.  I could not see the finished result as I had to run the 600 meters down the length of the beach for a press call on the work of Andy and Pandorà.  It was fantastic.  An anamorphosised face that was 100 meters long, done by just the two of them.  We posed for the journalists before the tide took the image.

The Bar Tailed Godwit signed in the sand

It was to be a great success on Irvine beach that day.  We did not know it at the time as we were so exhausted and ready to go to bed, our eyes glazed.  But we could not go to bed as we had to drive home for five hours to verdant Yorkshire.  The morning had been so intense that it passed into a dream like memory.  It was only the next day that we realised how successful it had been as the images of the face appeared in newspapers up and down the country.

“Jamie, I just saw your face in the Metro  and the Telegraph!”  This was a message from a dear friend of mine Danielle.  What surprised me though is that she was writing from Sydney Australia.  The images had gone global.

My thanks to Andy, Jo, Pandorà, the people at the RSPB and finally Nigel King who took all the ariel images.

Jamie

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“What’s the weather forecast like for tomorrow Tom?”  I was on the train and was coming back from the airport from Ireland, I’d been working for some Irish friends in the making of a sand sculpture.

“Well it’s predicted for heavy rain Jamie.”  I was forlorn as this wasn’t good news.  “There is rain in the morning but it seems to clear in the early part of the day only to start again in the evening.  Shall we go ahead with it?”  The train was rattling away and echoing the process going on inside my head.  Should I get over a dozen artists to drive for hours to a remote beach at the crack of dawn on the off chance that the experiment may be rained off.

“I think it will be OK, let’s go for it.” Then all the messages were sent.  “It’s on.”

It rained heavily during the journey the next day but then a welcomed blue sky began to peel back the clouds to reveal bristling sunshine, although not warm enough to dull the chilling wind of April  2007.  We descended upon the beach and I began to give instructions on the new method of drawing in sand which I had recently devised to make drawing much faster.  This was a typical scenario as each time I do a drawing I am always pushing boundaries and developing the technique.  The drawing that we were to make was extremely ambitious, six times the size of our first drawing only one year previous.

“We need two small teams, Mark you can be the drawer in one team.  Who wants to be Marks personal raker?”  This is the person that follows the Drawer and then fills in the details with the rake.  A very catchy job title if I do say so myself; one for the C.V.  “We can then have general rakers who will rake the sand en masse.”  Not so good for the CV.

Everyone got primed to be ready whilst I directed from the top of the cliff, barking down the walkie talkie and giving instructions only to find that two didn’t work.  Batteries.  Lots of shouting and arm waving then became the norm.  Always in these drawings it seems so complicated at first that there is a general lull before things get going, as nobody really has any idea what they are doing, but as the magic begins to take hold the image moves forward like a wave on the rocks, washing the confused expressions from my friends faces.  It begins with a lot of talking, people are making sure of their position and technique.  But after a while all goes quiet as their concentrated gaze becomes focussed on the end of their tool, whether it is a drawing stick, a rake, or a piece of string, the only noise is the seas mumblings, gently reminding us that it is coming and that we do not have much time left.  We begin drawing patterns in the sand with the knowledge that we are joined in this seemingly fruitless pursuit by many others, all working towards the same goal, each person indispensible.

So why do it?  All that effort and aching backs just to produce a piece of art that by the time it is finished is ready to be erased by our great Mother.  I am not actually sure why. But what I do know is that it feels fantastic, there is an unreal sense of euphoria amongst the group as we have made something special that needed every one of us for it to be.  All the more special as it is fleeting, a moment caught in time for us to remember.   It is almost worth it just to see the expressions of the people taking their Sunday walk along the cliff only to see that below them where there should only be a beach, there is a drawing in the sand.

On the 14^th March this year, we will be making another drawing in Whitby, North Yorkshire, if you want to join us let me know, it will be an early start, from 8am until 12:30.  But this one will be an animated abstraction that grows from a seed and dances to music.  I leave you with this, the concept for the drawing:

“An idea is like a seed.  If you do not nourish it then at best it will stay with you forever but come to nothing, at worst it will rot from your imagination and be gone from the world forever…… But if you feed it,…. then it may grow beyond all imagining.”  A seed is placed in a ball of earth and then thrown from the cliff onto the beach.  It explodes, and then the drawing begins….

Jamie

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