Quaduke, raising money for 10 radio

On thursday the 3rd of april at 8.00 at the White Hart Hotel in Wiveliscombe there is to be an 'Auction of Promises' to raise money for the local community radio station that broadcasts out of Wiveliscombe, and yes I have been known to partake in a few shows over the years.
So for this 'Auction of Promises' I have created a small musical instrument called 'Quaduke', this instrument has a sliding bridge that means it can be played in many ways and has an array of sounds.
Too bid for this instrument you will have to be at the White Hart from 8.00 onwards or contact me at: michaelfairfax@eclipse.co.uk with your pledge and I will put it forward.  There is a reserve price of £100.00.
It is made from oak with steel strings that can be tuned.

The Jobbing Artist

It is the nature that over my career of thirty plus years, making my living purely from what I make, design and play that makes me think that the term 'Jobbing Artist' best sums it up, it is a career not bound in the garrets of Paris or some other idealised fabrication of the media, but in the realities of getting commissions and completing them so well that I can get another job.  The fact that I take immense pleasure from designing and creating is a bonus.  So the 'Credit Crunch' in 2008 hit artists hard, and maybe public artists the hardest, when jobs are being cut and the word 'cutbacks' shakes us all to the very core, we artists had to think again, redefine how we might make a living in this new 'austere' world, where the pavements aren't paved with gold or public art.  So as the 'Jobbing Artist' I have recently been working creating pieces for new housing estates, in Trowbridge I have created house numbers, seating, tree guards and grills, railings, slate diamond for exterior of houses and a bronze trail along the pavement.  This has led to more house numbers and in the West Midlands if planning permission is approved I will be carving 78 oak house numbers.  So the 'Jobbing Artist' lives on, maybe not with as much money as before and maybe with more variation of scheming, the honey pot of public art is no more and we are left to live on our wits, using our talents and imagination to forge a new future for ourselves.

The Triolin makes an entrance

I was visiting my friend Jessica Curry and thought I should take a gift, she is a musician of outstanding ability, a composer and winner of many awards so this was never going to be easy, but I thought she might like a little three stringed instrument so I made the Triolin and played it, oh my this sounded good.
I gave her the little instrument and she loved it, but of course I couldn't leave it there, so upon returning home I had to make myself one.
These little fellas are fabulous and for the SAW weeks in October when I will have my studio open I think I might make quite a few, which will be for sale.
These are made of oak, charred and measure 700 x 65 x 50 mm, if you fancy one let me know and I will dicuss prices and what tuning you would like, Jess's is tuned to A D C and the little black thing you can see is a movable bridge, so of course you can change the tuning!

Keeping warm in the Studio: New Works

Yes it is cold in my studio, no heating, open double doors and the rain lashing down, day on day on day.  So to counteract that there is no better way way than to keep on making things.
Of course the West Lavington Show in June has been focusing my attention and another instrument has been, carved burnt and strung, oh and tuned.  At the moment it is called "The Wedge" if anyone has any other names please add to the comment list below and if something better comes up I will change it!

Also I have made another in the Colour Blind Test series, this I feel is an ongoing venture, as I am enthralled by the three dimensionalness of the way the light comes through the holes and almost creates a sphere.

And a quicky for the Art on the Block auction for the Musgrove Hospital a small ear harp with plectrum.

The Winter Collection

Six new tracks from my most recent collection: The Winter Collection:
On soundcloud here : https://soundcloud.com/michael-fairfax
or contact me for special personalised CD.
Contact me via: michaelfairfax@eclipse.co.uk

Lyre

The next piece for the West Lavington Show is now complete, again with a haiku by Roselle Angwin, this piece uses nylon strings and the curved arm can be listened to, to hear the sound of the strings, I am hoping that the wind will also play these strings.
The next of this series is already underway.

Gayageums

 Here is the latest piece for the West Lavington summer show.  The Gayageum is a South Korean instrument, one that I had the pleasure to play at I-Park last year when the Korean artist Jayoung Chung let me play hers.  It is a mighty fine instrument and this is more my take on it other than slavishly copying one.
I asked Roselle Angwin if she would write some haiku for me, that may be pertinant to the instrument and the fact that these would be placed outside and possibly be played by the wind as well as humans.
She responded magnificently and the words on this one is hers, please visit her blog: http://roselle-angwin.blogspot.co.uk/ for further information on her.
I will be playing these instruments alongside pupils from local schools during the exhibitions that runs from 4th june to the 22nd june.
More instruments to come.