David's Bookshop in Letchworth Garden City has just celebrated 60 years and so I was totally delighted to do an updated commission of the shops to celebrate this great achievement and event!! I have known David's Bookshop for half of that time because I moved originally to Letchworth in the early 90's. It was a very special cultural hub then and remains so today. It really is one of the gems of Letchworth and is a place to find all sorts of treasures there from new books and music to second hand vinyl, books and maps and a great café too. Too much to list really! I have seen it be managed with naturally changing staff over the years and it remains full of interesting and fantastically helpful staff that will guide you in all you need. So the new piece needed to express that richness and be updated from the simpler one I made way back in 2013. My work has changed since then. I have moved onto using more coloured papers and I do a lot more freely cut collage work where I plan less so that it has more energy and less still quality to a collage.
The previous commission:
The commission from 2013 was used on all sorts of items and in the local paper. I still love this image as it goes back to my earlier years in papercut collage. It has a simplicity that I still really love and I really don't think I could make it again. So it stands alone as something I feel very pleased to have made. The new commission I love in another way for its colour and complexity and in what I have learnt in making collages and using those skills in the new one. It just shows what an amazing thing life is and how connection to places is so important for us all.