Bob Hill

In addition to numerous writers " too many to list " I've been influenced by artists, particularly Mark Rothko, Catherine Yass and Max Ernst.

While it's generally acknowledged that artists' sketches can have as much validity as the completed painting/sculpture (think of Henry Moore), writers rarely seize that opportunity: the first, second, third (etc) draft is usually discarded, to be replaced by the final poem/play/novel. In Trail 2008, I'm keen to play with the writer's use of drafts; to privilege sketches rather than see them as a means to an end.

Sketch One (Teignmouth's Paddling Pool) The text in the pool incorporates a fragment from an eleventh-century Old English Charm a spell from pre-Christian times:

[ evaporate like water in a pail, become as little as a linseed-grain, much smaller than a hand-worm's hip-bone is, and so diminish that you come to nothing]

This 'sketch' is realised through its visual interpretation by George Davis (see www.fgdavis.co.uk for further information on the artist), and students from Torquay Boys Grammar School. Thus, while the mural remains in sympathy with my text, the artists project their own ideas - as opposed to providing a literal interpretation of the tropes of the text.

To this Old English poem, I've added contemporary prose poems reflecting the elements:

on being told you could see an island on the horizon, he looks intently, looks for a solid shape - to distinguish between sea and sky. Yet the more he looks the less he knows; whether it is an island, a low cloud or the shadow of something more.

The nearer the waves come to the shore, the stronger the pulses of water. Sees them confirm a semi-circle; watches for a long time, growing to like their rhythm, smiling at the regularity, waiting for their return. Whenever the seventh reappears, he points out the one he knows so well.

Watch the clouds for faces - outlines of meadows, steeples or other reminders of home. The best he can do is transform the clouds into ravens seeing these new & giant birds above a stillness of endless water.
Later a sky of a thousand stars presses down, mixed heavy with a thick scent of flowers. The smell of cow parsley & dog-rose pervades.

In this instance the sketches are the collaboration between writer and artists, and the synergy created by the installation.