Presence and Place

Jeremy Hooker's journal records his close friendship over more than 40 years with the sculptor and painter Lee Grandjean. They have collaborated together and made many excursions together, and shared times at Lee's Norfolk home. Their relationship continues to be a long conversation, in which each has learnt more about the other's art, and about their affinities as image-makers and seekers of new vision in an imaginatively impoverished time. "I have no record of the date when I first met Lee Grandjean but I remember the occasion well. It was towards the beginning of my period as creative writing fellow at Winchester School of Art and I had introduced myself to the students by giving a reading of my poetry. At the end of the reading, to my astonishment, a man in a white boiler suit stood up and clapped. Nervous on this occasion, my first thought was that this was intended as satire. It was, in fact, appreciation, and this was my first encounter with Lee Grandjean, who, at that time, held a sculpture fellowship at the School of Art. We talked after the reading and it wasn't long before he was showing me the sculpture he was at work on. Thus began a creative relationship that has been, and continues to be, immensely important to both of us." -Jeremy Hooker