Dear Yorkshire Sculpture Park...

Dearest Yorkshire Sculpture Park

 I've been away for a while. London. I have strayed. Maybe we just know each other too well now... Maybe we need a break... have been spending some time at the Saatchi Gallery. I know I did send a mass text message saying 'In the Saatchi. Have died and gone to heaven! It's the best place I have ever, ever been!! xx.' Yes that is two exclamation marks. And yes it did go to rather a lot of people. But I do still love you too. It's not you, it's me. I think I needed a change. You are very different. I was overexcited by the artwork. Can I have you both? Please?

Begging forgiveness

Kathryn xx

Dan Perfect 'Village' 2007

Dan Perfect 'Antelope Canyon' 2005

 Was very taken with Dan Perfect's paintings. Don't think I was aware of these beforehand. Maybe I've seen them in magazines and not remembered. Seeing them in actuality was quite special really. Think I might have actually gasped. And done that funny jig thing that inflicts me from time to time. Big, big canvases. Alive with paint. With energy. Thought* how is it possible to capture such sheer energy through paint? I want to know more. And I really, really would like one all for myself...

Toby Ziegler 'The Liberals (3rd Version)'.

 A rubbing of a door. In graphite. Beautiful velvety texture. Fragile, fragile paper. Texture of door imprinted. Wish I knew who the artist was...would like to find out more about them...

Richard Wilson '20:50.' 1987. Used sump oil, steel. Dimensions variable

 Richard Wilson. Have seen this before. When the Saatchi Gallery was housed in the Town Hall. I love it. It puts me on edge. The sense of danger. The perfect mirrored surface. The smell hits long before the installation is visible. It plays with my senses, my perception.

The Tate no longer shines for me

 I fear the Tate Modern is losing it's shine. For years and years it's made me happy. Raised my spirits... in a sort of nourishing, sustaining type of way. But this time I just feel a bit flat. Deflated. I adore the building... that has not changed... perhaps I felt that even more strongly than on previous visits. Maybe it's because the anticipation of the building, the space, was so great that the collections could do nothing but leave me feeling frustrated. Maybe I shouldn't have spent so long in the Turbine Hall. But that's the bit that does it for me. Felt a bit cathedral-like with the sun filtering through its vastness. Could have should have stayed there. The sunflower seeds were... er.... intriguing... because of the sheer volume (that thing again about visualising enormous numbers that is still haunting me). How many where there? Quite amazing actually. Beautiful porcelain. I would have loved to kept one. But that's very naughty and I'm very good. Anyway... forced myself to leave the Turbine Hall and head up to the galleries.

 It's not that the work was bad. Or of no significance. It's just that it didn't feel right. The whole point of art is that it touches or affects you in some way. And it just didn't. (Not like the Baltic). The spaces felt crammed. Not used well. I didn't understand the connections. Also too busy. Felt like merely a tourist attraction. I was on a converyer belt being taken from one room to the next. Integrity? Not sure. Won't go back. Life is too short....

Had intented to go to the amazing Saatchi Gallery instead. But it was shut. Grrrrrrrr....