ben's interweb

 We will be having our fifth wake for Ben on the evening of Saturday, 13th June 2026.  We have some visitors from upcountry booked to be with us (I also have a bed or two, and space for vans if anyone else wants to come) and I guess we will be down at the Wake site from 5 pm onward.

This year I am hoping to start the process of passing on some of Ben's clothes and other personal items: I will put up a new section of the eponymous Ben Marshall Corser website...

Regarding Ben's paintings: I will keep them in store, but if there are any you would like to have/keep for us, let me know - I will also keep a register of where they are.

Lorraine would also like to make a pre-announcement of a graduate Fine Art residency she has developed in collaboration with UWE,  The annual residency will be offered as a prize in tribute to Ben for newly graduated BA or MA's, and will be based at Lorraine's recently converted studio space at Skibble Bar, Castallack.



[Ed - report back...]

Wake 5 (13vi26) - how it all went off!

Luke, Joe and Max arrived on Friday evening, to the St Just summer (fog, wind and chill!) which we experienced on a walk out along Carn Gloose!  (I think) the boys repaired to the Star:



Next morning Joza came in to have a look at Ben's art, and selected a drawing, which she has already displayed on her wall at home...



Joza's visit helped to crystalise what I had planned to display, and so I set up photos, clothes, art and the Klein bottle whiteboard:

          

Lyla came to see and declared the whole house to be like an installation...which I happily accepted!

Later on in the afternoon at Phoenix Barn, Ella arrived in her van, and then Tom and Emily - the weather now being spectacular, unlike previous occasions, where Ben maybe made his presence felt through wind or rain!  The sun shone, the wind was mostly absent, and the tide was perfect for a swim mid-evening (even if there was a bit of a swell running...).

We all gathered down at the fire pit in Cot Valley,



and while Luke prepared the fire, Max sawed off the last of the studs that have threatened anal injury for many years!



Joe provided sangria on ice in a crab bucket



Regarding swimming, the stream was experienced first...

                   

A few  brave souls ventured into the rather rough, and seaweedy sea.  Emily didn't go into the sea, but danced "along the strand"...

 

Paul B came a bit later, and we had brief visits from Barbie and Pauline (as well as a number of passers by, and a Trahair lady who gave her respects to Ben).

After a late start on the Sunday, we viewed Skibble Barn's studio and annex, which are where the residency in Ben's honour will be each year; and then went to the burial ground.

 


Joe had brought some incense...












We talked about the residency, and maybe having a shelf in the studio with a limited number of books about the artists that most inspired Ben (and maybe the odd notebook and sketch book of Ben's?).

We talked about Kerdoya - where, just off the A30 on Bodmin Moor, travelers to and from West Cornwall can stop for a break:


and where there is a plaque for Ben (NOT 193 as I told you, but 297!!)
                               

Over the weekend, many thanks to those who have taken items of Ben's, or bits of his art, into your own safe keeping (as well as some items from Ben's archive or your own work which have been fortuitously preserved!).

  

I will go through his remaining clothes, take out those items requested by others, and, in a couple of weeks, the rest will go to the charity shop in St Just.

¡Que haya luz! Kerenza ha yeghes da! Dad/Grandpa/Andrew xxx