Gilding the lily

Hello. It has been a while. Here's a small list of things what I done of late...

AAF Battersea was good. I didn't sell well but it was a good experience.

Also in March, I got "Going Outside" into a show at the RWA. I was very pleased to be chosen. Its a great show - all drawing and mark making of some sort or other. Its on until 2nd June and well worth a visit.

During April I was wrote a pitch for a large scale paper installation. It was for a grand hall in a National Trust House in Somerset. I didn't win, but again, it was a really valuable experience. I've made contact with some good people through it. Also it got my brain really working and pushed some of my ideas in a new direction. 

Then earlier in May, I did the North Somerset Arts Trail. My friend Amy Shiner  and I showed our work in Amy's house.  I had lots of fun hanging out with a friend and avoiding my own housework! We even made a bit of money.

I'm tempted to stay true to the blog form and "tell all" how terribly busy I've been and how life is just a whirlwind! But...

Life is quite mundane most of the time, I find. My artwork is about trying to find some beauty and purpose in that. Instead of gilding the lily, I gilded this paper cut clothes peg instead.

More sooner, maybe.

All the work while crying.

I'm showing my work with Stark Fine Art at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea, London. There are over 100 galleries exhibiting and it's a really brilliant day out even if you don't want to buy anything.

Its on from 7th - 10 March.

So. After a January spent playing or "researching", I'm now working on 2 new pictures. A courier's coming to collect them next Friday so it's a race against time as usual! 

I'm full of new ideas at the moment. I'm working on lots of small things really trying to push what I'm doing in another direction. It still involves removing material from sheets of paper so not too much of a departure. 

I do love paper.

Taste

A couple of weeks ago I was directed to this by another blog.




This really got me thinking...

Many people out there believe that having a good eye for appreciating other peoples stuff will make them a good artist. Its not about taste. Your good taste will only get you so far, and by that I mean maybe a toe in the door of being creative.

The work out there that's really great comes from within the individual who made it. 

At art school, in lieu of any critical analysis, some tutors would look at my work and then suggest I go to the library and look at 2 or 3 artists that they deemed similar to me. I tried to ignore what other people were doing. It can actually be quite dispiriting to see someone who is in a similar territory as you and has resolved the things that you have not. And very difficult to find your own individual solution once you've seen theirs.

Look at your own experience rather than your taste. Work inspired by someone else's will be just a dilute version of their work. 

Show people how you see the world. You have an opportunity to make something new, that no one else has seen yet! 

If you want what you make to live up to your ambitions, then work out what those ambitions are. What are you trying to say? How do you want people to feel when they look at your work? Keep this in the forefront of your mind and ask yourself time and again, what percentage of this are you acheiving? This way you stay aware of heading down a blind alley of churning stuff out for the sake of it. If you lose sight of what you are doing then just keep working and you will find a new ambition. 

The bit about making a great volume of work is very true. You move forward through doing, not thinking.  
It takes forever and if you're lucky you'll never quite get there. Its all in the chase!

Its Christmas time...

...and there's no need to be afraid - apparently.

The few weeks before Christmas I usually feel like I'm being chased by bears. This year is no different. Please don't think I'm being a humbug. As soon as the girls and lovely man are on holiday, I love it. And once all the work is done, I am as excited as the children. It is probably the dark days. Living in a village with no streetlights really doesn't help. At about 5ish the day is done. I can see why people in the higher latitudes turn to alcohol at midwinter. 

This year, like every other, I'm excited about a few decoration ideas. I cut out the green foliage with my paper robot and pimped my mirror with lights. The dear came from a craft sale at a friend's house. I suspect he'll be up all year.

I'm feeling brave putting this up here. My living room is quite strange. You could call it vintage but I think probably not. A combination of original 1968 carpet and wallpaper (which don't go together) and our inherited chintzy sofa and furniture. Not a place to hang out with a migraine! But, its got an open fire so that makes it okay by me.

I'm working on a mistletoe decoration. I might even get it finished before Christmas! Still got hopes for some sort of retail situation for my paper mobiles and other stuff still in my brainbox. Next year maybe...

Now I'm off to sip something by the fire.

Desperate Artwives

I have my pictures in this show. It opens on 28th June - my birthday! Unfortunately I won't be there for wine and nibbles, which is a pity as I'd love to meet the other women in the show.

Come to the Private View!

I am really excited to be chosen for it. This is the second show put together by Amy Dignam. The first show was reviewed favourably by Jane Martinson in the Guardian - here. There are a lot of very talented women squeezing time from the daily grind to make artwork as you can see on the Desperate Artwives website.

Mothers of course, aren't alone in this tightrope walk of the daily grind v artistic practice. Its difficult for anyone, beyond Art School to carry on making stuff. Time, space and money are all necessary. Essentially, this show puts the spotlight on women with a family making art and it is timely. Surrounded by lifestyle and craft blogs, sometimes I feel it would be easier if I just knitted and made toys for my children. It would seem, that its very acceptable to be a creative mummy if it is directed toward your children. I say this as my children are playing outside, whilst their dad is in charge for the second day in a row. I've got a deadline for next week...

I feel guilty, yet at the same time I'm pleased that I'm trying to get my career off the ground, something that will hopefully benefit my family. But this is not yet a paying job and right now I know that I'm letting people down. The people who mean the most to me. Maybe that's the difference between the Desperate Artwives and the other Desperate Artists. The emotional pull you feel as a parent is a particular context in which to make art.

Cyril Connolly famously said, "There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall."

I disagree. I could have got my finger out before I had children, and I didn't. For me they're my biggest inspiration.

I would say that the rubber gloves under the sink are an altogether more sinister opponent...

Land of the rising obesity levels

I'm Scottish. So there. Mallow courses through my veins along with Irn Bru. Perhaps not, but I grew up there and its brilliant. Lochs, mountains, castles...

I grew up miles away from that stuff in a new town made of concrete and weird green landscaped hillocks by the side of a dual carriageway.  We did have this. Chocolate, mallow, jam and biscuit. Eaten in that precise order. And of course, most amazing packaging in the world.

After Sunday school my sister and I would, after carefully removing the teacake,  flatten out the wrapper and painstakingly remove every wrinkle (working from the outside to the middle) until left with a super shiny sheet of foil,  curving slightly at the edges. Sometimes we would then mould it or fold it into a shape. Very fiddly.  Not having access to google in 1983 it would mostly be a very limited origami fortune teller. 

Japan meets Scotland -  land of the rising obesity levels.

I'm still obsessed with super fiddly detail and painstaking, high risk creations. Also all things Japanese.

This may be where it all started, so along with the other stuff I haven't finished yet,  I'm going to be making some stuff about it...

The First Big Weekend

I lived in London for 10 years, during which time I listened to much Scottish music on my mini disc player/ipod device on the tube. Trying to cling on to an idea of "Scottishness", I guess...

Arab Strap
Boards of Canada
Belle and Sebastian
The Blue Nile
even a bit of Deacon Blue

This takes me straight back to Dundee, 1996. Its a life I might have been leading had I not buggered off to Art School. Although we did our fair share of drinking and silly stuff there too.

This and the album its from are so badly produced, its actually good and I love those early Belle and Sebastian albums that sound like they were recorded in a church hall (and they were)...

It has been a "Big Weekend" of sorts. I'm up to my eyeballs in life, instead of making right now but I'll be back soon with more art type stuff. I'm getting stuff ready to make some actual pictures for frames at the weekend.

Until then, this could be some sort of 'on hold music'....

Be thankful

I had the idea to make light blue neon sign saying, "be thankful" about 6 months ago after a medium sized hospital stay. Its been a tough year for a variety of reasons and I want to be reminded of how lucky I am everyday.  

My daughter spent a night in hospital last week. After IV fluids and antibiotics, she is definitely on the mend. This is my next papercut. I'm forgetting the other stuff for now.

Today Bill, did a big tidy of the garden, cutting back all the dead stuff from winter. This fell from one of the trees...

Like a birds nest from your imagination.

So perfect - soft inside and the outside is glued together with clay. Its very light. After we all had a good look, Bill put it back in case it might be reused again, this year.

So there you have it, another corner turned. Spring's around the next one... 

St Valentine

This is my effort. Started it a couple of days ago with plans. Its wholly dependant on symmetry as I have no time to do both halves of anything today. Daughter still very unwell and I can't be ignoring my children in order to draw pretty pictures on my computer.

Feeling like a half hearted artist and a shitty mum. Can't do anything wholehearted today.

Sorry. Back later with some cheer, maybe.