Tell me a story

Yesterday I met up with the divine Sabine to hand over the artwork for the Crawley WORDfest.  There was a bit of getting lost involved as me and directions and maps, well, the relationship isn’t good.  I end up getting stroppy.  It doesn’t cooperate.  One of us ends up in tears and it’s usually me.

I am happy to announce that once I did arrive at the rendezvous point, the artwork was received with delight.  That is always a good sign.  Scones were had, as was coffee.  I then clamboured back into my motor then headed back into the city.

I know a few days ago I was a bit of a tease about the sentence I chose to stitch into the fabric.  The piece is a night scene, Crawley high street, lamps lit and lights on.  People have commented that my artwork looks ‘comforting’ and I think with the colours I chose and the quilt-like quality of the piece, ‘comforting’ is a word to describe this work as well.  The sentence finishes it off beautifully:  “Tell me a story about when you were younger.”

This piece will be auctioned off at the WORDfest event.  The author of the book from which I chose the sentence will be presenting the work.  How thrilling.  I truly wish that I could make it down for this as I think it would be lovely to meet her and to be a part of all that energy and excitement.

In the meantime, I have ordered a limited edition of prints from The Garret Print Studio and will be selling these during Crawley WORDfest as well as from my own website.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been working on a piece for Crawley WORDfest. This weekend the work will be sent off to those very fine people and I hope very much that they will be pleased with the results. I went for a colour scheme that I hadn’t ventured to try before and was pleased with the results. As for the stitched sentence, I think it adds something rather special to the work. I will write about that project when WORDfest rolls around, which I believe is at the end of March.

Yesteday I completed a piece to auction off for a fund raiser to raise funds for the Fox Theatre in McCook, Nebraska. This little theatre has a special place my heart as this is where I saw E.T. and Annie for the first time. There were a few years in a row where E.T. was screened at the Fox. My Aunt Peggy took me to see E.T. the first time. We left at the end with me sobbing into tissues. That ending still gets me at this ripe age. When I was in high school, I was involved with two other people to create a backdrop for a Barber Shop show. What an opportunity and great fun to have a canvas stretching up several feet above my head and stretching out across the length of the stage. Then of course there was the marriage of Dave and Chanin which took place on the stage. How cool is that to get married on a stage. It was cool indeed.

Last night I had the good pleasure of meeting with the Curio Gallery crew. They are putting together an exhibition based on textile artwork created in a nontraditional way. I showed them my work and they seem quite happy to include me in the show. I also mentioned The Connecting Thread exhibition and this too may feature, depending on things like space and interest, of course.

And today, well, I contacted someone else about the possibility of a solo exhibition. I’m waiting to hear about how that request was received.

So that’s me, being randomly busy. I must now frame up the Fox Theatre and post it to it’s new home.

So.  The commission.  Create a piece for Crawley, of Crawley, to be auctioned at a WORDfest event.  As they were requesting my usual style of crisp linear lines and a focus on a specific place, I was keen to do it and also keen to work with a different subject.  Edinburgh, don’t get me wrong, you’re my current love but sometimes you just have to indulge in something else to keep it fresh.  You know what I’m saying? (I’m only saying this creatively. Would hate for you to get the wrong idea about me).

As this event was focused on writing, I thought it would be a rather fun idea to incorporate text from one of the authors attending the event.  Possibly a local author and preferably something written about the area.

The challenge arrived at my door with Julia Crouch’s ‘Cuckoo.’  Right.  A work of fiction.  Set entirely elsewhere.  Possibly not the most ideal but you know, I like challenges.  The book was a good read and I now have another author to add to the list of the many that I like.  This morning as I was doing a bit of research on Julia, I found that this book was a product of NaNoWriMo (National Write a Novel in a Month).  Wow!  What a tremendous result.  I cannot tell you how this encourages me to participate in NaNoWriMo the next time it rolls around.

Dear reader, I am happy to inform you that I found the most delightful string of words to use in the artwork.  Ah yes.  I know this, I’ve said this, I hope children all over the world (small children and big children because even as adults we still are holding onto that smaller, fresher version of ourselves) are still saying this.

To add suspence, I’m not going to tell you what it is and I’m not going to post my work in progress.  I’ll reveal it a bit at a time.  At first I need to gain your trust, reel you in, make you a bit curious.  After all, isn’t that what a good story is all about?

‘Wild at Heart’ by Vanessa Foley

Nearly a year ago, I was at the Mushroom Works in Newcastle, invigilating my own exhibition, The Connecting Thread – a personal psychogeography. The show was open for public viewing a couple of weekends in March and it was all lovely and wonderful and the first time I had ever been surrounded by my own work.

On one particular day I was standing in the space chatting to my good friend Ian from the Centre for Life.  People had been popping in to see the show, some having read about it from one of many online entities, some having stumbled upon it and others confusing the space with the framers next door.  It was the last of these that brought Vanessa Foley into the scene.

From what I can remember, she was a completely delightful girl, beaming with all sorts of excitement about an upcoming exhibition of her work in the beautiful new building of the Newcastle Library.  Ian mentioned that the work on display in the gallery would be installed in the Centre for Life Bioscience Centre.  Perhaps Vanessa would be interested in showing her work in there as well.

And so that day passed and many more days have been and gone since then.  Yesterday I found out that Vanessa’s exhibition at the Bioscience Centre is on display.  I’ve seen some photos and my oh my, it is looking absolutely wonderful in that space.

The exhibition, ‘Wild at Heart’ is on display until the end of February.  Please follow this link for more information about the artist and follow this link for information about the exhibition.

Life is full of countless situations where paths cross, meet up, there’s a connection and although things don’t immediately play out, something eventually happens.  Chance encounters.  Ideas fizzing.  Things happening.  I love stories like this.

Inverlieth Park Allotments

Because no man (or woman) is an island.

As I stated in a previous entry, I recently attended an event in Edinburgh’s City Arts Centre.  At the end of the day (that specific day, not the ‘at the end of the day’ phrase that is so popular ’round these parts) we were invited to visit the ‘Reflection’ exhibition. What a treat.  So, off I took myself to see the craft pieces and artworks of some rather talented people in and around this fine city.

The exhibition website blurb goes a little like this:

‘Reflection’ highlights the inspiring work of 22 artists and makers who have been supported by the Visual Arts Awards and Craft Maker Awards run by the City of Edinburgh Council in partnership with Creative Scotland since 2000. As well as reflecting on the talent that the city has supported throughout the first decade, the exhibition gives participating artists and makers the opportunity to reflect on their own development and creative practice over this period.

It was inspiring.  It was good.  And I was terrifically pleased to see Rachel Elliott’s work on display at this exhibition.  I met Rachel at the West End Art Fair in the summer of 2010.  I had rocked up with my print and textile wares and she had rocked up with her glassmakings.  It was love at first sight of LEDs as we had both been experimenting with those tiny lights of wonder in our artworks.  She had a small police chase scene with blinking lights in tiny glass cars and I had lit up windows in tenements.  Meeting Rachel felt like meeting someone that was floating along the same wave length and we had just sort of bumped into eachother.  Then again, she could totally disagree and might be thinking “Cassandra who?”.

Rachel’s piece on display at the exhibition is based on the subject matter of allotments.  Oh wow!  They are lovely.  The details are incredible and the fact that she created a piece on allotments, well, my Edgelands lovin, psychogeography traipsing self really delighted at this.  And bizarrely, a couple months ago I had been taking photos of my local allotment with a mind to make an artwork of those tiny sheds and wonky chairs.  Is it that something in the air again?

On the other side of the spectrum, on the other side of the water, my cousin’s son, Josh, is cranking out some mighty fine work.  How old is he now?  15? 16?  Apparently, he’s been covering his math books with impressive graffiti.  “Graffiti is more fun than Geometry.” Shamefully, I am glowing with pride.  Just remember, Josh, Geometry is full of building blocks.  If you miss out on something now, you’ll be utterly confused in a few weeks.  The grown-up version of me is telling you to do your school work to the best of your abilities.  Perhaps when you are trying to sort out the answer, drawing in the margins and on big empty sheets of paper will help you.  It did me.  But only slightly.  I scraped by with barely passing marks in that subject., but heck, my drawing skills were much improved!

Congratulations on your fine talent and good luck in your brilliant future. Maybe an introduction to Banksy would be good now.

So.  It was all very good and we learned important things like the obvious:  If you don’t value yourself and your work, no one else will.  We did an exercise for finding the basic costs of creating a work and what was needed to not just break even but to *gasp* earn a living through your work.  Why do we as artists and makers feel so bad when we price our work according to what it and our time is worth?  The next time I put a price tag on my work, a price that is fair and  reflects the cost of materials and the cost of my time (as well as the expense of framing), I will not display it apologetically.  I value myself.  I value what I do.  And I swear to God I’m not ripping you off.

So really, it’s value for money.  Think of all the many hours you will enjoy this work.  Think of the thought, the time, the materials and the love that has gone into this.

A good lesson learned.

Part of the workshop also dealt with how to approach galleries, which I feel fairly confident about doing by this stage of the game.  Do your research.  Obviously.  Scope it out and make sure your’re a good fit for it and it for you.  Obviously.  Know the name of the person that runs the thing. Yes.  Yes.  All good advice and chalk full of common sense.

There was a spiel about networking that I backed away from.  Networking is necessary for my type of work and it is a valuable lesson to learn that making connections is vital.  What I don’t like is engineering a situation that feels false and is driven by the thought ‘what can this person do for ME?’  False and insincere:  this is NOT how I roll.  I prefer my connections to be organic, friendly, if there is anything I can do to help you then great and hey, if we both get something out of this then isn’t that a bonus.

I am pleased that I attended this chat, this discussion, this thing where there were about 30 of us asking questions and having them answered.  There is much to think about now.  Unfortunately, my brain felt it was vital to think on it last night and didn’t seem to shut off until 4am.  Let’s see if we can put that thinking time into more useful hours, like, on a Sunday afternoon at a cafe with something nice and hot sitting across from me – like a hot chocolate with marshmallows.

And so. I have finally completed the last of the commissions from that project. As wonderful as the adventure was, I am ready to put it away – tucked up in its suitcase – and not look at it again for quite some time.

There are many good and new things on my horizon. I can now move on to completing commissions for a few Edinburgh Skylines, some family homes, a project for WORDfest Crawley and a piece to donate to the Fox Theatre in McCook to help raise funds for renovation. I’m also ready to get the print production going and start taking them into the shops that currently sell my originals. I think this is a useful step and am anxious to see how they are received.

It’s good to be able to physically put the past behind me. I have my box of Connecting Thread printed fabrics, several Exeter cathedrals, Homesteads, Stowford Papermills and McCook water towers left over from the tour. These will all be carefully folded and stored away. I may look at them again at some point. I may make something else of these. Or not.

This is the RSA, in case you aren’t familiar or from ’round these parts:

RSA

What a beauty.

I had a spin around the show last year and enjoyed the exhibition.  I’m very much looking forward to the show this year as it is inspiring to see the breadth of talent in this fine city.  And man, I just feel pretty lucky that the judges liked my piece.

We skirted around traffic, navigated our way around the various detrisus found along the path, then eventually found our way to one of the crossroads in the park. I looked behind me and couldn’t help but smile at the view spread out before me. The sky was a mix of pink, purple, gold, orange and that sharp silver colour that slices through winter skies. It was difficult to get the layout of the city as some bits were obscured by mist. The top part of Balmoral Hotel caught the light and St Giles made a wonderful silhouette.

My little explorer and I walked around the park, further up to the North side and saw the Pentlands looking dark and mysterious in the background. As I passed others doing their morning routine, we all commented to eachother about the gorgeous morning. I think I must have caught the school run crowd – mostly labrador owners. Dog of choice around these parts, I suppose, as they are good family pets and all.

So. That was our morning. Click click click click went the little Josey paws on the path. I kind of needed the morning to go a little like this.