Now that Forth Valley Open Studios is over we can all relax for a while. However we had a committee meeting earlier this week and we have decided that we are only going to allow ourselves a short break before planning begins for next year.
Trying to cram it into three or four months is just too stressful…..
I have been delegated ( well I volunteered for it) to find out how we can become established either as a charity or not for profit arts organsiation. After all the ethos behind our group is that of artists helping other artists.
With charitable status it will give us an added layer of kudos when we seek sponsorship. While the project has been self financing and this has worked it has resulted in some very tense moments as we try to balance the books between money coming in from artists on one hand and printers etc. asking for payment on the other. It would be nice to have a small financial cushion.
Meanwhile I have been going around some of our Open Studios since I never got the chance while the event was on – a common complaint from all artists. How do we get to see other artists when we are tied to our own studios? The answer is to pick up the phone and invite yourself.
One artist whose work I have admired for a long time is Charmian Pollok, who works with material found on her walks, bits of metal, wood etc, then uses them in conjunction with her own hand made paper. She has studied in Japan and at Glasgow School of Art.
Charmian took a whole morning off to talk to me about her work and explain her intricate artistic processes of working with found materials an then incorporating them into a piece of her work.
This is Charmian’s web-site:
http://www.charmianpollok.co.uk/
And this is a video I made of midges in Glencoe:
Midges in Glencoe
