Blog posts for me are a bit like approaching revising for GCSEs ( the memory is etched on my brain), the longer you leave it between sessions the more paralysed you feel at restarting again. Once the post in January was up I thought I would wait awhile until I had some really meaty art related content to share before I put up the next one. As day-to-day life began to fill up with art related content (meaty or otherwise) I seemed somehow to be weighed down by the load and unable to find the time or energy to add another post. But before this blog disappears into oblivion I shall try and breathe some life into it.
The life of an artist can be a strange one, last month or so has found me;
a) rollerblading around the local village hall while wrestling with a giant roll of paper
b) beheading small baby dolls
c) icing dubious e-mails onto pavement
…and so it goes on, I could add some further bizarre acitivities to this list but some are just too hard to explain. Following the last post I was approached by the curator of a new space in Salisbury who was planning to put on a show to run in conjunction with ‘Lot’s Wife’ being hosted by the Salisbury Arts centre. I rashly agreed to produce new work within a limited time period then realised I had a holiday booked halfway through. Somehow though, as it always does, things came together and I had the uneviable position of joining the artists from the other exhibition on the discussion panel at the arts centre.
Chaired by the lovely Roy Voss – Bouke de Vries, Tom Badley, Doug Clark and myself answered a range of questions, all interesting but strangely none actually related to planned theme of the discussion. Everyone seemed happy though and meeting the other artists was a delight.
As the year has got going though things have taken on a much livelier pace as various opportunites have arisen. I now face three exhibitions quite close together with two PV’s on the same night, not to mention the Reside residency which is bubbling along beneath the surface. I did have the pleasure of getting to Phil Illingworth’s ‘Frightening Albert’ show at the launch of WW galleries new space with my husband and twelve year old daughter. Husband quickly found an old marketing mate to chat to (who turned out a relative of the artist) while Esme remained tranfixed by someone appeared to have just stepped out of Studio 54 (excellent handlebar moustache). With the two of them both busy I managed to meet some online connections I have known for some time but have now experienced in the flesh as it were -all good and a great show to see.
So as an artist who relishes showing in alternative spaces I’m feeling a bit like a kid in a candy shop with a disused pet shop at the Bath Fringe, an ancient church building riddled with secret spaces at St Georges Arts and a dank, dark recess at the Crypt Gallery in Kings Cross all awaiting site specific work. Yum, yum.
