Setting up 18 studios, Long Eaton, Nottingham

Received an email from email from Chris this morning letting me know we are using the same image for our blogs. Two different perspectives of the same work. All good :) Day 3. Time to breath as we didn’t need to be at the venue til midday. And time to catch up with our American friends and get to know Ruri and Anna from Iceland. Ruri is a leading artist in Iceland, representing her country at the Venice Biennale. http://ruri.is and Anna is president of the Reykjavik Sculptors’ Association. Both amazing artists dealing with serious issues. They also have a very dry sense of humour and we all hit it off from the start. I had mentioned to Alison the evening before we left that sketchbooks were often a draw at these events. Alison’s sketchbooks are fantastic so she was persuaded to find room in her suitcase. It proved to be a good move as visitors were interested in our embryonic ideas, little experiments and observations. There was also time to view other Platforms and MUU from Finland was one that drew my attention. Focused on moving image there was a mix of zoetropes, film and video, both figurative and abstract. The group are also involved in expanding an artist led art fair in Helsinki and introducing an international element in September 2015. Sounds interesting. Opposite our booth was a large ‘pig-sized’ model of a black rhino lying in a bed of dried sweet corn. Hidden in the corn were 400+ red kernels for visitors to find and exchange for an original Lino cut print. En-flo, a group of young artists from Greece had hit on a winner : whilst highlighting the plight of the black rhino they had created a memorable experience for everyone..including Kerri and Alison who are now the proud owners of rhino prints.