Artist in Residence

Two extremes of my job today……. a.m. replenish all posters in basement public toilets ( because they had all been pinched) p.m. organise a Jon Snow event.

Amount of artwork done in the last 4 days – Zero.



I’ve been itching to respond to this in all night : http://www.artselector.com/forum/good-gallery-experiences-bad-gallery-experiences ( Thank you Emily Speed) There are so many places out there that need a mention – but who has got the guts to be the first one to write something?

I’ve thought about it…even going as far as almost setting up an account in a false name…then wimped out. It’s on my mind so much because of a recent discussion with someone who had an awful experience in a place that I also thought was utterly dire. Really, it doesn’t matter what this venue thinks of me as I will never show there again….but there’s always that little niggle that you think you will be ‘blacklisted’ from the whole gallery circuit. Stupid. God I wish I wasn’t such a gutless wonder.



It seems kind of wrong to talk about something so ‘frivolous’ as art when peoples lives have been shattered due to the disturbances happening over the last few days. Although I live almost 200 miles away from London and well away from Liverpool City Centre, I’ve been really touched by the personal stories littering social network sites this morning. How can people carry on as normal while this is going on?

I looked at one comment someone had posted about the Toxteth riots that happened 30 years ago….. and a response of ‘there was kick offs on this side of the water, leasowe was a mess so i’ve been told. ………….

So is this where the stigma surrounding Leasowe came from? Someone heard something that may or may not be true from 30 years ago and have therefore decided to give the region a wide berth?

Oh hold on… I’ve got an addition to add to this. I’ve just heard that Tate Liverpool have been receiving calls all morning from members of the public asking if it is ‘safe’ to visit.

Yes!!! Of course it is.





I think watching a re run of ‘A Grumpy Guide to Art’ last night has triggered my natural grumpiness of the whole art scene.

Today’s gripe will be about artists ( whatever gender) who have partners in well paid jobs. Not having to work every day in a tedious low paid job, while trying to buy materials within a budget makes them totally lose grasp of the ‘real’ world.

I could of course have a right old rant about this and bore the pants of everyone with a myriad of examples…. but I’m sure there are many people out there who share my thoughts and could do it better. ( …please do! )

I had a day off yesterday so started tidying up my own web page ( before I got bored with it)…and began building one for the group I work with – Sci. I was looking for a free one, so it was a toss up between ‘Moonfruit’ and ‘WordPress’ and Moonfruit won. ( for now anyway)

I still have loads of images to add, but so far, this is it : http://sci.moonfruit.com/



This week, we learnt that there will be no more ‘Art in Liverpool’. Not literally of course, but the two people running the site – Ian and Minako Jackson have decided to call it a day. ‘Art in Liverpool’ is a sort of bible for local exhibition and opportunity listings in the area, so losing it will be a disaster.

The news prompted me to have another look at the listings , to remind myself just what we will be missing, and I found this gem – an ‘exhibition opportunity in the heart of Liverpool’ ( wording is by the said gallery, not A.i.L)

Gallery hire £100 (per day!)

( they then continue to offer some advice on how to raise the cash to pay….)

‘There are many ways you can cover the initial outlay of an exhibition. A few to get you started are given below:

– Given the size of the gallery why not collaborate with several other artists? By getting together with just three others you could all have a city centre exhibition for as little as £25.00 each!

– Secure commissions. Exhibitions are an ideal opportunity to show what you can do and secure your first or further paid commissions.’

Sell tickets for an exhibition? Sell some of your work??

Wow – I wish I had thought of that.

Sigh.