I’ve been busy in work this week, so I’ve taken a break from blogging. It gave me a chance to reflect upon a few things though after reading a really good article in ‘Creative Boom’ about tweeting:
http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/tips/the-real-reasons-why-people-stop-following-you-on-twitter/
It makes a lot of sense, as reading into it made me more aware of how much we are all talking about our work – not just on twitter, but on all social media sites.
I looked at how many people were tweeting their blogs, almost daily in some cases , but don’t tweet anything else. What do they do apart from work? Are these people interesting? Do we click on the links after they had tweeted the same message more than once?
I have started on some new work this week, but I will happily keep it to myself for now : )
Today we talked about funding.
Had a meeting at Leasowe with the director, staff and outside interested parties to work out a funding strategy for a continuing residency programme at the centre. It’s essential that we get this absolutely spot on, as I guess we only have one shot at this.
It looks like the next few weeks are spoken for then.
Statements….. I hate them! I have to write’ 150 words about a particular work and 150 words concerning my practice as an artist.
How can I have just spent two hours writing, and rewriting the same thing over and over again and still not be happy with it?
I’m trying to keep it simple as I know that’s the best way. I also know that when I read someone else’s statement where ( and I’ll quote my mum in this ) ‘They sound like they have swallowed a dictionary’, I drift off and lose interest. Statements are funny things. You have to try to get your point across without sounding pretentious.
I’ve noticed how much the labels and walls panels have changed in galleries over the last few years. Words are simplified, and I don’t think it’s ‘dumbing down’ as someone once pointed out – it’s just making the work more accessible to the public.
So with that in mind, I’ll have to try again…… I do this type of work because I want to… hmmmm – will I get away with that?
Running a children’s workshop makes you feel like your head will explode and your throat is rasped dry with shouting. Despite my carefully mixed pots of paint colours turning into a murky brown as soon as my back was turned and finding the brushes glued to the floor, it was actually a good day.
I lost count of how many kids turned up to the workshop today. As soon as we’d got one or two of them settled down into making something, a couple of mums would turn up and ask if it was OK to leave their kids for a while – shooting out of the room before waiting to get an answer. Not sure that just leaving them with us, was on the plan, but it happened anyway.
But there it was. Another day at putting Leasowe on the map.
My week off from work is nearly over. I’d spent a good six hours of it in preparation for today… another couple of days working on a new piece for an exhibition no less….and I really don’t know where the rest of the time went.
It’s like that. A week off work goes in about 3 mins…..a week in work lasts months.
Good news this week is that my work was picked for the exhibition SPEAKEASY: art in an age of prohibition to be held at the Basement Arts project in Leeds. I was going to take a break from exhibitions, but this one came up and it was exactly the type of thing I wanted to be involved in.
Not a gallery space or any of that salon type hanging nonsense. Just pure and simple.
Having those visitors travel across to see my work on Monday had quite a big impact on me. I know it sounds silly, after all it was only two people – but the fact that they travelled 13 miles on public transport to see my work, gave a whole new perspective to the residency.
From feeling like packing it all in… I felt revitalised.
When I first took on the residency, I had many discussions with Roy, the director at LDT, about which direction we could take this. One of the options was to have a future residency programme. We discussed bringing in artists from Norway ( due to my contacts there) and let them make their own take on the space. A couple of months of me being there and feeling like I was talking to myself half the time, put me off the idea.
But now I’m rethinking it…..
LDT share their building with a housing trust, so there is also the possibility of attaching accommodation to the residency, making it more attractive to an artist from outside the area. The space is good and it is after all less than 20mins to Liverpool or to the local beach .
So much to think about….. and of course we have to face the F word ( funding that is) But there may be a possibility of getting round this without any funding at all. It just needs a bit more thought.
As part of a group ( Sci) we had been looking for a base in Liverpool for quite a while . The costs were astronomic though – I was even quoted by one company £15 per hour. How can you rent an exhibition and studio space by the hour? Does it matter that it’s not a city centre base? It just didn’t occur to me to have a base in Leasowe.
So this is it then. We ( with artist Carolyn Shepherd) are working on a plan to bring in other artists – with or without money.
