Been working hard, but nothing to show for it. So I’ll show you some piccies from Saturday, the ReOrsa happening that overtook Bracknell. The photos are of my piece – a woven staircase, but check out the whole thing on www.reorsa.org. An artist-led initiative.
Started at 11am, up by 2.30pm, down again by 6pm. Did it really happen? I felt like I had the mother of all artistic hangovers the following day, with not a drop of pernod in sight.
This was my favourite moment: a shopper who looked rather careworn and tired stopped to ask “What’s this meant to be?” I replied, “It’s to make a drab staircase look special so that when you walk up it, you feel special.” “That sounds nice,” she said, then looked at me with that where’s-the-piss-taking-camera sort of look, looked away and asked, “Is that really true?”
Also liked the old battleaxe who swept past and informed me she had never seen such a load of old rubbish in Bracknell. Tee! Hee!
Was it all worth it? It was as it was, and art is always better than no art.
But a lot of effort……….
I met with Anne Latto, my old Crow this morning. Do you mind being called my old Crow, Anne? She is very inspirational. We sat in her warm conservatory, looking out at the wondrous garden where vibrant plants and scented roses still bloom defiantly in the face of autumn. Like Anne a PhD student at the age of 76, she runs the volunteer workgroup in our ancient local wood, works for Amnesty, directs Shakespeare plays in Reading’s ruins, and plots new artistic ventures with me as if time can be moulded and stretched outside of human recognition. When I talk about creativity and life with such a person, I understand that artists are like the flowers in Anne’s garden. There is the odd Picasso at centre stage and the eye can’t help (almost reluctantly sometimes) returning to it. But it is the mass of cosmos, zinnias, the red hips of the wild rose, the green sculpture of the spurge, the feathery grasses, the almost overlooked yet outrageously lovely blooms of an unknown climber, that create the garden. Every now and again a visitor will intricately appreciate one blossom, exclaiming at its particular beauty, but for the most part each element is embraced as an organism of a greater whole, bringing a sense of wonder and refuge to the rambler. There are plants that are more eye-catching than others, to be sure, but there are no egos in a garden.
I came home and wrote a poem. Not a lyrical number about a symphonic masterpiece of horticulture, but about education in Britain. It ends: ‘Na-na-na-na-na/Stick it up your bum/Mum she calls/You never did The National Curriculum.’
That’s what I love about art. Sublime. Coarse. It’s all part of the same package.
Gordon, what do you mean by ‘unnecessary programmes’? Who was funding them if they weren’t necessary? And you don’t mean things like the arts, do you, or programmes that improve quality of life?
But thank the universe for wonderful women. I have been working with Anna Sexton, my genius guru (www.opentoarts.com) who has given me inspiration and belief to progress where failure has seemed the order of the day. We have monthly telephone coaching sessions, and I come out of them feeling as if these Crow! dreams will become reality.
And then, check this out….
I decided I needed PR, so I surfed the web, cold-contacted an ethical PR company and Helen Trevorrow (www.greenrow.co.uk) agreed to give me 30 mins of her time.
Out of curiosity, I followed her on Twitter, only to find, posted a couple of days before our initial contact, ‘…I’ve 666 followers – please someone else follow-me before I am attacked by a frothy mouthed rottweiler or oversized crow’.
Oversized Crow?…that’s my bird! Anyway, long story short, I went in with my 4- and 6-year old, we all sat round the table and Helen and Jane – another wondrous woman – told me to forget PR, set up as a business, write my business plan and get a professional fundraiser to raise the cash (in return for 10%).
And words that ring in my head every day…’If you need £126k ask for it.’ Fellow artists, we do not need to be passively skint!
Women, oh women, this is inspiration. I have permission to be successful and business-like in my art. Thank you for all your amazing generosity of time and spirit, and your wisdom.
Feedback from my Arts Council application…the very person who gave me untold advice and support PRIOR to my submission, to strengthen it, was the sole judge and jury once my application was submitted. She took three months then to say it had two major weaknesses which meant she could not recommend it at central decision making level.
What?
