I used to work on The Herald newspaper in Glasgow many years ago – before I took redundancy to go to Glasgow School of Art-
I was one of the writers for the Women’s page (OMG! that sounds so sexist…).
Anyway The Herald has now launched a weekly Women’s Herald magazine and I bought my first copy today.
Will I buy it again? …..the jury is out.
Most of my newspaper reading is done online these days. For free.
Well, we have signed the papers for Forth Valley Open Studios to become a C.I.C – Community interest Company.
This does not give us charity status – which would require us to jump through many more hoops- but it ensures we continue in perpetuity and opens the doors to, we hope, gaining grants and sponsorship.
Spring Fling Open Studios on the Scottish Borders already formed themselves into a C.I.C.some years and we are using them as our role model.
Unlike Spring Fling we have not had any public funding and the only reason we have been able to reach the stage we are at in less than two years is thanks to the internet. So much of the work from gathering a database to registering, design and marketing our Open Studios has been done online.
Another new venture I have become absorbed in is www.blipfoto.com
This Edinburgh based project have created an amazing online global village for photographers.
If you have never visited the site then I would strongly recommend it:
My work is on www.blipfoto.com/Libra
I have become a blip addict ever since signing up a few weeks ago.
It is an amazing photo-sharing site and the bit I like is the social networking which in this case really works maybe because it is linked to Twitter, Facebook in such a way as to make it very easy to share.
http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1397725
Basically you are only allowed to upload one photo a day to the site and this is a good exercise and challenge.
I have just come back from a weekend in London . You can even upload from your smartphone.
Visited the Miro exhibition, bit disappointing I thought but then I was comparing it with th Miro Foundation in Barcelona which I love.
Also Miro is one of those artists whose work lends itself to prints which of course we are all familiar with.
Perthshire Open Studios started yesterday. Visited two in Braco, Lys Hansen, an international artist and Clare Robinson a young textile artist who has re-located from Edinburgh to Perthshire and works for Liberty.
And this is what always surprises me about visiting Perthshire Open Studios – you find artists have moved here from the cities, many from down south, because they can combine their work with a good quality of life.
Going further north today to Dunkeld where I expect to find even more artists who have opted for the good life: big cheap ( well not that cheap this is Perthshire) studios, beautiful locations and thanks to the internet they can work anywhere.
Ann Shaw is an artist/writer based in Scotland working in new media. As a journalist she campaigned and wrote about many social and medical issues. She is a feminist and founder member of Falkirk Womens Aid, active in the trades union movement and former member of National Union of Journalists Equality Working Party, and founder member of Forth Valley Open Studios.
