Such a lot has happened in the past few weeks that I have not had time to update this blog.Went to the Hay Book Festival, sold some books through the Welsh Book Council stand and made lots of useful contacts.
To the consternation of all of us with Iphones at Hay we discovered we were in a black hole and internet access , which in the past, had been readily available on site this year was almost non-existent.
Today recovering from having opened my garden to the public under Scotland’s Garden Scheme, along with three others in Bridge of Allan.
We had 255 visitors and made more than £1,500 for charity. I was asked if my garden was influenced by the work of Hamilton Finlay’s “Little Sparta” and of course the text art and some of the sculptures certainly are.
Many people commented on the fact that the sculptures were an integral part of the garden and had not been “parachuted” in.
Some people who had visited the garden two years ago came back with friends looking for the sound installation “Duet”, birds singing and cat purring.
This made me realise that audio sculpture little understood and rarely heard, is under-estimated in its potential power to get through to people.
Many people say they found being involved with the Children of Craig-y-nos project a healing process.
For the first time, and I include myself, we were able to talk about those experiences in childhood which had been buried deep in our minds, dark secrets from the past which we dared not talk about. Now it has all been brought out into the open and we realise that it is no longer a taboo subject, and we feel healed by the process of being able to talk and share these experiences with others who went through it .
"Children of Craig-y-nos"by Ann Shaw and Carole Reeves, published by The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, price £9.99p is available online through Amazon.co.uk, or as a free PDF file http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/library/craig_book
Book launch a huge success – we sold out in less than two hours and around 150 attended the function in Craig-y-nos Castle.
Clive Rowlands, OBE , former captain and coach of the Welsh Rugby team and ex-child patient, opened the event.
Book now available from Amazon co.uk or as a free PDF file from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/library/craig_book
Have started to get nervous. We fly from Edinburgh this afternoon to Cardiff. Dr Reeves is horrified that the boxes from the printers books have been opened . I tell her its Wales. What does she expect? There's no way those boxes were going to remain unopened in the Castle. Curiosity and privacy do not share the same bed in Wales.
Meanwhile have downloaded a freedrawing application from Apple to my Iphone . Amazing. It operates like finger painting.
Friend persuaded me to submit at least one image to the Society of Scottish Artists forthcoming exhibition. So I emailed the digital print of "The Journey".
Busy drumming up publicity for forthcoming book launch though I learnt today that there is some problem with the printers….oh my God!
It is always fascinating to see who watches my videos on Youtube- thanks to Google they track them all.
Got a surprise tonight when I learnt that "Mirage" which I made in Egypt is most viewed in Pakistan and South Korea!
My mini film "Lost Dog" made outside my home one very snowy weekend in Scotland is viewed in equal numbers in France, UK, India and the USA.
Discovered apps on my Iphone and 2 free drawing programmes…watch this space.
