It really has been a while since my last post. The summer holidays are here and things are slowing down nicely. Apart from the incessant fighting between brother and and sisters I am actually quite chilled and getting some work done. As the children dont appear out of bed until 9.30ish, if I’m in the studio by 7.30, I’ve got two blissful hours to myself.
With the ‘House of Fairytales’ exhibition coming to Salisbury (google it if you want to know more), I’m just negotiating what work to put in but it should be a great opportunity to combine exhibiting with something the children actually want to take part in. No money for holidays but weh – hey!, the neighbours have taken pity on us and allowed us to use their pool and tennis court while they’re away. So, here’s to a (hopefully) productive and fun few weeks (just need the earplugs for the fighting.)
We’ve had new floors laid – yeh! after many years of waiting, but this has caused us to empty every book shelf and I am now in the process of putting everything back – inevitably, this started off well, until I came across a box file of old a-n magazines circa very early 90’s. It seemed necessary to pour a glass of red wine at this stage and half an hour later I am still pouring over them. What a difference!
Somehow – like a needle in a haystack, I have managed to find an old article I wrote on returning from a residency in the States, embarrassing stuff twenty years on! And the artwork – it has changed so much, lots of carved woody, chunky representational community based work, heavily detailed prints and paintings, so busy visually compared to now. And the content – forgive me a-n, it’s like getting out an old school photo.
First off, the letters page – 21 letters! Does nobody write in nowadays or are we all tweeting instead? Then the help page – a kind of agony aunt for the long suffering artist – wouldn’t Grayson Perry make a geat modern day one! And THE OPPORTUNITIES PAGES and yes I did mean to hit the caps lock. EIGHT PAGES OF THEM!. And then to the reason I picked up the first one that caught my eye. An article called ‘Balancing Act’ written by an artist called Beverly Fry, describing how to survive as a working artist with four children.
Following on from Rachel Howfields work on APT I thought this was fascinating. ‘As I plan my next career move, while the children play in the garden, I think, do commissioning bodies ever allow in their budgets the fees for childminders? or do scholarships broad take into account… the extra expenses of a family that cannot be left behind. The working person generally tries to keep the family under wraps. I do this myself for fear of being discriminated against. Why do I collude? It should be possible to achieve credibility status and acceptance from people when they are able to see the whole picture.’
Well, we may not have to hide the family anymore, but we’re still waiting for those child minding fees etc. Anyway, I can’t thow them out, they are a snap shot in time from my early days when exhibiting meant a constant stream of far off places and the ties of a family were the last things on my mind.
And congratulations a-n, I think we’ve all matured considerably since then!
Another one bites the dust!
Spaces to show work in and around the Wiltshire/Hampshire/Dorset area are few and far between at the best of times but an email arrived yesterday to inform me that yet another one had succumbed to acrisis in funding.
Earlier in the year we saw Kube gallery in Poole go, despite it’s weight of cultural contribution to the area and now, the artist led Bargate Monument gallery, a really vibrant, friendly and experimental space in Southampton has had to close it’s doors for the foreseeable future, the proposals it recently invited for next years programmes, no longer needed.
I have no doubt ASPACE, the organisation behind the gallery will continue to foster projects outside the gallery context but with it’s very central position among the bustling market stalls of Southampton, it’s a real loss to the area. It’s bienniel ArtVaults show, based in and around the underground vaults of the city has also sadly been withdrawn until funding is secured.
A survey broadcast on Radio 4 yesterday asked people how important they felt funding for museums and similar cultural organisations was to the nation. Overwhelming support was given with one man saying ‘It’s as important as having the bins collected’ but when asked the last time those interviewed had actually been inside such an establishment, the answers were pitifully few.
Perhaps then if nothing else a lack of gallery space will force artists to take art to the people as it were, in a more creative vein, rather than waiting for them to come to us.
