Journey to the Podium is an opportunity for artists to adopt one of the Essex ambassador athletes and create an artwork that marks their journey to the 2012 games. Organised by Essex County Council Arts Development, the brief is to work with the athletes to develop an art work that captures the essence of their personalities and sport.
Wednesday 3rd March, the launch day! A brilliant day put together by Essex County Council at Colchester United’s stadium. We meet at 1pm and joined the Legacy team to announce the project to delegates on their 2012 seminar/workshop day, had lunch (including muffins!), then went on a visit to the new firstsite building. We had a guided tour and for me it was a jaw dropping experience – wot a building! huge and gorgeous how could anyone make a fuss it will be so valuable to Colchester ….
A quick visit to Cuckoo Farm for a cup of tea to warm up and then back to the stadium for the launch proper with canapes and speeches. I met Anne’s husband and son Timothy, who are both lovely, Anne looked stunning and was really happy with the artwork.
Left on one of those highs that scare you cause you think you can only go sideways or comedown…!
So now we are almost up to date; installation day, work still at gallery (of course!) so collect first and then spend 15 minutes trying to fit in the back of my mini. Just about did it with my seat so far forward I had to drive with my knees on the steering wheel, hmmmm. A 30 minute drive to the stadium was horrendous, the frame had real glass held in by beading and rattled when I went over any bumps so zig zagged down the A12 trying to avoid all the pot holes. Did the girl thing and arrived with no fixings so made friends with ‘stripey’ Colchester United’s answer to Handy Andy. Am really pleased with the result, Interior Angle did a great job with the frame and the work is a really good size. (have since found out from a fellow artist that this whole ‘big’ artwork size thingy is because I was working with 7 blokes……)
I finished the final work and delivered it to Interior Angle to be framed with absolutely no idea what kind of frame (think the owner Soo is getting used to me now!). Beginning to feel a little nervous about how Anne will feel about the work. She’s seen the book, I was hoping to surprise her with a hard copy at the launch but I sent the link to Essex County Council and they were really chuffed with it and emailed everyone on the project. But on reflection that was probably a good thing, it must be quite daunting seeing a book all about yourself, I would find it really wierd. Fortunately Anne loved it!
Another stream of blogs in one evening!
The book worked! Blurb is brilliant would fully recommend. I ordered 5 copies, all hardcover with dustjacket. I was a bit anxious as they recommend ordering one copy to make sure all is ok before ordering more, but as usual was working up to the deadline for the books to arrive so had to order all five plus pay extra for postage…. (the day I don’t work up to the last 5 minutes my mother would worry something was wrong!). Here is the link to the book, you can look through it online;
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/725941/9d00ee79802c21b4c8c70b4180476030
I have roughly a week to finish my final piece and then I need to have the work framed, its pretty large about 110cm x 80cm – hope it fits in my car when its framed!
Came across Blurb last week and have decided to use the site to design the book I want to produce (oh so organically originally!) and get a couple of copies printed, probably hardcover. I’m using my black and white photographs juxtaposed with the small pen and watercolour sketches I’ve been adding to this blog. I often work with text and had anticipated using this within the final book but words just don’t seem to say enough somehow.
