Evaluation
The last starfly was threaded through fishing wire and strung up sometime late Tuesday afternoon and I was more than happy to go home. I spent Wednesday hobbling round work because I felt that I had done my back in and Thursday and Friday in a zombie state, because I found it difficult to sleep with a sore back. But Hey – it was done!
I was kind of sorry that I worked Friday because several school parties came into the church to see the installation and to try and identify their work.
Despite all of the ‘problems’, in the last couple of months – this is what made it all worth it. It was after all, a community piece – meant to bring people together and that it did.
It’s difficult to say exactly how long the project took as I did it all on my days off from work, spreading it out over the months. Ideally, i would have just taken a week to 10 days off and got it all boxed off, but I didn’t have the luxury of time. Although doing it the way I did, was very tiring – I still have enough of my leave left to carry over for the next project if needed.
I had to send my invoice in quite early so that they could work out their budget on other aspects of the festival. I had calculated that it would take me 10 hours to install and that I would do 3 workshops in the school. I had underestimated on both.
I went to the opening last night and it was it was really lovely to hear the ‘church people’ talk about the visitors and the absolute delight in seeing their reactions. Most of these people are volunteers and it kind of made me feel a little guilty over having a moan about how much work I put in. This was backed up by conversations I had with a few of the performers at the opening event – poets and singers, who ‘worked’ the evening for free.
But then, we have to make a living, and though the people of the church are good, kind people, we as artists are not a charity.
