My work, reasons behind it and what happens to it.

Well the Threshold Festival is over and I’ve arranged my next day off (tomorrow)  to de-install and pack away the installation … until next time.

There was a quote in one of the reviews about my work which said ‘ Because the time that has gone into this installation is so hard fought that it may well end up deserving more time than lifetimes tend to give’.    However that is meant to be read, I personally saw it as ‘why put all that effort into something if you are not being paid for it?  I guess that’s just the way I felt at the time as it was so exhausting making and installing it, it probably wasn’t what the reviewer was really saying at all.

What I actually got out of it was the satisfaction of creating a piece I wanted to do, of having the space to do it in, of making something that drew an audience, of having the work as a banner on a-n’s social media sites (how amazing was that? Thank you again a-n!!) ..and hearing people still talking about it a week later.

It was good not to be invisible for a couple of weeks.

So yes…. 6 weeks til we go to Athens for the artists Platform exhibition and our fundraising efforts have filled  the making paper houses void .

We’d already raised enough to pay for the exhibition space and inclusion in the catalogue by auctioning works, so the next stage is to pay for flights.  Its going well, sort of. We’ve already reached a third of our target and still have two weeks to go, but I feel that we have exhausted all of the sources that may donate.

Facebook is being a pain too. Every time the campaign is shared, less and less people are able to see it. When I posted the link recently, it was seen by 2 people. I guess they want us to pay to boost the post.

People think they are helping when they share the post, and I know they mean well, but that’s not what its about,  helping is actually donating money. Support artists and all that :-)

Back to it then…

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sci-platforms-project-at-art-athena-2016#/

I feel like I need a few days of nothingness …..  time in the studio, listening to music, scribbling out some ideas…. thinking time.

Barely a day after Paris,  I was back in work.  A day later installing the houses at The Gallery Stanhope St in Liverpool.

I had to adapt the design, as I was told, after I’d mapped it out. that there had been a leak in the roof. Right where the installation would extend to.

I condensed it so that none of the houses would be near the leak if it happened again, which was fine, but it meant that the whole installation was smaller than intended. I was worried that it wouldn’t have as much impact.

The PV was busy and I would have loved to have been around for the weekend to take in the Festival atmosphere and see how people reacted to my work… but I had to work all weekend. I can’t afford to take extra leave this early in the year in case anything else crops up – especially as I will need to take at least a week off next month for the Athens trip (if ithappens).

I’d picked up my ceramic planes from Rathbone studios too while I was off.  I’d handed them in there months ago ( with  transfers attached) but I had to wait for other artists to also give their work in  so that they could all be fired together, to keep the costs down.

They’re still upstairs in the bag I brought them home in. Still all packed up…without giving them the airing they deserve.

They’ll come out one day….

Every night this week, I’ve been working on an ACE funding application for the Athens exhibition and it felt like it took  forever. I don’t know if its right or not, but its done now.

Despite Paris, I feel like I haven’t had a life for weeks :-(

Meanwhile , here’s some images of my installation…