Met my brilliant Creative Northants mentor Morag today for another inspiring session. This has been such a help for me and I am always amazed at the stuff and people she knows.
Have come away with a useful list of things to do and people to call, who will hopefully simplify things and keep me on the ‘straight and narrow’ avoiding distractions and not getting too bogged down with the stuff I could get help with. As always it is who you know (and a bit of what you know) that counts – in labour saving, hair pulling outing, and preventing money down drain, ways.
Make life easy – me?
Been forgetting to do this:
Day plan @07:05am
1. Run/hobble 3miles
2. Measure trunk width of 6 trees.
3. Count easter workshop bird bodies/yacht bases and inform lovely library manager of workshop details
4. Finish 300 word project proposal
5. Buy length of correct bore hose+check price for 50metres
6. Make 4 flower samples + weigh
7. Seal shower with silicone sealant.
8. Put bins out
An eclectic mix I think. Always wondered why I didn’t fancy an office job.
Work is taking a lesser priority this weekend as I am running in the Silverstone Half Marathon tomorrow, with sore knees.
This is in preparation for the London Marathon which I will be running in April in aid of RNIB. Much as I love running, the main challenge with it (note positive reframing) is that – and there is not way round this – running a long way takes a long time.
TIme and again I am worrying about time – or rather lack of it. I start to think that if I spent less time worrying about time i would have a bit more time.
There is no direct link between my running and my work – although I did recently consider that it is just yet another self imposed ‘displacement activity’. Either that or a strange kind of escapsim. It is true that it is, like driving, quite a good way to generate (or release) ideas.
Anyway – I hope to have lots of good ideas over tomorrow’s 13.1 miles – and that, with no sketchbook to hand, I can remember them long enough to write them down at the finish line.
I sent my form and pics in for the RA Summer Exhibition today – not holding out much hope – cursing myself already for wasting £50 on such folly (and my father is fuming with steam pouring out of his ears at the thought).
I submitted WORN a couple of years ago and got nowhere. I was a little gratified when I visited the exhibition (snarling all the way) to see that there is proportionally a teeny amount of sculpture in there. I suppose they have so much wall space and not much floor space.
So this year I thought – SOCKPAINTINGS! except they too have a bit of a problem with them in that they are ‘interactive’. I have never seen this sort of work at the Summer Exhibition – it is probably too temperamental and problematic.
So I await the thud of rejection again…. (I hope to be proved wrong).
I had an interesting and unusual start to my morning, taking my mother to a fundraising ‘Marmalade Morning’. Coming away with two very eclectic jars (‘marmalade and black treacle’ and ‘rosy pink grapefruit and pomegranate juice’) I had a very interesting conversation with a fellow marmaladeateer. My mother introduced the lady as ‘an amazing embroiderer’ so we were at once on common ground as my degree is in said subject. I have heard accounts of her amazing skills and am always fascinated by ‘technical skills’ something which I have in a small degree but which is not something that I have particularly pursued. I always feel very humbled in the presence of people with a lifetime of dedicated skill (she has made many beautiful church kneelers) and felt somewhat strange about showing her photos of my work (I always have to get my phone out with pics as words always defeat me).
Thankfully she overlooked my basic techniques and was genuinely intrigued by my ‘very unusual’ work.
It is gratifying to realise there is a middle ground between great idea and skilled technique.
