Restarted

This weekend saw me battling through the crowds of pink Stetson and silver cowboy booted fans of Taylor Swift , to deliver my work to Liverpool’s Liver Building for The Liverpool Art fair, opening later this month.
It’s a first for me as I wouldn’t have done something so ‘commercial’ in the past.
With having had a couple of rejections in the last 6 months, it was good to be accepted for such a large event.

It’s a week on from the open studios and I still have boxes from it dumped in the spare room, yet to be sorted. I can’t deal with it now.
It was a huge amount of work and I’ve yet to formulate any feelings about the success ( or not) of it all.
Maybe that takes time.

In the meantime, my work headed off to Sluice in Colchester via Leeds based Basement Arts Project

https://sluice.info/colchester

It was too far for me to go and as I had to deliver the work to the other venue this weekend anyway, I had to watch what was happening from afar.
Images of my work have been picked up several times and posted on instagram, so that was good to see. Haven’t heard how it’s going otherwise.
Apart from posting the work off to Leeds, It hasn’t cost me anything , which is another positive – after the small fortune I had to pay out for the open studio event !
It was really a return favour for taking the artists from Basement’s work to Athens last October.

It really is important to connect and collaborate with other artists.

The rest of my week has been taken up preparing for my next workshop of ‘Make a bee to remember’. I wish they hadn’t advertised it that way. It makes it look like we’ll be creating something wonderful and that puts me under huge amount of pressure.
I had several attempts to make something, abandoning my initial idea as that seemed to be too complicated . Anyone else out there who runs workshops will understand the amount of prep work that has to go into these things.

I’d been on a charity shop run to find beads to recycle and reuse so I think I’ve got a plan.

I hope this works, despite it looking simple, it’s been so stressful thinking up an idea.

Wish me luck !

On Sunday morning , while I was charging my phone and zettle card reader, I really wished there had been a charging point for me.
Open studios are exhausting .

There had been a community group session in the hall on the Friday, so we were told we could set up when they left – around 3.30.

I had, what I thought at the time, a huge amount of stuff with me – a large suitcase filled with small works, and several packages  of larger works.
I’d  also bought 2 packs of paper tablecloths.
Tables and a free standing board were provided, so I screwed the smaller paintings to the board and put larger ones on easels – also provided.  The easels looked a bit naff ( for want of a better word) but it was the best I could do.
I turned round to look at what the other artists had and was shocked to see how much work they had. As regularly participants at art fairs , they had all of the professional display stands with large black cloths for the tables.

Being used to showing my work in exhibitions,  with clean white gaps between the works, it was hard for me to adapt to showing in this environment.

My display  was pretty pathetic looking in comparison- especially with the easels and some of my framed works on chairs.
I went home feeling totally dejected.

I didn’t sleep a wink that night, tossing and turning trying to think of how I could improve my display with the limited resources I had.
I had a large sheet of a textile print of trees, which used to be on a frame  but I’d taken it off and shoved it aside while I thought of what to do with it. I grabbed that, along with a pile of smaller works, loads of my handmade books and some ‘props’ – a wooden house I’d used in an installation and 2 model hands. They were actually broken, but filled a gap and looked quirky enough to draw attention.

I got there ( by taxi) as the doors opened at 9 and completely rearranged my display – grabbing another table and taking the paintings off the chairs and easels / propping them up on the wall at the back of the table instead.
It looked a million times better and several people commented on it looking good.

I tried to count people that visited on Saturday and although I missed a few, I definitely got to 190.
I don’t think I’d ever seen that many people in one go visit work before. ( Well not in this country anyway!)
I sold a lot of cards by cash as they were pretty cheap and I had to run across the room with the card reader to ask for help, but I got the hang of it.
Sunday seemed quieter , but as people were coming in waves there were quiet gaps. I still counted the same amount  of people as Saturday though.
There were more interest in my books than sales , but I was ok with that.
I was there for people to get to know me and looking at the hits on my website later on, that had worked .

So what did I learn?

• Display/ presentation is everything !
• More is better
• Learn from others
• Draw people to your work
• Where you stand/ sit is important
• Engage , Engage,  Engage

Well I say I’m preparing, but realistically I’ve only spent a few hours putting small paintings and cards into cellophane bags.
I really don’t know what people expect to see, so I’m playing safe and having a range of affordable works in the unlikely event that people will buy something.

I haven’t done an open studio for years and now I’m kind of regretting saying that I’d do it .

Do I even have enough work? How much do people show?

How many visitors will actually turn up ?

There are 99 artists in the tour this year – a record amount according to the publicity . If I was going around visiting, I’d find that too much , no matter how enjoyable the work was.
There are 10 of us in the building I’m in, so at least that cuts down the walking distance for a visitor.
Today , I’ll sort out what to take out of my larger works. I’m hoping that there will be a board left for me ( which I requested) otherwise I don’t know how I’ll display the work.
Unlike some of the other artists that have their own studios and can keep their work up , we have hired the space for the weekend , so it will be a case of going in on Friday afternoon and set up some kind of display then.
I wonder if the artists who decide to have the open studio in their own homes know of the problems that may cause?

I’ve heard several horror stories about artists not declaring that there would be a change of use from house insurance to business, among other things. I hope the artists are aware.
Anyway…

I had framed a few small paintings which I’m quite pleased with, but I’ve now been told that they’ve been accepted for the Liverpool art fair. Technically I can still show them, but can’t have them for sale . Sigh.

Would it be unethical if I had a studio sale of older works? I really need to clear a space .
Will people be bothered that I’m not showing an installation?
Argh so many worries and doubts.
Why do we put ourselves through these things???

I can’t quite believe how relieved I was when I heard that my workshop at the gallery was cancelled. Well, more postponed than cancelled completely.
A strike had been planned for that day, but as it turned out , that too was cancelled as staff were encouraged to consider a new offer.
Anyway… it was all relief for me as I felt I was taking on too much in a short space of time.
I now have more time to prep for it, which is always a good thing.

Last week I also posted off my work to Leeds so that it could be taken to Sluice in a couple of weeks. I could have held on another week or so, but it was a good feeling getting that out and having a clean slate as it were.

Next on my list was the Open studios event happening on 8th and 9th June.  Despite having plans to make loads more work, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  Although I’ve bought a card reader now ( which I’ve yet to set up)  I don’t have the mindset to make saleable work . It’s just not me .

Maybe I’ll have a last minute push on that , or maybe I won’t. I’m done now with stressing about things.

I can’t believe it’s a year since I installed my work at Chester Cathedral . It seems like a lifetime ago.
I feel like I’ve done loads since then, but apart from our recent exhibition, I don’t really have anything to show for it. Not on paper anyway.
Maybe that’s why I have stupidly got myself involved with so many things in the coming weeks – just to remind people that I’m here .

Although it seemed like a good idea, I didn’t expect everything to happen at once though , so that’s proving to be a little stressful .
The open studios event is in 3 weeks, so I had put that on the back burner while I dealt with more recent things .
Well that was until the studios sent out a general email last night to all participants advising us that we need card readers .
With mainly working on installations or being in group exhibitions, I never think about the selling aspect.
So now that’s another thing on my list :  Research card readers. But then, would I ever need to use it again?
More expense.

The most pressing thing at the moment is that I was asked to do more workshops .
That’s a  strange thing in itself as in the past I’d applied for so many things but always got rejected . If they bothered to send any feedback to my applications , it was usually on the lines of I ‘didn’t fit the criteria’ .  I just didn’t bother applying after a while.
Now when I get offered work  it’s because they’ve either seen what I can do , or it’s word of mouth. Ironic really .
So these workshops are based on the renaissance and baroque exhibition opening at a gallery.  That threw me into a panic as I couldn’t think what to do for them . So many sleepless nights and stressful days thinking about that, but I think I’m there now.
I’d booked a few days away with my friend and the workshop is the day after we come back. So that means preparing everything before I go away so it’s ready that morning.

What else?

Oh yes, I was asked to put something in to the Sluice art fair , represented by Basement Arts projects, who I’d worked with many times before .
Although the event is mid June , the work needs to be sent to Leeds well before.
While everything else is going on, I’d been thinking what I could do for that. The theme is : Sustain > Reuse > Recycle > Repeat & Reform , So that fitted nicely with my work.

I’d found a sheet of rusty metal a while ago and I’d been thinking what to do with it. It was nice to work with recycled materials  again as my mind had been full of more ‘commercial’ things ready for the open studios.
I will try to finish that over the weekend – thankful that I had ideas in my head already .

Slowly working through my lists … that’s the only way I could do this.
Five sheets tacked to the wall with bullet points on each.

• House ( did I say I had a bloody plasterer coming in tomorrow to repair damage to my ceiling , So I’ve had to clear the living room ??)
• Workshop 1st June
• Trip away
• Open Studio 8th June
• Sluice mid June
• End of June Workshop ( not worked out what I’m doing for that one yet)

#*!< that’s six !!

oh my head hurts.