The LAN met up yesterday to discuss what to do about the work we have been doing for Alice In Wonderland – most still want to exhibit work (in protest) somehow. I’m concerned about flogging a dead horse. The whole point of the Odeon exhibition was that there would be an existing audience and we would gain a lot of publicity and exposure.
However, we are looking into other venues as a possibility.
I wouldn’t have finished what I’m working on in time anyway, and it gives us the time to re-apply for Arts Council funding.
Today I was informed that Odeon cinemas are now going ahead with Alice In Wonderland, and none of us are very impressed with them now.
As far as I’m concerned, trying to run a business with this level of unprofessionalism is impossible. I’m sure all business advice would be to cut out bad clients, and Odeon cinemas are no exception! I can’t work with that!
It makes me wish there were smaller independent cinemas available as an alternative to the Multiplexes…… will someone please set one up somewhere?!
This morning I received the news that Odeon cinemas are not showing Alice In Wonderland, for commercial reasons, and as such, we can no longer go ahead with the planned exhibition.
Of course this is a huge disappointment after a long period of planning and organisation.
I guess this means we will shift our focus back to the Artist’s Markets, and start working on future projects. In truth, with some of the problems I’ve experienced lately, my mind hasn’t really been on my work at all, and I still have until the end of April for the AA2A scheme, so I can use the rest of my time to experiment and take my time with animation.
Also, it means I can start to think more seriously about another project that sprang into my head recently.
The Alice In Wonderland exhibition is in a state of flux now, as Odeon cinemas are possibly boycotting Alice In Wonderland due to a dispute with Disney: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article7024295.ece
I received an email from our contact at Lincoln Odeon to say that they don’t know if our exhibition will be able to go ahead at the moment. And I’m not getting much work done either. I have my youngest in Kids Club for half term, which I will eventually have to cover the cost for, but now I don’t feel the point in carrying on to get something done for March if the exhibition can’t go ahead.
This would be very disappointing news considering how hard we’ve all been working just to keep this going, especially as I’ve been faced with the most ludicrous challenges of all lately – I really don’t need any more now!!
I’ve been vaguely contemplating how to engage with international artists and create collaborative projects, whether I need to apply for additional funding for that? I have contacts, but don’t know how I would initiate such a thing. However I have an ambitious idea in mind, somewhat distracting, and would ideally like to do something around April time, but I suspect that might be too soon.
The Lincoln Artist’s Network are getting excited about the Alice In Wonderland Exhibition. I however have only two weeks left to get my animation together for my piece.
I’ve had a lot of events happen personally that have adversely affected my work. It has just been one thing after another. But fortunately, the LAN are still working together, and we’re now taking over the Artist’s Markets in Lincoln this summer. We’re looking for artists to get involved in this. More details here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=44932174666&ref=ts
One of the problems with having other stuff going on, has meant that I sent the Arts Council Grant proposal later than I wanted, and it wasn’t successful. I have no time left to re-apply now in time for the Alice exhibition, yet despite this, everyone is still working towards putting on a good exhibition, as the opportunity is not worth giving up on. I plan to make a separate funding application for the LAN as soon as possible, with a potential collaborative project in mind.
The animation department seem all over the place, with two trips arranged one after the other, so I’m not getting as much out of the AA2A scheme as I’d like either. Hopefully I’ll get in to finish my animation over the next two weeks, otherwise I won’t have work of my own to exhibit for that and I want to have something to display. However, the LAN have some exciting opportunities upcoming, so we continue to work on these projects.
We’re really pleased with how we managed to pull off the Christmas Market, considering in the end it was a last minute arrangement. We sold some work, although others seem far better at selling stuff than I, I feel the networking was worth it, but as usual will have to wait to find out whether people who said they might want to commission me get back in touch.
Lincoln Christmas Market is the largest in Europe, and we have plans to make it bigger and better for next year.
I now intend to focus solely on work for my residency for the next four months.
Unfortunately, it’s been slow getting back to work following my father’s sudden and unexpected death just before Christmas. The funeral was in the new year, and I have thought of little else than spending time with family, obviously. Luckily, the LAN folk have been keeping things going and things are starting to come together. However, on top of this I have been having to cope with some financial difficulties to do with becoming self employed as a lone parent.
On another note, Magne is doing a project that continues on from the doll project I collaborated with him for back in 2007, combining that with his other project Apparatjik, something known as Pupparatjik:
http://www.kit.ntnu.no/en/node/612
I hope he’ll be able to expand that further and take it international, another collaboration perhaps?? I can live in hope!!
