Take one letter

A is also for Accident and Associations.

Thanks to Facebook, I was directed to Amy Tan’s TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_tan_on_creativity.html, in which, she talked, among other things about accidents, synchronicity, random chance and how greater awareness of the universe and artists’ inability to repress associations leads to more accidents and associations (very roughly paraphrased).

So, talking of accidents there have been at least 2 in 2 days this week.

First, after trawling through the belfast/butler sinks on offer on e-bay and gum tree I dropped my dog off with a friend for the day and asked in passing if she knew anyone who had one, to which she said “I’ve got one, in the garden… I was going to put it on e-bay”. The hurry for it was because after months of inactivity the plumber was suddenly turning up and I hadn’t managed to source a sink.

Second, I went to a really interesting symposium on artists film and video – White Cube/Dark Cube – at the Sidney Cooper Gallery and met an artist called Mary Stark from Mnamchester http://www.marystark.co.uk/Art/Home.html, who has shown work in the same space I am showing in in the city next month and between the same two pillars in the space. Not only that she is interested too in thread/textiles.

C

is for Collaboration

My work with Joanna Jones at Dover Arts Development (DAD) http://www.dadonline.eu is, at heart, a collaborative practice where DAD is, as Joanna always says, an artwork, with shifting energies, forms that take shape, evolve, change, crystallise in an event or production and then dissolve and re-form.

I’ve also started a new collaborative project with Rosie James called Thread, Paper, Cloth http://threadpapercloth.wordpress.com

Through collaboration I have gained friendship, benefited from invaluable professional, as well as personal, advice and support, met other people and gained new friends and learnt so much about myself. I really believe that it is through the other that we discover the self.