The Draycott Arts and Gardens Festival was a great success for me. I sold quite a few mosaiced items and had lots of business cards taken, all my flyers disappeared, hopefully not into a bin outside the venue!
But it did raise some questions for me, at what point do you NOT tell people about your processes? I play around and discover things, possibly not new processes, but inventing my own way of using them. And when people ask the direct question of ‘how do you do that’, I’ve found that I don’t necessarily want to tell them, I want them to keep looking and questioning, not just become involved in a process.
I found that I did not want to reveal too much about my processes. Partly through pride, because I have a pride in the fact that I have a degree in the subject I love and partly resentment. You wouldn’t ask your car mechanic about the exact details of an oil change (well I wouldn’t because I don’t care!) But in discovering the processes of an artist, show that someone likes your work enough to care about how it is made? I need to discover a level I am happy talking about with my work, maybe just sticking to the idea behind the piece and not engaging with any discussion on how it was made.
Link to my latest post on Blogger, http://thepurpleshedstudio.blogspot.com/
Exhibition Openings, Jaume Plensa (yep, got to see the man himself at the YSP) and Claymills Vicorian Pumping Station.
Next Weedend is the Draycott Arts & Gardens Festival, then at the end of May, The Derbyshire Arts Trail. So a busy month ahead.
REFELECTIONS SO FAR…
I have been trying several things on my pursuit of happiness. So far there have been a few disasters, which have just caused me stress. And some successes, swimming has set a whole course of ideas and is possibly leading to a collaboration involving lots of technical things. The demolition of my ramshackle and dangerous asbestos garage has helped immensely, especially with the memories that it was tightly holding onto, these have therapeutically been driven to the nearest recycling centre. The garden has opened up and suddenly my head no longer has a domineering dilapidated building sitting on the left.
Its also willow pruning season. So a couple of trips up to the labyrinth in the Derbyshire countryside have led to long stretches in the cold sun hadve put paid to my SAD and put it away for the winter. I also went along to the Green Hare Willow Group at the local school and while the gardening experts pruned, trimmed and did sensibly stuff, one of the mums (also an artist) and I made stars and moons to counteract the predominatly christian teachings of school. This has also led to talking about partnering for community projects with the lovely and talented Emma Carr.
And then yesterday morning, a Tai Chi class has left me feeling centred and calm despite the fact that my hands and feet do not work in conjunction with one another.
But at the heart of all these activities? Friends and children. They are the main things that have brought me happiness. So simple.
And hello sunshine! I feel as though I have woken from hibernation…
And in a sense, I have. I haven’t done much during the dark winter months, and last week, woke up and had a studio photographic session of my work from the Figure of Africa exhibition at Pickfords House. The exhibition has closed so I wa able to pick my work up and get some lovely shot done.
And here they are.
Oh, I also got a reidency at The Arbortetum, Derby, which will take place in July. Very very happy about that.
I’ve taken the xmas break as an opportunity to get out into the countryside, walk miles, run away from sheep (scarier than you think when they want to chase your dog!) and take lots of photos of snowy, misty countryside. I’ve enjoyed the break from thinking about how I become a viable business and have felt more creative from being out walking.
We found an amazing woodland up a hill and in the middle of fields, that was full of glass bottles, tin buckets, jars and broken ceramics, I’d heard of this bottle dump but never been able to find it, so the plan is to return when the ground is less frozen to dig for interesting bits of glass, I did find one piece of thick victorian style glass which found its way into my backpack.
I optimistically had taken my sketchbook out with me, but sketching clouds on wet paper while you stand on a frozen hill top is not that much fun…
