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Sometimes it can be hard to let go can’t it? The lullaby is now finished (other than the matter of how it is heard/shown/received). What I’m finding is that I can’t stop thinking about it, and its process, and the changes i have experienced while it has developed. A little self-analysis is useful I think. This “child” of mine has coincidentally taken about 9 months from conception to birth. How I feel about it echoes the research I’m doing about the over-protection of children. I wanted to keep it to myself until it was perfect, I want to keep tinkering with it, I want to protect it from harsh criticism and misuse or abuse. But it’s out there now and has to fend for itself.

A friend said to me that he’d not seen me get this excited about my textile work. We had a conversation about how I still see it as part of the textile. It is textured, has layers, is stitched together from pieces that make a whole thing that is more than the sum of its parts.

I think I have empty nest syndrome.

Perhaps I should make another one?

Well here we are then, the moment of truth and courage!

This is my Lullaby. Called, imaginatively, “Lullaby”

I hope you like it. Whether you do or don’t, for whatever reason, please feel free to comment and let me know. This is a real departure for me, and it’s hard to judge. It has been an amazing experience to make it. And I have already started thinking of another piece…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmo4KSz3Nsw

(The video isn’t great for this, it’s the sound that is important, but the limits of the blog mean I can only play you music if it’s on a you tube video, so please forgive the visual element, I just wanted to get it up here quickly before I changed my mind!)

Today is a not-art day. I’ve got a busy week coming up, so need to do all the other stuff today, to enable me to get on with it all without guilt or panic that I need to be doing something else.

So, thank goodness I’m feeling well again, but I’m still somewhat hampered by the hot clammy weather here in the Midlands today, I’m one of those delicate(?!) creatures that hates hot sunny weather. This isn’t helped by the fact I’ve been doing all the things I usually avoid in the heat… baking, cooking meals, ironing. I wish someone would invent linen that I didn’t need to iron.

To relieve that sticky feeling then, I’m now sat in the shade of my shed in the garden, with a big mug of Lady Grey,writing an artist’s blog that’s nothing to do with art. Well it makes a change from the usual self-conscious arty-bollocks whingeing that usually goes on here doesn’t it?

I’m feeling rubbish today. I’ve picked up some horrible bug from somewhere or someone. But in between the really rubbish bits I’m managing to do a bit more reading, and nail down the concept of Quilt-As-Essay. I think I now have it sorted in my head, thanks to Deleuze, Bachelard and more recently and more usefully, Umberto Eco’s “The Open Work” – which I think I’ll come back to again and again.

I’m also thinking about a pre-proposal meeting for my Big Idea (I’m afraid it’ll have to remain a secret till I hopefully get the go-ahead). What to take, just in case, but not so much as to frighten them off!

I have made a list of things I’d like to achieve during next week’s Lullaby recording session – one of which is a one-minute mix to put up here for you to listen to. This is a scary prospect, and I may need something tasty in a bottle to help me press the publish button.

Still wringing my hands over the display of the bonnet and dress (they wont fit the same doll, bugger!) (but actually, changed my mind after anyway, as the doll adds a dimension I don’t want). The drawer idea would be ok, if I had lots of things in lots of drawers, but at the moment I don’t.

…and anyway, I think I’d quite like people to be able to handle them, which is always a thorny gallery problem isn’t it? Any ideas?

been looking at: Lucy Orta, Susan Collis, Cleo Mussi, Freddie Robins

been listening to: Elbow (Asleep in the back), Ella Guru (The First Album), Jose Gonzales (Veneer), The Miserable Rich (12 Ways to Count) (particularly the Boat Song, but I’ve talked about that little obsession before)

Just added photos of clothes in drawers, I’m liking this better now, think it’ll go on some sort of pedestal (visual pun intended).

The secret project I mentioned in post no17 can now be revealed… I’ve been making recycled fabric sleeves for a limited edition of Dan Whitehouse’s debut album… if you want one of these, containing his gorgeous songs, rush headlong to his website, or turn up to the launch gig and buy one!

www.dan-whitehouse.com