Threads

For this post I just want to concentrate on music and performance.

As a band we have had a couple of experiences recently that have been really great, that have made us feel very positive about our musical efforts and outpourings.

The first was the recording session in the church. Dave Shaw kindly let us record in his ”office”, and lent his expertise and knowledge of the space to make some amazing recordings.

https://soundcloud.com/user-814443750/evidence?si=06d78cdeaac2474caeea5fdc5764adea&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

The experience of hearing my voice in such a space did two things: One: to my body… I found myself standing straight, breathing properly, and projecting into the space, knowing that my voice would reverberate around that vaulted ceiling and come back to me. Hearing the recording, I can tell the difference between this and other recordings. Astonishing. I want to sing there again! I’m sure I walked taller for at least three days after!

Two: to my mind… I found my confidence growing, and my self esteem, and my pride in my band mates too. We sounded really good, we all left feeling boosted by the experience, with big smiles on our faces.

The second thing happened this Sunday. We were invited to do a private house gig. We haven’t done many of these, only a couple really. But this one was very special…

It took place in a large house, in the drawing room (not the sitting room sadly). There were about a dozen people there, in comfy chairs, all furnished with tea and cakes (very delicious cakes too). The programme included a very clever and funny poet, and an unaccompanied folk singer. We did four sets of four songs each, so about twenty minutes each set including the intros and banter, interspersed with the other performers, and a nice long relaxed interval for chatting at half time.

Anyway… after the first song received great applause and wonderful comments, I got a bit sweaty-palmed about the whole thing, and needed to take a deep breath. These people were listening very intently to all the lyrics I had written, every note sung and played, every harmony… That’s quite a lot of pressure. I’m not used to that sort of scrutiny. Once I got used to it though, it was brilliant to have our work received so well. People were complimenting me on the lyrics, and picking out particular lines they liked! It could have been a bit overwhelming, but I actually found it rather lovely to be appreciated in such a way. I think we will be asked back another time!

These two events have caused me to think back… we are approaching our tenth bandiversary (because that’s a real word, right?) in 2025 and we have come a long way. We have played some bloody awful gigs in unsuitable places. We have done well, and not so well. We turned up to open mic nights to do one or two songs, just to get out there. At some point in the ten years I remember saying to the guys “I’m not doing this shit any more, we are better than this” …and we are.

I think the events I’ve described above have created another shift for us. We write really good songs together and we sound good. Time to be even more selective about what we do with that.

As well as the above link to the first church recording on Soundcloud, we are also now on Bandcamp, where you can listen to all our recordings so far.

https://thesittingroom.bandcamp.com/

I had too many things in my diary.

They are all things I wanted to do, but they piled up all in one place and overwhelmed me. So I have deleted them. Or rearranged them, or cancelled them completely. In the last year I have slowed up considerably. I think it is mostly knee related, and I can’t wait to get a new one and recover so I can get on with things. Everything is connected. Psychologically, and not just physically, the knee has an effect on everything. On my mood mainly… pain is a real downer. Not being able to get to things easily without planning travel and mobility to the last metre and staircase uses up brain power I would rather spend elsewhere. 

So I have trimmed things down to the things I have to do, and then the things I want to do listed in order of desirability. I used to be able to do loads in a day: a gallery in the morning, meet someone for lunch, or have a meeting in the studio, then a rehearsal in the evening. That is a week’s worth of activity now.

So something has to give.

My priority is now to find a balance between my home and family, and my studio. Certain aspects of my life have made it easy for me to cancel them, by being a pain in the arse. These days if a thing doesn’t bring me joy, I cross it off the list. If it isn’t completely necessary, it goes. This might be temporary, a thing that gets rearranged, or not. I am currently considering no longer doing quite a few things, just to make life easier. I am doing them often because someone else wants me to. That then becomes an easy thing to say no to.

I didn’t set out to have a rant about osteoarthritis and getting older, but that’s what happened, sort of as a result of looking at my work and deciding what is necessary and what is extraneous nonsense and frippery. 

In consequence I am editing, paring down to the essentials… how much can I take away and still retain meaning and coherence?

Of course, while editing and paring down, I still want to create multiples… I want a thousand of these edited, pared down things… does that even make sense?

Did I tell you I was tired?

I know I’m a bit of a purist.

I am a multi-disciplinary artist, but I am not a mixed media artist.

I like my drawings to be pencil OR ink, not both together. If I use watercolour with my drawings, it’s generally laid down as a ground to draw on, not often as an element in itself.

I like my fabric work to be limited in a similar way too these days. Single stitch types, on waste fabric pieces. I have rules.

I don’t like overcrowded songs either…

I’m making vessels and twigs at the moment, in a variety of media. The brown paper twigs are placed in brown paper vessels/bags. They are bound with one sort of bleached cotton or linen thread. I have done black twigs with black thread, white with white, but if I try a different colour I’m unhappy with it.

I thought I’d give it a try with the spools of red thread I bought back from Sweden. Now… in terms of semiotics, red thread has different cultural connotations and the field is crowded with meanings I don’t want, so having bound one brown paper twig with red, I don’t really like it. If I had some red waste paper I’d try red on red to see if that makes it different. I think it would. Would I then feel obliged to try different coloured paper with matching bindings? Then I’d have a rainbow of twigs which I’m sure would look very twee, and also hold extra rainbow-associated meanings!

In my ceramics class at mac I’ve made three clay vessels, from rolled out thin slabs of clay, which are then wrapped around my hand and folded in at the bottom. This week I painted the inside with white slip, we will see how they come out of the kiln, the white may have been a step too far. I’ve started making a few clay twigs, but with a harder, rougher, groggier type of clay. I’m not sure about that either until I see them fired. I don’t think I’ll be glazing them either….

I think it’s because I need clarity. When the symbolism or metaphors or semiotics are important, I don’t want variables muddying the scene.

A variable asks questions:

Why has she used different coloured paper?

Why are the vessels different materials?

Why is the clay a different texture?

If the twigs represent children, they are unique as they stand, as I make them. If I want them to be unique in more than one direction, is that confusing?

I’ve just written this to a-n… if you feel the same way please join in and let’s see if we can get them to change it!

Good morning all!
I know I’ve brought up this issue before, and all I’ve had is a sort of “the computer says no” response.
When I post a comment, I get notified by email. I know I’ve commented, because it was me that did it! What would be really useful would be notifications when someone else replies or comments on a blog I’ve interacted with. This is how conversation happens. It is so infuriating. In “the olden days” it did happen. On my website blog it happens, so why not here? I’ve just accidentally discovered a response to a comment I wrote two weeks ago. How many potential conversations have I missed with other artists because I haven’t waded through to find them?

When this did happen I made contacts and established networks that are still active today… I went to America with Wendy Williams’ group and have returned to do a retrospective exhibition. I’ve been to Sweden and returned this year to do a residency with Stuart Mayes. These are really great things that have furthered my career and my practice. These things are now impossible because a simple conversation between artists is impossible.

I know I will still get a reply saying this is impossible but I want to keep this issue at the front of your minds, so if ever you have another refurb, you can do something about it and make a really big impact on members lives, like you used to.

Best wishes
Elena
 

As well as being a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) I have recently also become a member of ExtraOrdinary People (EOP) at Eastside Projects.

I am hoping that by belonging to both I will be able to satisfy both sides of my artistic personality. 

The RBSA has a 200 year history, is an artist run, traditional group with a gallery in Birmingham’s prestigious Jewellery Quarter. Through this organisation I have access to a city centre gallery, a standard white-walled, large, well lit space. I can exhibit there in group shows one or two times a year. I can also book free space in the ground floor gallery/shop. I can, like I did in 2023, book a larger gallery space (at a cost) for a solo show if I so desire.

This space is run by a small staff, and volunteers from the membership, including a voluntary curator, secretary and president. The members hang the shows, and steward them. The average age of the membership is quite high and as a result of that, a high percentage of the membership is inactive. The driving need is to attract new younger members, from a more diverse population of artists, with more diverse art forms. Other than a small “splinter group” I was invited to join, there’s not much in the way of incidental, casual, critical conversation I have found. Although there are occasional artist talks, and I have applied to the society’s Professor of Painting for a portfolio review. Some of the members have lively contemporary practices, (nothing to do with their age) but many have a more traditional practice. It feels divided…Sometimes it is difficult to choose what to submit to group shows as my work is rarely in a frame, hangs on the wall using unusual techniques, or needs quite a bit of space. My submissions to the shows can be troublesome if I do not install it myself – which isn’t always possible. Despite these shortcomings, it’s a good space, with some good people I have been glad to meet.

Anyway…

Because of my need to engage with a different audience, I was drawn to Eastside Projects in Digbeth, across the other side of town. For those readers who do not know Digbeth, it is a tatty, post industrial area, known for venues like the Custard Factory, full of trendy bars and creative people… more recently priced out of the building for those who can afford ever increasing rents. The artists are pushed out to find as usual the more derelict spaces. Recently there has been more investment in the area, buildings are being snapped up and refurbished, newly paved areas are planted up with low level landscaping and the occasional tree as cranes hover overhead and the new station/interchange gets built for HS2. You get the picture…

Eastside Projects is the classic abandoned warehouse gallery space, concrete, girders, white-painted brick walls, and factory ceiling skylights. A high space, light and airy. The contrast to RBSA is not just in the space but in the way it is run. It is a NPO, and gets funding from the Arts Council, and is supported by Birmingham City University (although I’m not sure in what way). The curators are young, vibrant and have great, imaginative ideas on how to install the work. They have members exhibitions (selective) (I was selected) which include a crit chit chat on the last day. There are also opportunities for one-to-one mentoring with experienced people – artists and curators. I went to one of the crit events on Saturday and found it to be really informative, inspiring, to hear about other artists’ work, and to have mine also discussed in a way I haven’t experienced since doing my MA. I met a few people I’d not seen for years!

I did feel like the oldest person in the room, taking a chair round with me and hobbling about with a walking stick (I’m sure I will feel ten years younger when I get my new knee). But my work was respected, in its handling, its curation, and in the way it was talked about at the crit. It had plenty of space around it. (The downside sometimes with the RBSA is because of the need to bring in revenue the group exhibitions can seem a bit crammed). I talked to lots of interesting people, swapped instagram details, showed photos of other work… I came away buzzing.

I am back in the studio today, having taken the exhibited work out of the box, and hung it back on the wall. I recorded my bit of the crit and I play it back while looking around the studio. The new work I was unsure about, I now see with a different head on. It is a bit of a departure, but a departure worthy of time to explore what it might mean amongst the work around it.

On Sunday I did a stint as a volunteer steward at RBSA and was able to see the differences in sharp relief. Each group has its advantages and disadvantages. I think my practice probably sits half way between the two. Hopefully by having a foot in each camp I can take the best from each and achieve a balance that supports my practice.