ARTISTS TALKING

# 265 [27 October 2011]

Back from Morocco .

I am now a blip photo convert –www.blipfoto.com/Libra- and getting a pic up each day proved a challenge from my iphone in North Africa.

Despite all the very clear instructions they sent me from the site for uploading I failed to do so.

So I asked the IT guy in the Riad where we were staying, in the heart of the Medina in Marrakech, and he not only loaned me a card reader but the use of their computer too!

Morocco has a well-deserved international reputation for beautiful craftwork and I bought a genuine old Berber artefact. Except nobody, not even the Berber up in the Atlas mountains from whom I purchased it had any idea what it was once used for.

PS On my return I found the cause of my failure to upload pix – the confirmation email from the blipfoto site, an essential part of the uploading process had gone into junk mail. And I had not checked.

Ouch!

# 264 [6 October 2011]

In memori - Steve Jobs

He changed the way we live.

His motto was:" Stay hungry, stay foolish".

The blogosphere is teeming with tributes to him.

This is mine on blipfoto.

# 263 [29 September 2011]

I used to work on The Herald newspaper in Glasgow many years ago – before I took redundancy to go to Glasgow School of Art-

I was one of the writers for the Women’s page (OMG! that sounds so sexist…).

Anyway The Herald has now launched a weekly Women’s Herald magazine and I bought my first copy today.

Will I buy it again? .....the jury is out.

Most of my newspaper reading is done online these days. For free.

# 262 [24 September 2011]

Well, we have signed the papers  for Forth Valley Open Studios to become a C.I.C – Community interest Company.

 This does not give us charity status – which would require us to jump through many more hoops- but it ensures we continue in perpetuity and opens the doors to, we hope, gaining grants and sponsorship.

Spring Fling Open Studios on the Scottish Borders already formed themselves into a C.I.C.some years  and we are using them as our role model.

Unlike Spring Fling we have not had any public funding and the only reason we have been able to reach the stage we are at in less than two years is thanks to the internet. So much of the work from gathering a database to registering, design and marketing  our Open Studios has been done online.

Another new venture I have become absorbed in is  www.blipfoto.com

This Edinburgh based project have created an amazing online global village for photographers.

If you have never visited the site then I would strongly recommend it:

www.blipfoto.com

My work is on www.blipfoto.com/Libra

# 261 [11 September 2011]

I have become a blip addict ever since signing up a few weeks ago.

It is an amazing photo-sharing site and the bit I like is the social networking which in this case really works maybe because it is linked to Twitter, Facebook in such a way as to make it very easy to share.

http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1397725

Basically you are only allowed to upload one photo a day to the site and this is a good exercise and challenge.

I have just come back from a weekend in London . You can even upload from your smartphone.

Visited the Miro exhibition, bit disappointing I thought but then I was comparing it with th Miro Foundation in Barcelona which I love.

Also Miro is one of those artists whose work lends itself to prints which of course we are all familiar with.

# 260 [4 September 2011]

Perthshire Open Studios started yesterday. Visited two in Braco, Lys Hansen, an international artist and Clare Robinson a young textile artist who has re-located from Edinburgh to Perthshire and works for Liberty.

And this is what always surprises me about visiting Perthshire Open Studios - you find artists have moved here from the cities, many from down south, because they can combine their work with a good quality of life.

Going further north today to Dunkeld where I expect to find even more artists who have opted for the good life: big cheap ( well not that cheap this is Perthshire) studios, beautiful locations and thanks to the internet they can work anywhere.

# 259 [25 August 2011]

What does the future hold for art and artists?

Well here are three very different perspectives:

Open Studios

We in Forth Valley Open Studios are looking to form a C.I.C – Community Interest Company, in order to secure the fuure of  the organisation and make it more attractive for investment i.e sponsorship, and grants. We have our annual general meeting in a month’s time and hope to get it all formalised by then.

In moving towards this structure we have been influenced by “Spring Fling” Open Studios on the Borders who have already adopted it.

(Incidentally I noted on their web site that they had a turnover of over £800,000 this year.

Not bad for a long weekend in the country.)

It is worth noting though that the creative industries on the Borders are both a major tourist attraction and source of employment for artists, craftspeople and all those associated with them.

We believe Open Studios empowers artists and at the same time enriches the cultural life of the community.

Digital networks

Just back from Tallin, European City of Culture, where

The Director of the Kumu Art museum, Anu Liivak, says in his introduction to  “Gateways – Art and Networked Culture”.

“The exhibition focuses on works of electronic media, which use digital networks in various ways and re largely interactive.

As such the display clearly shows the paradigm shift from traditional visual art, where the artist presented viewers with a completed object.

Contemporary electronic art is closely connected with the latest developments in technology which, in most cases, are not used to create a finished object but, rather, an interactive communicative platform.”

Career paths for artists: vertical or horizontal?

Finally take at look at this Youtube-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IehUM7XxJNU- contribution which argues that the artist’s career in the past operated in a vertical structure- art college, gallery, exhibition, catalogues, museum whereas the reality today for most artists is one of a horizontal structure, a portfolio of work where making art is just one part of what artists do.

These artists, far from being a failure because they have not become stars or household names are in fact making a great contribution to the community.

Which is right? I would hazard a guess that they all are.

For contemporary art has many different strands and in the future we are going to see an even richer diversity of creativity.

Have just joined blipfoto.com where you are invited to submit a photograph a day.

# 258 [14 August 2011]

Tallinn - European City of Culture

Just back. City was a big surprise. Had expected the medieval side but not that it had jumped straight into the 21st century.

Glad I had my ipad with me because if you wanted information on the European City of Cutlure you were referred straight to the web.

I saw some amazing stuff in Kumu, their new museum which is a cross between the Guggenheim in New York and the Jewish museum in Berlin. It looks terrific though it is not that user friendly inside.

The top floor was given over to "Click Here" and this was superb. Here we had cutting edge art where Man ( or should it be Woman) meet with computers to create a whole range of images and experiences that reveal a new world.

It was the immersive, interactive work that held peoples attention longest and opened up whole range of new art experiences.

bit.fall, Julius Popp's video installation turned water in words trawled from top news sites on the internet- as we walked in we got the London riots already turned into an art form.

The viewer is able to experience the digital world as an analogue sculptural installation.

Phew!....

# 257 [4 August 2011]

Life Drawing and mobile art

What is it about drawing that brings us back all the time to the studio for Life Drawing? Last night I went to the monthly class at Delta Studios expecting no more than maybe three or four people, after all it’s the middle of the holiday season and it was a very hot sultry evening.

Instead twelve of us turn up.

There is something in human nature, almost primeval that craves the desire to make marks.

For three hours I worked just using a piece of pastel and some wet paper towels.

Fast-forward today to the 21^st century. The mark making may be the same but the method of distribution and consuming of those images is very different.

I have just converted them into a digital format for distribution on mobile phones, blogs, Twitter, Flickr and Facebook.

OK the art is not that great - just the stuff you get from any Life Class- but the method of viewing those images is novel.

Meanwhile the originals hang on my studio wall..

PS did you realise that Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are less than six years old? Scary isn't it?

# 256 [27 July 2011]

Forth Valley Open Studios - the future?

http://forthvalleyopenstudios.com/

How do we progress Forth Valley Open Studios into a more formal structure?

How do we ensure that if we run out of steam, inevitable after the first wave of enthusiasm for a new project is over, that there is sufficient structure in place to ensure it continues in perpetuity?

I asked a lawyer (15 minutes for free) under the Cultural Enterprise Office in Glasgow, an excellent facility by the way.(www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.uk)

I explained our dilemma that we were self financing operation supported by a little money from advertising money but the bulk of it coming from artists paying £75 each to go in the brochure and this was further supported in kind by Delta Studios who provide a free exhibition space each year for us.  And their manager acts as our Volunteer Coordinator for free.(http://www.deltastudios.net)

We want to ensure not only that the organisation continues in perpetuity but also that we can apply for sponsorship or grants so that the organisation can grow.

 To do this we need to firm up our structure.  We discussed a variety of options from charities to limited companies then the lawyer told me about a fairly new piece of legislation designed to help small organisations like ourselves, which are for community benefit.

This is known as CIC or Community Interest Companies.http://www.bis.gov.uk/cicregulator/

A charity is another option and we could go down that route if we wish though he pointed out that there would be more hoops to jump through since they have tightened up the regulations on charitable status.

Asked if this might not deter people from giving since we were not a charity he says what determines whether people give or not to your organisation is whether they like what you are doing.

Oh yes, what clinched the decision is the discovery that Spring Fling, the Borders Open Studios, (http://www.spring-fling.co.uk/) which is very well established already uses the CIC model.

So this is the proposal that will be going to our committee: that Forth Valley Open Studios becomes a registered Community Interest Company.

Fingers crossed....though someone once said getting artists to agree is like herding cats.