ARTISTS TALKING

# 235 [12 January 2011]

Old media versus new media

I despair of our local newspaper, the Stirling Observer.
It is read widely in the area so any coverage, however small, is welcome. Yes the reporter promised the paragraph I sent in on email about the agm of Forth Valley Open Studios which takes place this Saturday in the Smith Art gallery and Museumin Stirling would get in.

Open the paper this morning. Nothing.

Fortunately new media comes to the rescue. Have put it on Facebook, Twitter and emailed all artists on our data base.

# 234 [5 January 2011]

Guess the most sort after present this Christmas? my iPad! everyone from six month old baby to academics wanted to get their hands on it. 

Why? because of the apps.

Here are some of the favourites: Brushes,(painting) Angry Birds ( game), LaDiDa ( reverse karaoke app), Myfry ( Stephen Fry's e-book) and of course the Koi pond HD and Virtuoso  keyboard ( both interactive).

Is this our digital  future for newspapers, books, magazines, music, films, shopping?

# 233 [8 December 2010]

“Start with something organic!”said my tutor in Glasgow School of Art’s portfolio class. I thought of that this morning when I photographed this spider made during my second year at college as part of my first public art project (disastrous one as it turned out!). My spider got short shift at Glasgow School of Art (“We are not having that here!” ) so my half-finished spider got relegated to my garden where it now lurks in the undergrowth. Instead for my public art project I used electronic text and installed it in Borders Bookshop in Glasgow Well, ten years later Borders no longer exists, my electronic text board has broken and my spider still lives in the garden. Today I photographed it with a branch of a twisted hazel in the garden.

# 232 [2 December 2010]

Snow in Scotland - 

Well we are snowed! ( and have been for the past week).

But it has provided a wealth of photographic opportunities such as this video of my garden.

# 231 [30 November 2010]

Once upon a time , well four years ago, you just wrote a blog and posted it. No more.

Today you have got to make it interactive  ( I am struggling with that)  multi-media rich ( photos, videos,) and of course it must have links to social networking sites.

All this is a sign of the way the digital world is changing the way we communicate with each other.

We live in exciting times....check out my online blog at:

http://annshaw.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-garden-in-w...

# 230 [20 November 2010]

I need to upgrade my computer ( Macbook or Imac? can't decide) so I visit theApple store in Glasgow .

The place is heaving with young people , along with a sprinkling of oldies likemyself.


I need sharp elbows to get to the machines. But a lifetime in newspaper journalism has equipped me with that and I am soon lost in the latest Apple dream machines.

Buoyed up with this vision of our digital world I stroll along to visit an exhibition which had good reviews.

But the gallery is empty despite it being a very busy Friday in the city . Not a good sign. I soon realise why.

After the moving images and inter-activity of the Apple store the work hanging on the walls looks, not to mince words, dead.

I am overcome with a tremendous sense of deja-vu. 

The paintings just hangs there. They tell me nothing about the world I live in. In fact they could have been done 20, 50 or even 100 years ago.

It's said the average time spent in an exhibition is 45 minutes. I am in and out in less than ten.

Stunned I decide to visit my favourite bookshop, only to find it has been replaced by a mobile phone shop.

Welcome to the 21st century and the turbulent age we live in.


PS. Still undecided...do I need a laptop when I've got an ipad? but that's another story.

# 229 [28 October 2010]

Just returned from Jordan to find an email from BBC1 TV producer making a series on the social history of Britain in the last 50 years.

They want to include a piece on TB and to focus on telling it through the stories of children who were in a sanatorium - hence their interest in "The Children of Craig-y-nos".

Received a copy this morning of the Medical Journalists' Association 2010 Health & Medicine in the Media booklet.

I am listed in the Open Book Awards 2010 along with my co-author Carole Reeves in the commended category.

# 228 [12 October 2010]

One spin off already from Forth Valley Open Studios is that last weekend five artists in Stirling got together and organised their own mini Open Studios weekend - and it was a great success!

Other spin-offs include a new gallery opening in Bridge of allan encouraged by the success of FVOS, new Life Drawing class starting soon in Delta Studios, Larbert and many artists have found an increased demand for their workshops and classes.

# 227 [5 October 2010]

Well, the first Trossachs Open Studios weekend got off to a very wet start. I had some visitors that  weekend from China so I took the opportunity to show them a side of British life they had never seen before.

They liked the friendliness and informality of the Open Studios where we just wandered into peoples houses...

# 226 [25 September 2010]

Perthshsire Open Studios

Visited a number of studios. Those who had made a big effort to promote and market themselves did well. Others less so.

Some blamed the recession. Maybe.