ARTISTS TALKING

# 66 [10 July 2011]

Elena Thomas left me some advice on the last post that I'm going to take. She suggested selling some of my work on Etsy, so I'm going to try it out, putting my cards, bookmarks and little books on it, leaving just installation work, paper sculptures and framed work on my site. Starting again means a lot more work but I have to get it right. I'll probably have to wait until next weekend to really make a start on it as I'm mad busy all week but that's ok.

# 65 [9 July 2011]

I've been working on the sales page to my website again, I haven't put in extra pages to get to the sales page I've just added an extra sales page and changed the first shop page slightly, so now instead of linking to an altered books page there are two links one to 'Forest: Lungs of the World' and one to 'Illegal Logging'. I still haven't set up a pay pal account, or photographed anything else, they are on my to do list. I have been working on this now for about a week and still haven't got it sorted.

I've also been thinking about what I'm planning on selling in the shop. Should I be selling cards, bookmarks etc as well as my artwork or is it cheapening my work? I just don't know what to do. I'm just not going to rush into anything right now, I'll continue working on it but won't publish it until I'm sure I've got it right. It could be a case of more is less, I might be better off just having my actual artwork up for sale. I just don't know what to do right now. Time for a break I think.

# 64 [7 July 2011]

I didn't sleep well last night thinking about all the projects I've got going on all at once. I'm never good when I have to juggle things And the shop pages I'm trying to set up for my website kept going round and round in my head. I should have just worked on them yesterday when I was off and had the chance. I think I've worked it all out in my head now though. I thought it over when I was in work today and I think the best way to approach it will be to have an opening page with a bit of everything on in picture form and then each picture can link to a page on that type of work.

I have also been thinking about how each page can be presented, eg. the page for 'Forest: Lungs of the World' will need a statement so they know what the work is about, a photo of the installation, a description of what they recieve, and a photo of what they are going to recieve. I thought about photographing just one of the books but I'm worried about people coming back to me saying they haven't got what they paid for, so instead I've started photographing all the books individually and numbering them so I remember which are which if they sell, and then if they do I'll just have to replace them with a new photograph of another book. It's not as complicated as I've made it sound, haha.

Anyway I've completed the front page of the shop, (I think, unlesss I decide to sell anything else) and I've started the Altered Books page, but I still need to take photos of the 'Illegal Logging' work and link everything to my pay pal account, which doesn't even exist yet!

I'm kind of wishing I hadn't started it now, it's nerve racking and tedious...

 ... I've just uploaded the two pages I was writing about here, and I'm so glad I did, the 'Altered books page' isn't working, I think I need to split it into two pages, either, so there's a 'Forest: Lungs of the World' page and an 'Illegal Logging' page, or what might work better is an altered book page which just shows two photos, one of each installation and then they link separately to their own pages which only show the for sale images etc. I think I prefer this but it means the customer would have to go through three pages to get to the sales page they want. Would that work? Would they continue to the sales page? Oh, that doesn't work then does it? I don't know what to do, need to re-think the whole thing...

# 63 [6 July 2011]

I hung lots of the paper trees last night and they made me feel really uneasy. The scene from ‘Seven’ when all the little tree air fresheners are hung up to disguise the smell of a deteriorating body came to mind! They have to be hung though as they won’t stand up. I hope they don’t have the same effect on others.

The tree is a simplified development from a lung tissue book I made for assessment when I was on the degree course, but that could atleast stand up! Maybe I should have made the trunk on the trees wider, but I don't think they still would have stood without more pages for support because the pages are to flimsy.

I'm off today. I have got to do some housework, but I'm just going to rush around so I can spend the afternoon on artwork before everyone's home. I've been trying to set up a shop page on my website and I spent most of yesterday on it. It's not public yet as I haven't set up a paypal account, photographed everything and priced everything. How do you decide on prices? And what should I do about postage? I haven't a clue. Anyway I just can't do it all again today, I'll go mad. So I'm going to leave it until the weekend now and concentrate on some paper cutting.

# 62 [5 July 2011]

I made loads of trees yesterday and the day before, I think I have well over a hundered, so I will be going with this project for definite now. Still haven't got a clue what it's about really. But I'm enjoying making them. I think what I like the most is that although I am repeating a process over and over again, (as usual) they are all different so it's not as tedious. With the bonus that they can be folded back up and stored away in a shoe box!

# 61 [3 July 2011]

I've decided to stick with my latest idea for a while and see what happens. I usually have the idea behind my work before the art idea forms, and although I did for this 'possible project' I need something better to base it on with a clear statement. I quite like the work though. I think the simplicity of the design works and once there is quite a number of them and they are all different it will be apparent that they aren't uncomplicated, each one is quite intricate and unique.

# 60 [1 July 2011]

I had an idea last night when I was falling to sleep that I thought was great, given it was 3.30 in the morning, but on reflection it wasn't as great as I had thought. I'd been reading Bill Brysons 'A walk in the Woods'  he was talking about how delicate trees are. Although I've been looking at the fragility of trees in another sense, because of our ability to destroy them so flippantly, I was inspired by the passage.

In chapter 10, page 164 he talks about the inside of trees being made up of three paper thin layers of cells that enable trees to live. And I thought I could represent these by making paper trees just out of three sheets of paper. So I got up, went down stairs and started cutting, until I made something I liked. And then finally i could sleep.

Today I feel differently, the artwork itself is ok, and in multiples could work but the reasoning behind it is poor. I have found this great site that simplifies how trees are made up though.

I suppose that's what struck me really, how simple Bryson made it sound, that trees fundamentally have three parts inside them that keep them alive and yet how complex a tree is, he does go on to explain some of the complexities, eg.  the gum tree produces latex when wounded to repel insects, all of this interests me but what fasinates me is still what trees give to the rest of the World, they don't just provide beauty, but shelter and they home many animals and plant life etc, but probably most importantly to us they absorb and store carbon dioxide.

I am so tried now though.

http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/fnr/stoutwoods/act_pullingparts.html

# 59 [30 June 2011]

I've run out of magazines for my 'Inner Beauty' project, so it's on the back burner for the moment. I'll probably go to a couple of carboot sales at the weekend and pick up some fashion magazines then.

I've been reading up on palm oil over the last few weeks and would like to start a project about it. I initially found a book on herbs, oils etc and decided to make a palm tree from it. I designed a way that I could make the whole tree from the book without sticking extras on but this wasn't comletely successful, the leaves kept flopping and I had to reinforce them. I spent two days working it out, cutting it out and figuring out how to make it stand and then finally when it was finished it I realised it wasn't what I wanted to do at all! I was working with a book because this is the material I most enjoy working with I suppose but I didn't consider using anything else and itw as completely wrong for the project, I should have been using a source for my material, not something just asscociated with it. So I'm back to the drawing board, I'm thinking product packaging from the products that use palm oil, but the actual palm tree doesn't work either, I wanted to make them in multiples and I still want this with whatever I make but the palm tree doesn't have any impact. I'm thinking maybe palm leaves, but that's as far as I've got with it, I haven't started anything hastily, haven't got the hours to waste, so for now I'll just keep thinking and hope that I get a visualisation of whatever I'm going to do with it.

# 58 [25 June 2011]

Feeling much better today, got paid for my paper sculptures which has taken the pressure off considerably. So in a better frame of mind I've been able to get back to working on my projects and I'm feeling positive again.

# 57 [23 June 2011]

I made good progress today in work on the planets, I think they will be finished tomorrow, I hope so anyway as that's the deadline! They were interviewing for a new art teacher today so the department was very busy. It did make me think that maybe I chose the wrong path when I finished my degree. Maybe I should have done a PGCE, I know I probably wouldn't have any time for my own work but I'd have money now. At the moment it's so difficult to manage I think just a little more would take so much weight off my shoulders. When I graduated I was so excited, so caught up in my own world, by everything I'd learnt and everything I was anticipating that I couldn't clearly see further down the line at the likely future.