art at the park

WEEK 20

an email i recieved……

Dear Trae,

Thank you for organising today’s visit. It was very challenging looking at so many different exhibits/installations and styles. Very thought-provoking. I am glad we did not have time to see everything! Hopefully I will get back and maybe then can consider all of your questions on the sheet. Lots of items were short-term memorable, but not necessarily their titles.
Looking at a lot of ‘modern art’ draws me back to the question ‘what is art?’ to which I am sure there cannot be a definitive answer. All I know is that art means nothing to me if it does not communicate something, and that it is amazing how much work an artist will put in to communicate an idea. Perhaps there is a link between the amount of work and the number of people who wish to appreciate it, and that is why we have art galleries. Thank you for the work you put in to help us appreciate these things.

Thank you for the work you put in to help us appreciate these things.

week 18

Artists in attendance 9

Time is a ticking……

Has the suction experiment worked…… yes yes it has!!!!! We are now able to hang pictures for the exhibition in the windows hurrah!!!

This week the group has been cracking on with the graphic design of their poster and invites. They have set each other jobs like wording, spell checker and visual director. So far we have a strong image but no wording so i’m hoping that next week we will have some words.

We had a little critique of the work I took a finished painting of mine to show them the kind of finished standard I wanted them to get to. When people said they were finished I put it to the group to give a little feed back on their work, as I don’t want to be the one saying yep that’s done I wanted it to be more of a peer-mentoring thing. There was lots of constructive criticism and everyone handled it well. It’s such a great thing to see the group supporting each other.

next week our new guest artist Nicola Smith will be popping in for a brew and a get to know the group in preparation for her curating workshop.

WEEK 17

It is amazing how scary computers are to the older generation; Ipads are not so scary, why? Well I don’t have an ipad so we will just have to work on my trusty ancient Mac book.

This week I was working 1 to 1 with the artists on designing our poster to advertise the exhibition. We looked at promo posters on the Internet and made a list of what was important about a poster. “Eye catching, Simple and have all the relevant information on it”. “Date, Times, Venue, Title, Logos and art group information”

After an initial discussion and expression of worries we got started by picking out posters we liked and I used various bits from our choices to create a simple mock up in Photoshop. We discussed corporate identity as the café where our sessions are based (run by Didsbury Good Neighbors) already has a style of its own.

One of the artists created a beautiful image of bright colours a lovely simple design (see picture on this blog) the artists did get into the swing of it and really had some interesting ideas with me doing the computing work it made them free to just make the design choices, We decided it would be good to incorporate some of the Didsbury Good Neighbors design into our own poster. We decided to keep the 2 predominant colours. Regal blue and orange. We chose an abstract image for the background so it would be purely decorative rather than send a confusing message of what the exhibition is about.

In the afternoon session we discussed hanging the exhibition we were trying to think of ways of putting work in the window someone came up with a brilliant idea of using suction handles that you can buy to help you get in and out of the shower or bath. I looked at these and they were a bit big and quite ugly. I did find some screw suckers that you can hang shower and bathroom shelves off. I experimented at home and they worked fine with a panting hanging off. I took one to the café art space to hang over the weekend to see if it works, the windows in the café get very hot as the sunshine’s on them so I will see on Wednesday if it has done the job. Fingers crossed.

Next week more computer design.

WEEK 16

Artists in attendance 13

ITS FREEZING and Its time to think about the exhibition! eeeek!

The group are still working on their pieces for the exhibition, this ia a tremendous achievement as a few months ago they would want to finish at least one piece of per 2 hour session.

We have decided the the exhibition (no title yet) will start on March the 29th and will run for a month. This date has been changed to a Sunday due to a paid booking for the room on the Saturday for a 50th wedding anniversary.

This week we have been discussing the ins and outs of putting an exhibition up, it isn’t just about hanging pictures on the wall. The group seem to be shocked when explain to them all the jobs that need doing.

I had a lovely afternoon session surfing the internet with one of the artists searching for images of places he had spent on holiday as a child. It was great to listen to all his stories most of them he thought he had forgotten. It gives people such a boost to relies all there memories haven’t been lost.

We had two new people come and join in this week from a nursing home just across the road. It was lovely to have new people in the group. Its going to be pretty hard to get them to produce a piece for the exhibition in such a short time so im not sure how to play this one. The sketch books and previous works will be on display so maybe that’s the way. I don’t want to put pressure on them as they need time to settle in.

I have drawn up a timetable of events to that the group can look forward to and prepare them selves for them

Jan 28th 1-1 design workshop with me and our graphic designer

Feb 4th   1-1 design workshop with me and our graphic designer

Feb 11th 1-1 design workshop with me and our graphic designer and our next          guest artist Nicola it popping in to meet the group

Feb 18th Filming with Hayley (making a film about what it means to be part of a group like ours)

Feb 25th Whitworth art gallery trip

March 4th Nicola Smith guest artist

March 11th Filming with Hayley

March 18th finishing off work mounting preparations for hanging

March 25th hang exhibition

Sunday 29th march exhibition opens!

I am really looking forward to the gallery visit what will they think will it be different from when they started the group? Cornelia parkers exploded shed will be there what will they think?

WEEK 14

Artists in attendance 11

Happy New Year!

Above is a picture of some of the group (a jolly, enthusiastic bunch!)

After a lovely kind of relaxing 2 weeks off I thought I would start the New Year with a group exercise just to gently get the group back into their practice. We used the format that the lovely Ria Roberts (our first guest artist week 10) taught us. After all who doesn’t like a bit of doodling and a natter? The group loved it and thought it was a fantastic way to solidify the group again.

Exhibition

I met with one of the trustees of the charity to discuss having our exhibition we decide that it will open on sat 28th of March and run for a month. I have planned a few things in the run up to it so that the group can take part in the whole experience of setting up and the running of an exhibition. I have invited another guest artist to come and do a workshop around what makes a good exhibition and curating a show. Her name is Nicola smith and she is a performance artist/ curator/ facilitator I have worked with her many times and she curated the last show I had work in ‘Furiously Mad’ at the peoples history museum last year so I can highly recommend her. We have also asked a local gallery owner to come and talk to the group about pricing and the value of work, a film maker is joining us to interview the members about what being part of this group means to them and the progression of their Artwork and a graphic designer is going to hopefully come in and run some workshops to create the promotion leaflet/ poster with the group. Phew it’s all go! All these things will hopefully give the group an insight into what work goes into “putting paintings on a wall”

Lots and lots to do and such exciting stuff. I love having an exhibition!

Next week back to abstraction + discussion and making plans!