Once again I was totally surprised to see my blog image on the front page of Artists Talking. The children were even more thrilled to see their advent calendar scene on the choice blog spot. As Rob Turner said blogging is best when it’s a two way conversation and it is so encouraging to get a response like this. Ironically the image that drew Melanie Stidolph in is not actually of me but of Rachel Whiteread. Even more ironically, I actually look a lot like Rachel Whiteread on a misty day when the straighteners are no longer working their magic, so all’s well that ends well and many thanks Melanie.
At the moment I have just completed another coat of latex on my artex ceiling and after what looks like will be a very soggy dog walk in the rain, I will head back into the studio. My problem at the moment is that I now have a constant flow of ideas, which in one sense is great, but unfortunately I haven’t got the making time to keep up with them. This results in the studio full of half made pieces of work that I begin to lose momentum on as my mind is racing three ideas ahead. And this is all punctuated with paid community based projects which also take up a lot of mind space. Over the next few months generating more paid work will have to be a priority as losing this house means losing the studio and I cannot allow that to happen.
Happy new year and despite the thumping in my head, a reminder of last night’s frivolities, I feel really positive about 2011. In the new year I will be introducing two new and very focused blogs. One of them is a complete launch into the unknown for me, the other tracking the progression of the proposed project in Salisbury. Just before Christmas, myself and Laurence Rushby held meetings with both the city council and the county council. It appears that our idea which started off as a small scale local show has grown into something much more ambitious and exciting for us and, we feel, potentially for Salisbury. The space offered by the city council is prominent, central and full of potential and we hope, working with a respected curator, to exhibit not only our own work but a small selection of exciting and emerging artists whose work we admire. In addition it may be possible to commission a particular piece for one significant room.
The timescale has now been rescheduled and we are aiming for spring 2012. A number of respected professionals have offered input at various levels in the project. We aim to run phase one prior to the exhibition as a series of workshops with community groups feeding into work destined for the exhibition, while phase two, the exhibition itself, will involve a participatory open day with an opportunity for the general public to interact and respond to the work. We also aim to host a discussion event for professional artists run by a respected art organisation hopefully drawing in artists from further afield.
In addition the County Council are keen to work with us and utilise experience gathered from the event to feed into their future plans for art in Salisbury. All this of course demands a lot of work and fundraising, and the forthcoming blog will track our successes and, no doubt, in this present climate, our disappointments. It’s prooving a lengthy process and it’s by no means rubber stamped yet but we’re making progress – I’m getting ready for a bumpy ride in 2011.
