Well, it's been three weeks since my last post. That pretty much sums up my life: massive spurts of activity only to be distracted by something else I want to try and swapping for a while. Again, the picture of the octopus artist crops up again as I imagine lots of us are trying to negotiate many tangled paths..
Last weekend was BABE (Bristol Artists' Book Event) at the Arnolfini. The first time I have had a table at a book fair, and I was really quite concerned about the outlay – not just making the books, but the table cost, journey, accomodation. It adds up! I did sell books though, most of them actually, and broke even. But I can't even think about the fact that even though I covered costs, at the end of the day it was like giving all of those books away for nothing! The next book fair I will be doing is Liverpool, so none of those costs involved.. I did, however, sell a book to the Tate collection, so that compensates a little for a lack of money. I think BABE also raised my profile somewhat as my website got so many hits over the weekend it nearly fell over!
On Thursday I am going up to Bishop Auckland for the opening of Art Land,
http://artlandne.com/programme/
and although I am dreading the drive, I am really looking forward to the whole thing. It is always great to get a chance to make work somewhere else and most importantly, escape the things that distract me (washing, cooking, making a mess of the flat and depairing at it). When I go elsewhere I am free of these things and that has always meant very productive times for me.
