My work, reasons behind it and what happens to it.

Today, I headed over to Altrincham to install my paper shoes. I’d originally shown them in the recycling exhibition in The Williamson Art Gallery back in June this year and had packed them up afterwards without really checking them. I didn’t open them again until this weekend, when I needed to repack them into more manageable / carry-able containers. It was then I noticed I had a few ‘odd’ pairs. I’m not sure how one or two had gone missing in between, but it had somehow happened. Cue – hastily making another 4 pairs to fill the gap.

My bag was huge, but thankfully, the train was empty so no one got hurt as I stumbled along and commandeered two seats. It was a nice relaxing journey, as the train chugged along going the ‘country route’. I was glad I hadn’t driven.

My map of Altrincham was bit rubbish though as I took the wrong exit from the station (following others) and wandered around aimlessly, until a friendly local pointed me in the right direction. So glad my bag was full of paper and weighed virtually nothing.

The shop unit I had been allocated was huge and bang in the middle of the shopping centre. Carol Evans, who organised the festival, must be really organised to be able to get so many central units.

I’d been there an hour and a half when a photographer from the local paper turned up. I didn’t know this was happening and wasn’t very happy at all posing for really cheesy photographs – having to hold my shoes up to the camera in a ‘look what I’ve got’ pose. Glad I’m not from the area and no one will know me. It’s weird – the many times I have tried to get a local paper to do something on my work and been ignored, and yet this happens when I don’t particularly want it!

So that was me and my day off. … But enough about me – the video made for our crowd funding bid is ready. We just need to do the accompanying text, and it can go live.

My work, as part of the ALtrincham Arts Festival 17 – 27 October, can be found in the window of the old ‘French Dressing’ shop. George St, Altrincham. ( directly opposite Home Bargains)

I got up quite early today to get a few things done and give the dogs a good walk before I went out for the day. As it turned out though, I was back home by 12.30 and spent most of the afternoon lying on the settee watching episodes of ‘Breaking Bad’. I haven’t had an afternoon like that for absolutely ages.

Today’s plan was that I take my work to the Williamson tunnels and install it for the ‘Clandestine’ exhibition opening on Thursday night. The work was taken off me though with a ‘Don’t worry – we’ll handle all that’. Hmmmmmm…….an unexpected day off.

It was a nice end to a week that had been very up and down. I’d taken my work to Warrington on Wednesday night for the Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival. It was a long 45 min drive and I could hear the rusty exhaust on my car groaning at every jolt. I was told at the last MOT that it had a big hole in it and could go any minute, but I had to get the last breath out of it. Not even half way through the month and I have to be cautious about spending – my EBay settee and a pile of train tickets already burning a hole in my purse.

Tuesday’s installation in Altrincham, will be done by train. The exhaust will have to see how next months spending goes.

I felt a bit disillusioned after the Warrington trip. It seemed a long way to go to hand in such a tiny piece. I’m not at all sure it was worth the effort.

On Thursday, all of the members of our group that had applied for the a-n Collaboration Bursary, all simultaneously received the reject email. That was a huge blow to planning AND our funds. Surely at least one of the group could have got through? If we don’t succeed with the Crowdfunding bid, very few of us can go across to NY next year for the collaborative project.

So that’s it – end of another week and work delivered to 3 out of the 4 exhibitions I’m in. I hadn’t planned to be in so many so close together, but it’s just how it worked out. I apply for very few things and even though the applications for all four were quite far apart, it was just unfortunate the exhibitions were so close together. Such is life.

http://www.warringtonartsfestival.co.uk/

Clandestine : http://www.artinliverpool.com/?p=45436

http://www.williamsontunnels.co.uk/

http://wendycwilliamsdotorg.wordpress.com/

On Monday, I went to the AIR Paying artists consultation at Castlefield Gallery Manchester. I’m ashamed to say that I’d never been to the Castlefiled Gallery, but that’s not a reflection on what is on show – more to do with the fact that my days off are used making my own work. I arrived early so was able to take a sneaky look at the Nicola Ellis & Aura Satz exhibition. Well worth seeing.

The next person to arrive was Leo Fitzmaurice. I hadn’t seen him for ages. He used to be a freelance art educator at Tate before he hit the dizzy heights of fame. It was good to chat to him again (though I didn’t want to hear that money, funding and commissions had dried up!) If you win the Northern art Prize, surely you are highly sort after?

When sitting in the circle saying our names out loud, I suddenly realised – I know you ….and you…and you!! ( well – I felt like I knew them) Many a-n bloggers and people I followed on twitter but didn’t make the connection.

The presentation and interaction was quite intense and it made my head hurt with all of the information. Why hadn’t it occurred to me to apply for ACE funding for an exhibition? I had applied (and was successful) for the group exhibition in Stockholm last year, but never even thought about just myself. The amount of times I had struggled with transportation or even ideas I’d scaled down considerably because of costs…. Why why why?

It was well worth going to and great to put faces to those names I knew.

Back in work Tuesday, my head was still buzzing but thankfully it was deadly quiet. (being between exhibitions now) I was desk bound, so spent virtually all day writing up a statement. I’d had an email from ‘art in Liverpool ‘asking if I’d like to write a blog about my work ( after sending them a piece about the Chapel gallery for their listings) At first I thought ‘No’ I’d put my work up on the social networking sites and I didn’t want to be constantly out there. But then I had second thought…. what’s the point of exhibiting if no one sees the work? Is it a bit Crass to self promote?

Of to Warrington tonight to deliver my work for the Warrington Festival. Round trip of 60 miles. Of which, I will pay for the transport costs myself :-(

So… i’m up to date and despite hardly doing any work for the last few weeks, I am artist of the day on the Altrincham Arts Festival facebook and twitter sites : https://www.facebook.com/AltrinchamArtsFestival

The rest of the time though….

3 October. Work day. Reception desk. All I can say is that it was my last day working the Chagall exhibition and it was totally stressful and chaotic, thanks to the lack of organisation by visiting tutors. I do despair sometimes at the attitude of some of them. I don’t know if it’s because they have been teaching for years and they are bored with it all or what – but not reading gallery rules, researching the exhibition or worse still – not talking to their students beforehand ( or during their visit!) beggars belief. Let’s hope they are better in their own environments.

It’s weird having 4 days off now. Friday was my normal day off but I’d booked leave Sat + Sun for a bit of a break. Then I was invited to artist’s consultation in Manchester on Monday, so I had to take another day off. Panicking that I was taking too much leave in one go, I tried to cancel Sunday’s day off as I didn’t really need it. I suppose really I should consider the ‘casual’ staff who may not get work again for awhile ( Short term contract and casual staff are brought for the Big exhibitions, not between) So I’ll just take the day off, use it wisely and let someone else earn some money.

Couldn’t do much in evening as I watching a leather settee on EBay and was desperate to win it. Obviously I didn’t’ need to watch it for so long, but such is the obsession the site creates.

‘Won’ the settee for £44 !!

4 Oct. Day off. Quite a bit of correspondence about crowdfunding. Advice…etc, in response to my last post – very grateful for that, so thanks to all that got in touch. Rest of day scrubbing floor as dog had peed on it and clearing room ready for ‘new’ settee to arrive tomorrow. My old one smelt awful due to dog sick and I was fed up scrubbing it down and spraying it endlessly with frabeze, which just makes it smell worse.

5 Oct. Picked up eBay settee – it fitted into my brother’s car, but only just, with the open door tightly secured with rope. Fortunately, it was only a 10 min journey. Yeah! Comfortable and (at the moment) dog smell free!! The old settee (which was bigger) hid a multitude of items I was storing ‘just in case’. Bits of wood…large folded down boxes etc etc. Threw them out, which in turn led to a massive sort out trying to find spaces for my ever increasing work. Wish I had a studio away from my house, but I really think I would only need it for storage. Can’t justify spending circa £100 a month just for that. Solved a bit of the problem by recycling old work and sending it out again, but that’s only a small percent. Really need to think of a solution here before I get buried alive by all my boxes.

Blank Postcard sent from Cornerstone gallery, for me to design, for their Charity auction. Can’t think what to do now so regret offering.

6 Oct. Glad I didn’t cancel my leave. Today was glorious and I’d slept like a log for the first time in ages. One of my work colleague said how difficult is to switch off after a work day and begin drawing. It is hard to constantly switch – from working, teaching, being a parent etc to doing our work. I don’t know what the solution is. It often takes me a few days to adjust – which is probably why I finally got a good nights sleep last night. I spend the time doing other things until I can work again, like catching up with admin, sorting, cleaning or whatever. To be doing something is better than doing nothing.

Did quite a bit of my own work today though and started packing things away ready to be transported. Next week is back to work in all senses…delivering and installing. I’ve had my break.

Almost up to date now with my day to day blog.

28 September. Work day and another crazy day with the public. The problem with days like this is that it leaves me exhausted and not wanting to do anything when I get in. Admin 0 Own work 0

29 September. Day off. Chance to catch up with things at home ( garden etc) and it was lovely to spend virtually all day outside. Updated a-n blog, mainly because of comments at Friday’s PV. I will class that as admin. 1 hour. No other work done. A proper day off.

30 September. Work day. Away from the physical presence of the public ( working in cash office) but inundated with phone calls and emails off them. Did manage a quick email to an arts website to publicise my installation at the Chapel gallery. Evening spent trying to rearrange delivery dates and times for my next 3 exhibitions. Booked train tickets. Cost £31.30. Admin 2 ½ hours

1 October. Work day. More schools in……sigh. Message from one of the artists in our group ( SCIBase) who is handling the crowdfunding video we are making to raise cash to go to New York next year. He wanted each of us to film ourselves saying ‘hello’ ASAP! . Being the luddite I am, I’ve never used the video on my phone so it was a quick training session before sending the most hideous video off to him. I thought that if I had stopped to think about it, I would have bottled out. But there, it’s done now. We’re going to use Kickstarter : http://www.kickstarter.com/ for no other reason than it is New York based. I don’t personally know anyone who has been successful with crowdfunding sites, but we really have to try everything.

That is admin I would guess. 1 hr. I’m not too concerned about doing my own work just yet, as everything is ready for the next few exhibitions. It just needs packaging. I will do that at the weekend when I have a few days off together.

2 October. Work day. Cashier again. Looked down into the foyer to see it rammed with students, glad that I was away from it all. Lots of work admin, concentrating on spreadsheets and counting cash, so again no time for my own work. Email from person organising Williamson tunnels exhibition. We were all going to meet somewhere in town to discuss the installing, but only me and two others responded. It really is hard, working with groups sometimes. People don’t understand the organisation that is involved. Kind of glad the meeting is cancelled though as I can just go home after work.

Another day and nothing achieved…other than I can yet again pay my mortgage.

As an afterthought – I just want to add that I ( & my colleagues) answer emails addressed to ‘visiting liverpool’ – this is meant for general enquiries: opening times, how to get there. where to park… schools wanting to book in etc. But it’s quite shocking (?) how many ‘to who it may concern….I would like to apply for an exhibition...’ emails we get. For info -These emails do not get forwarded to correct person ( not our choice – no curator would even look at them ) They get the standard response to use the procedures on the website.