Day 5 Sunday, but not a day of rest. Up early to see the acropolis and our first venture into Athens centre. Admission is free on Sundays and therefore busy. Biblical, humbling and awesome. So pleased we made it. Meandering round the city we saw graffiti. No Banksy here. You didn’t need to read the language to understand the desperation of an angry generation. This was the last day of Art-Athina and also Greek elections. We were told this might affect the turn-out in a negative way. Wrong. We returned at a leisurely pace to find a throng which continued til 9 when it was closing time. We were invited to the Platform booth by Artemis, the organiser for a drink. Grappa of course. I’m not a fan but knocked a drop back as we toasted a fantastic event with other artists. V warming. Day 6 up early to take down. our only day off and the weather was lousy. A final trip into old town and a lovely lunch. Home on Day 7 Last night I visited the NTU show. As usual I spent a lot of time talking to friends. Interesting work that deserves a proper look. I’m drawing at Lakeside next week and need to start preparing. We have a preview of Carole Hawthorne’s recent paintings on Sunday so I will pick up the materials then. I’m looking forward to the event as I haven’t been to the studio much recently. I’ve been looking after my little granddaughter with chicken pox whilst her mum is on placement doing an MA in Social Work. And of course I am looking forward to seeing Carole’s vibrant paintings.. A tonic for the grey weather :)
Day 4 I had planned to stay an extra couple of days after Kerri and Alison but there was a mix up with accommodation. Instead of sharing with the US crew the only rooms available were big and more expensive. No single rooms. Decision. Do I rebook my flight or pay extra? It was a budget trip and so I decided to bite the bullet and return home early. Financing these trips is always tricky if you don’t have Arts Council funding. I am lucky I don’t have to put bread on the table and I don’t have a family to feed. This hasn’t always been the case. I have done some pretty grotty jobs in the past and my career has been secondary to Jems during the child rearing years. I have managed to sell work this year which helps but this isn’t a reliable source of income. Ticket booked we decided to walk to the venue on the most glorious day of the week, passing by the marina with eye popping boats and cafés and bars lining the route. 3 bar stools outside were too tempting to ignore… and so we spent the next hour enjoying a glass of white. And of course we had to try the self service ice cream parlour on the way. Several flavours of Mr Whippy with fruit and crunchy toppings to eat on our way – yum. We did feel a bit light headed and naughty as we arrived at the venue at 3.30pm. Fortunately, Beth from A on A had switched on the DVD players. It was the weekend and visitors were coming in droves. I learned later that people were queuing round the block because the stadium was full. The message we were getting was that the Platform event was more exciting and engaging than the ‘main’ event. A talk by Platforms from Canada highlighted the opportunies for artists in terms of residencies and awards. I would find it difficult to spend long periods away from home as I do have commitments but for those without responsibilities there are some great opportunies in Canada.
Received an email from email from Chris this morning letting me know we are using the same image for our blogs. Two different perspectives of the same work. All good :) Day 3. Time to breath as we didn’t need to be at the venue til midday. And time to catch up with our American friends and get to know Ruri and Anna from Iceland. Ruri is a leading artist in Iceland, representing her country at the Venice Biennale. http://ruri.is and Anna is president of the Reykjavik Sculptors’ Association. Both amazing artists dealing with serious issues. They also have a very dry sense of humour and we all hit it off from the start. I had mentioned to Alison the evening before we left that sketchbooks were often a draw at these events. Alison’s sketchbooks are fantastic so she was persuaded to find room in her suitcase. It proved to be a good move as visitors were interested in our embryonic ideas, little experiments and observations. There was also time to view other Platforms and MUU from Finland was one that drew my attention. Focused on moving image there was a mix of zoetropes, film and video, both figurative and abstract. The group are also involved in expanding an artist led art fair in Helsinki and introducing an international element in September 2015. Sounds interesting. Opposite our booth was a large ‘pig-sized’ model of a black rhino lying in a bed of dried sweet corn. Hidden in the corn were 400+ red kernels for visitors to find and exchange for an original Lino cut print. En-flo, a group of young artists from Greece had hit on a winner : whilst highlighting the plight of the black rhino they had created a memorable experience for everyone..including Kerri and Alison who are now the proud owners of rhino prints.
Day 2 in Greece began at 7.30. Breakfast was a pastry and coffee in a little cafe just round the corner from the hotel. We sat outside and enjoyed the moment. A taxi took us to the venue and we were10 minutes early. The security guard wouldn’t let us I and it took him 10 mins to establish we were ok. We learned that the tradesman’s entrance at the back door was more geared up to artists coming and going. The security was actually v good. We managed to sort out the electrics quite quickly. It meant we could install the video players and test them. Perfect. Our neighbours to the right were Art on Armitage. The US contingent however were seriously delayed by a day because of a fire at the airport. The rest of the party from Iceland had already started installing. It meant half the installation was in place when Mary Ellen and the 2 others arrived mid morning. It was good to see them but we all had deadlines to meet so any catching up had to wait. By the afternoon we were ready for the press. I have since learned that the Platforms Project was positively reported in the Greek press and the organiser has personally thanked us for being part of the success. Large numbers of people started arriving in the evening and were still milling around at 10.30. The atmosphere was fantastic. The bottle of wine we bought to celebrate turned out to be dessert wine and very sweet. it went down very quickly with the visitors though. Back to today… It was my first day at the studio since the trip. I have 2 artists looking round this week with a view to going on the waiting list. I managed some painting but it was a very rusty attempt.
