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I finished a mammoth Diary project update earlier. Scanning, editing and uploading the images is easy and doesn't take me long. However, writing the small bits of blurb about each envelope takes me forever because I see the Diary Project as an art piece in its own right so each entry needs to be just right (or at least passable!) Also, after 235 envelopes finding something unique and interesting about every drawing is starting to get a bit tough!

I went through a small slump with the project last week. I still did my daily envelope on time but there were a couple of days where I felt both the drawings and the contents were just a bit lacking. Fortunately it picked up again: I suppose with such a long project it's inevitable that there will be lulls but I still always hate them.


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Oh dear, it's been far too long since I updated this blog. It's been falling off the bottom of my list because for the last couple of months I've been busy launching my art website.

Putting together a proper website was a lot of work, even though I didn't have to do any of the design or coding because I'd employed a friend who's a professional web designer. However, I still had to write all the art blurb, update my CV and go through all my old images to pull out the best and most representative work.

I kept struggling against my inherent desire to include absolutely everything I've ever done, despite knowing that the site would work much better as a limited portfolio highlighting the best stuff. In the end, I managed to rein myself in by starting a proper archive just to get it out of my system.

I had a bit of an archive before but it was very ramshackle and random, with information kept all over the place. It's much improved now, although it's nowhere near complete yet. I bought a little index card box and lined cards and I've been listing the various art works with all the relevant information. I'll transfer it all onto the computer at some point but I liked the idea of having a hard copy too. I wish to hell I'd done this while I was still at college, as finding the neccesary information is often a bit of a treasure hunt now. Still, at least my slides are reasonably well labelled and kept in chronological order, which makes looking things up a bit easier.

Talking of slides, I'd strongly encourage everyone to get decent images of their work, preferably professional ones if you can afford it. I thought my slides were completely fine until I had to scan and edit loads of them for the website. In the process, I discovered that most of the slides I took in college were underexposed and often totally useless. Since much of that work no longer exists, I really wish now that my documentation had been better. I should have listened harder to my tutor when he nagged us about it! The sad thing is that I honestly thought I was doing a fine job: I was wrong!

Getting some professional images of my existing work is now on my list of 'things I need to do but can't really afford' – hmmm, I bet every artist has one of those lists!

Anyway, over on the website I've got a new blog called Up All Night Again. I'm currently in the midst of writing a big series of articles about why artists need to be online and how to go about it. Neglecting your existing blogs will NOT be one of my handy tips!

Despite all this, I haven't been neglecting The Diary Project itself: I'm proud to say that I still haven't missed a single day and the Diary Project blog is currently completely up to date. I'm starting to get the project 'out there' and I've been linked on various blogs but I still need to do masses more promotion – ain't that always the way!

Other people often seem to think that 'making the art' is the hard bit. Well, I don't know about anyone else but I find that making the art is actually the easy bit. Although it certainly takes energy, effort and lots of thought, it's the bit that I really enjoy doing – it's everything that surrounds the artmaking that's hard!


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