Cranky week to happy week. How did that happen?
First of all, there’s a pretty good chance I might get what I wanted all along. Now that usually makes most people happy!
Monday morning chats in the cafe at Henwood are part of our group routine now. Gathered around our teas and coffees, we catch up on the week’s developments (we gossip) before getting ready for the 10 o’clock lecture. Now that all of my time is spent in the sculpture room, I’d never see anyone otherwise.
Mav, our Monday tutor, found us in the middle of our pre-lecture chinwag and asked what was happening with the bursary application, as it was the deadline. I’d left it up to two others last week, and I gave a few suggestions, but they gave up on it. Seeing as the money was there for off site shows, and I’d tried – and failed – at the beginning of the term to get everyone on board for that, I’d had it up to the afro with trying to convince anyone of anything. Which is what I said. And unexpectedly, they agreed with me! Not only did they want me to do the application, but they agreed to supporting taking the degree show to the University of Kent campus at Chatham Historic Dockyard, and to increasing our fundraising efforts and using whatever college funds we might receive for the catalogue.
Ellie kindly volunteered to help, and during a post-lecture meeting we corralled the group into some kind of consensus, and submitted the paperwork for the funding that day. It was mostly down to her hard work, really. It’s so much easier getting anything done with just a little bit of support! So we’re calling it Henwood 8 Degree Show… yeah, not as exciting as it could be, but it does the job after weeks of begging for suggestions of any kind. On Tuesday I sat in on an exhibition meeting with staff and other student reps and went over the plans for the show so far, and all in all it put me in a much more positive frame of mind for the whole week. As for the catalogue, we just might be able to collaborate with the design and media group who live over in their hidey holes on the Jemmett Road campus, at least with using the same fonts and formatted logos. Kate might get around to whipping up something for me in InDesign this weekend. She told me I need to delegate, so I don’t feel too bad about it now!
As if that wasn’t enough of a result to put me in a good mood, I finally started to see some real progress with my wood carving, after knuckling down on Tuesday afternoon. But that wasn’t the best bit. I then collected my son from his after school art club, and was told that he’d been bigging me up to his teacher; seven years old and managing my PR already – not bad, eh? He’d been telling her I was an artist, and she wanted to show the club my website and some of my work the next week. “Of course!” I said, mentally scanning for any paintings on my site that might not be suitable for primary school eyes… but then she said something that made my week. “He’s very proud of his mummy.”
