No longer terrified of having no work

Well, all the advertising has been done. People have said they are coming to the Preview on 14th February at 7.00 - 9.00pm.  And I have been terrified that the work, which i have been planning for 3 years, wasn't actually going to materialise . . . . . But thank goodness, it seems to be falling into place. I should learn to just TRUST MYSELF. 

The main part of my work is in the preparation and thinking process. In some ways, the end result has been established long before the work becomes reality, and then making it reality is quite scary. Does it actually need to happen, or is it then too much about ME, too personal to want to share, or expose.? It becomes a very intense experience, which I sometimes want to hide from. 

Someone asked me yesterday whether artists create work for themselves or for an audience? Adding: "Presumably it is about communicating - so needs an audience, ultimately?" My answer came, suprisingly for me, without apparently giving it much thought, but it seemed to come from my subconscious and sum up exactly how I feel about my work:

 "I think art is like your child. 

You make it for yourself and have a very intimate relationship with it, 

but it only fulfills its potential by having relationships with others."

Here is the first piece in the exhibition: appropriately called "No 1: Sites Inhabited"

2014 The Year of the Wife or the Artist?

i know this is strange title for this blog, but since my last posting the following things have happened, and have made me really stop and think about what is really important to me at this stage in my life:

1) Re-decorated back gallery

2) Converted sitting room back into front gallery

3) Continued work and research on Darwin

4) Moved my bedroom into the old studios

5) Started work on the new basement kitchen/workshop/library/meeting area

6) Christmas and New Year have come and gone, essentially alone by choice

7) Spent a final weekend away with my husband

8) Made positive reconnections with my daughter and my mother

Fairly obviously, being a good/happy wife depends on being able to dedicate quality time to your husband. Being an artist requires a similar level of commitment, and if nothing else, the last 20 years have taught me that I'm not very good at doing these two things at the same time. One gets left out and then causes resentment. The way I work is all or nothing! Another artist said to me today that I put them to shame with the amount of work i have done over the last couple of weeks. But my point is that we all have to make choices. I chose not to do Christmas, and have now chosen not to do marriage either.

2014 is going to be a year dedicated to my creativity, The Studio Gallery and making an independent living. "The Movement and Action of Worms" exhibition is the keystone to this commitment.

I really like this quote by T S Elliot: 

" Last year's words belong to last year's language,

 and next year's words await another voice."

Adding the Gloss

Having spent ALL day yesterday watching the telly, i got up early this morning to make up for lost time. I have managed to add the gloss to the woodwork in the back gallery, and apart from the perspex on the sink screen, the room is done. When the paint is dry tomorrow, i will put the empty frames into their  final  positions.

Debating what to put in the frames. White. Off-white. Black.

I am really pleased with how it is looking. It is very good stage set. Now the drama begins.

Undercoat

After another long day of preparation, caulking and sanding, the wood has been undercoated, and there is a new layer of clean white paint on the walls. No prizes for spotting the bit of missing skirting board (I'd forgotten that was why i had a seagrass screen around that corner.) I'm sure there'll be a bit upstairs somewhere I can steal for the cause!

So happy that I can see the stage set beginning to appear in the gallery now.  

Tomorrow I shall be adding the gloss to Christmas. 

More Panelling Required

I have finished the construction of the screen for the sink in the back gallery (apart from the perspex panels) and measured up for the position of the work itself.  I realised that, visually, the panelling on the walls needed adding to, if the work is to hang two frames deep. So, thankfully before I started the painting, I have added two more rows of batons to increase the appearance of regularity and structure within the space.

I am very pleased with the way the project us going so far, and I think I am just about on target, timewise. It's only my own target, but i find it easier to relax in the evening if i am happy with the work I have done.  My intention is to have both rooms ready for the exhibition, and all the frames hung (empty) in time for Rob Tyson's music evening on 10th January, when the programme of events at The Studio Gallery for 2014 will also be available. We have some very exciting things planned for next year. But one thing at a time!!!!, 

First Steps (or first waves of muscular contraction)

This exhibition is as much about the space, as it is about the work itself. In my mind's eye, I have always seen "The Movement and Action of Worms" being set here in The Studio Gallery.

I think when i first moved into the space 4 and a half years ago, i knew it was where my next significant exhibition was going to take place,  but the space needs to look, clean, precise, white - something of the look of a laboratory - yes 'clinical' is the word! And those of you who know the gallery know that it has gone through an enormous number of 'changes' - none of them looking particularly clinical to date.

So starting with the back room, (since the front is my Christmas sitting room) I am clearing it. Adding a screen around the sink unit, which folds back and looks like a window shutter (!). And then painting the whole thing white. 

Although this feels a little bit like it might be a 'displacement activity' from making the work itself, actually setting the scene is vital for my ideas to take shape. The work is already in my head. I need a stage to act them out on.

Hibernating with Worms

The Studio Gallery is closed for the winter, and will now evolve - through my Christmas sitting room - into the exhibition for Coastival - The Movement and Action of Worms. Although I went quiet on this blog, I've been working hard on ideas and images for the exhibition, and I'm really excited to see it come to fruition after 3 years preparation.

“I must own I had always looked on worms as amongst the most helpless and unintelligent members of the creation; and am amazed to find that they have a domestic life and public duties!” (Joseph Hooker, 19th century British botanist)

You will be amazed too!

The "Coastival"  Programme has now been issued. There are 100 events in Scarborough over the weekend of 14-16 February 2014.  Www.coastival.com  www.facebook.com/coastival. Twitter. @coastival

Make sure you try to leave a slot in your busy weekend to come and see the exhibition. 

Friday 14 April  10.00am - 9.30pm 

Saturday and Sunday 15 and 16 February 10.00am - 4.00pm

If you find there is just TOO MUCH to see over the weekend, the Exhibition continues 

Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 20-23 February 10.00am - 4.00pm

I just need to fulfil a commission of Contemporary Quilting by 9th December, and then full steam ahead with the worms.  I can't wait! Try not to be too concerned if worms take the place of tinsel this Christmas!!