hello 2011 and bye bye 2010!

ah, the new year is upon us - let's hope it's a guid one all round!
it's definitely a very strange time of year - i'm feeling conflict in my brain because i think that i should be feeling full of joy and optimism, but actually i am incredibly deflated and down - is that the post holiday blues, or is that just me?
i'm aware that sometimes this year i will loose confidence, and at some point i will feel worthless, and possibly there may even be times where i am convinced that i am completely talentless...
however, i am still committed to trying no matter what, because - i LOVE drawing! - i LOVE creating images! that's all i need to remember this year.
from now on, next time is right now - and it's right now every time! all the time! no matter what the time! the time is now!
bon chance, mes amis xxxx

yikes, it's nearly here!!!!

hello, the new year is nearly upon us - i can't believe it! it was just hallowe'en a wee minute ago...i have actually managed to miss november out completely from my blog!

well i have actually been busy doing a creative scotland visual arts grant application form and a glasgow visual artists grant scheme application - if any of you has filled one of these out before, you'll appreciate the amount of time you need to invest in making it not sound like complete and utter mindless begging drivel - so, stay relaxed and calm and i'll update you about the outcomes some time next year once the adjudicators eyes have stopped bleeding :)

i managed somehow to have one of my silk/tissue/embroidery portraits picked for the royal scottish academy open exhibition - woo!

it's free and still on till 17th december if you fancy a gander....otherwise, see right for a pic of me with my pic! it's hung in a great position - pretty much straight ahead as soon as you enter the first gallery of the show - how fancy am i?!!!!

i also did a huge amount of prep and spent a very large amount of money for a set of workshops i was due to take this week in glenrothes - unfortunately due to the adverse weather conditions, none of the workshops happened and all events were finally cancelled yesterday late afternoon - what a shame! it looked set to be a great week for the children from fife - hopefully it will be re-scheduled for early next year instead.

it's that time of year, isn't it, where everything seems to be being put off till NEXT YEAR!

not so with the winter craft and music event with butcher boy next saturday 11th december at the mitchell library's jeffery room!!! yes, i will be "MAN"ing the team girl comic stall at some point throughout the day where you will be able to purchase comics, booklets, clothes, cards and delicious cupcakes - ooooo, YUM! for info see this event

right, i'm off to continue drawing my piece for the glasgow project room, for the glasgow independent studio member's show - opening on saturday 18th december, phew! no putting anything off till next year for me....not yet ;)

xxxx

the first frost is here (and snow!)

hello!

well, walking to work yesterday the grass on the hill where i live was still super frosty, even though the sun had been up for a while and i read that there was a big flurry of snow up by inverness too - wow!

this weekend i have my very short, short film 'the possible consequences of one action: part 1 - the end of the world' showing at the hidden doors festival @ the roxy art house in edinburgh - it looks like a totally amazing line-up over the next three days of live bands and films - i'm really really looking forward to heading over on sunday afternoon to enjoy the entertainment! well done genevieve et al, i doth my cap to your stupendous powers of organisation and dedication (they are all volunteers who work in the collective - my kind of folk xx)

i also believe that one of my silk portraits has made it into the RSA open 30th October - 15th December!

wow!

i believe it to be true mainly as i have not received an email asking me to come and remove it from the premises - i did get an email to collect another piece of work as i had entered two pieces - so that's super coolio too!

then of course there is hallowe'en.....

the world's first audio horror movie, 'the dunwich horror', is being screened at the grosvenor on sunday 31st october and so to celebrate the end of the month club is relocating from the 13th note basement to the bright celluloid lights of the grosvenor cafe for the hallowe'en special IX - and as ever, i will be singing my usual spooky nonsense and taking part in some exceptionally distasteful collaborations ....ooooooo!

and then it will be november.......eeek!

xxx

aaaaahhhhhhh it's october!!!!

oh how did that happen already?? BLIMEY!

september went past in an almighty flurry with the opening of TIME TO GIVE UP, a show by Simon Shaw and myself at the glasgow project room on saturday 4th

the show was only on until saturday 11th, after which the sad task of sanding back and painting over began - it is indeed the weirdest thing in the world to spend all the spare time i had either side of my jobs for about ten days going to the project room and hand-drawing onto the wall with POSCA graffiti pens to make what the project room committee termed a "substantial piece of work" only to just paint over it and make it disappear again - it's kind of liberating i suppose and i have plenty of photographic documentation of the making and destroying of which i will hopefully make into a stop motion soon...

so, after TIME TO GIVE UP, i discovered that my work for the big antidote had also been printed by cure studio, down in London, as part of Zineview: a pop up reading room

this event was run by Teal Triggs (Professor of Graphic Design at the University of the Arts in London) in conjunction with the London College of Communication and Thames and Hudson on Monday 20th

i am also forgetting the marvelous Pietro Fortuna exhibition, Glory, at the Tramway that I was lucky enough to be an artist in which took place on Saturday 28th August - that was pretty exciting stuff to be a part of something so large scale!
and then there was the Ironbbratz antidote to Glory, which was an exhibition in IB HQ with the nifty title, Shame - and i think we were all suitably ashamed of our particular exhibits in this show (well at least Mr Smith and I were as they were particularly low quality) - this show happened on saturday 11th.

that's all for now!

ciao xxxx

TIME TO GIVE UP

wowee! ok, so the time is nearly here!!!

on saturday 4th september

simon shaw and myself are having the opening of our wondrous show with the nifty title

TIME TO GIVE UP

at the Glasgow Project Room, 1st Floor, Trongate 103, 7-9pm

the show runs daily 12-6pm from tuesday 7th until saturday 11th september

short and sweet x

wading through muck

hmmmmm, well i have successfully avoided doing anything creative towards my impending exhibitions..............i am floundering around in the muck trying to sort out how to pay huge bills when i earn so little money - it takes up a lot of my time and really doesn't get me anywhere at all, except for making me more worried about drowning under the pressure of trying to stay afloat! bums!

it's less than 4 weeks till the project room opening and my last vain attempt to secure funding through central station didn't work - that's about 5 or 6 funding strands i've approached for this one show and not a single sheckle offered towards it. i know i'm not good with words, that much is clear, hence i'm a visual artist, but i really find it difficult to swallow that i am so unworthy of investment - am i really?

i've tried every year for 15 years to secure some sort of funding from all kinds of places, possibly 20-30 applications each year, but to no avail whatsoever....it's really hard going, especially when i have a show and yet i have no money to produce anything that i had really wanted to, that's really disappointing. yes, i can just show some drawings, yes, i can possibly print out a few pamphlets, but it's not ever going to be the show that i was intending to exhibit due to lack of finance.

i guess it's a never ending balancing act - trying to earn enough money to just get by so that there is enough time to be creative - i've just not found the right balance - before i was far far too busy to fit in creative time properly, now i don't quite earn enough to enable me to pay for my creative time....it's a conundrum...

x

time flies!

well well well, time flies sooooo fast! i can't believe it is a month since i last posted a blog - how did that happen??? blimey! if it's any consolation i have thought about it frequently...no, that doesn't actually count does it, sorry!

ok, so what has been happening? well, i managed to survive the intensive month of june doing the ironbbrazt art-off at market gallery, phew! i got a letter back from glasgow city council's sport and leisure saying that had unfortunately not won a small visual art grant again (i think i have a complete set of these knock-back letters that span the past 15 years!!!), i have almost completed my first ever e-card animation and i have nearly filled my first book of 'iamconsumer' (only two pages to go!)....

up and coming over the next few months is ironbbratz team working with some italian artist at the tramway in august - {will let you know what, where, when and who once i know} - and also a show in the glasgow project room in september with simon shaw - {cripes! i'd better start making stuff!!!}

i'm off to eat my tea now and contemplate the future manoeuvres needed to sail my dingy safely around the shores of possibility xxx