Wonderful Derbyshire Art

I went along to the re:place symposium last week. Where I got to hear lots of artists speak about how they had approached their residency in Derbyshire. It has made me really consider how I will approach my upcoming residency at Derby Arboretum. My proposal was fairly safe, and although it is clearly thought out, it feels very much in my comfort zone, so I'm hoping to be able to push that when I get there. I think my plan may be, that if I think of something I'd like to try, and it gives me butterflies and I'm scared, then I'll have to at least have a go!

Bizarrely, one of the re:place commissions is based at Longshaw, near Grindleford, in the Peak District, where I spent 3 days as part of the Derbyshire Open Arts, unfortunately the only parts I got to see, were the views from the car as I drove home exhausted at the end of each day! But wow, what views, and I did take my camera (yes, a proper film one!) and stop and take some pictures, so I can look forward to developing those soon.

A weekend is planned with a sketch book, studio dog and some walking shoes, to go back and do some drawings. This will have to be soon, as the Snee-Snaw project starts soon and I'm evaluating it for Andrew, and I suspect it may take over our lives.

Busy Times..

Its been very busy lately, I took part in the Draycott Arts & Gardens Festival, which was great fun, lots of yummy cake (again) and some really good conversations with people.

The area where the studio is going to be built has been cleared and a skip was hired which we managed to fill within a couple of hours, I really should've ordered a bigger one!

The developments with the studio feels very exciting, it means that I will have a workspace where I can walk out of the house in the morning and straight into work, with no travelling, no fuel consumption, and very, very convenient.

I've also started working on some new sculptures of animals, which I'm quite motivated about, despite comments such as 'oh you made a goat' and 'I like your dog mummy' this being about a hare and a rat....

Claymills Victorian Pumping Station

I've just spent the weekend at the Claymills Victorian Pumping Station, just outside Burton On Trent. It was their first craft fair, organised by Hayley, of Forever Forged, who is the Blacksmith at the Station. We were also joined by Jayne Sanders, their first Artist in Residence, This is Bazaar, Samantha Eynon and a Jeweller, whose name I didn't get, and a wood turner, who was called Paul.

This has made for an enjoyable weekend and a good trial run for next weekends Draycott Arts & Gardens Festival, it gave me the chance to put all my work out and see how it looked together, luckily, it looked ok! A few tweaks and it will all look much better.

They also have THE BEST, Beetroot and chocalate cake, which sounds wrong, but tastes soooooo right!

Its well worth a visit when the steam engines are up and running, if not for the noise, then definately for the smell.

Come Home Soon Preview

Tonight was an informal get together at The Arboretum in Derby, Diana Shepherd organised an evening of Poetry, Music and Art in The Orangery as a preview to her exhibition opening. It was a wonderfully hot evening and we made our way to the hub of Derby's more culturally diverse area, rich in smells and tactile colours. The Arboretum is a central point for this eclectic community to meet.

Diana was showing her latest works in Charcoal and Ink, beautifully sensitive drawings hung on the walls, surrounded by the poetry of Stephen Vaughan Williams, who stood up and performed some of his poetry to an accoustic guitar accompaniment.

And in response to the poetry, participants were invited to draw on large sheets of paper in charcoal, I found myself surrounded by people absorbed in drawing images on the walls. It all added up to a very calm, rather surreal atmosphere, an area of serenity nestled amongst all the noise and energy of the park surrounding the Orangery. All in all, a very lovely way to spend an evening.

Jaume Plensa at the YsP

Last Wednesday, I visited a pre private viewing of Jaume Plensa's exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, this was all thanks to keeping a blog, as the invitation came through facebook and was aimed at using social media in a positive way to promote our culture. So having jumped on a train up to Wakefield, then a short bus ride out to the park, we were met by the very silky catalonian who talked about his work. I have to admit to not really hearing the words, just the sounds.

Feeling slightly reminescent of being herded, the group of about 50 tweeters, bloggers, facebookers or whatever social media they connect to the world with, followed the curators and Plensa down to the Longside Gallery, where the bull fight for photos and a few words with the man himself were challenged and consequently won by the more confident with their own words than me. After a short while we wandered into the first gallery where 3 gormley-esque monkeys were positioned on the walls, and the great man bathed us in his charimatic voice, again, didn't really hear the words, just the sounds but the words 'caress' and 'communicate' did stick in my brain... why oh why didn't I record it!!!



If Plensa's voice was chocolate, it would definately be Green & Blacks... But I really should be concentrating on his art...

The art, was a mixture of wonderful sensitivity and text, while inducing the viewer to really think about what the piece means. The sheer size of some of the pieces gives them a sublimity that is breathtaking, while the figures sat holding desperately onto trees invoked a feeling of urgency and determination to grasp out surrounding environment and keep it safe.

There is something very peaceful about Plensas work, it demands quiet contemplation and reverie to enable you to interpret the meaning in a subjective way.

It is definately worth the effort to head up the M1 to the Sculpture Park - http://www.ysp.co.uk/ - while this exhibition is on and spend the day absorbing some wonderful art in the best gallery setting ever. You can also read more on The Culture Vulture blog at http://theculturevulture.co.uk/blog/ for more information on the exhibition.

More Happiness Experiments...

As part of my happiness experiment which is exploring what happiness is and different ways of achieving it, I have also decided to address the physical aspects of my life. This means tackling the fact that I am incredibly unfit, overweight, drink too much and smoke. Not good when put down in cold hard facts...

But perhaps a few excuses are needed. I have cut down on the alcohol over the last 6 months, I was very fond of any bacchanialian activities and would use any means to achieve the heady state of loudness and removal of inhibitions. I also used it to stop the whirrings in my brain, to slow the thoughts down, to stop. You can't do a lot on a hangover the size of Everest. Tai chi has provided me with a calmer alternative and is much more affordable.

I have also signed up to take part in a programme to look at my diet, the first task was to drink more water. This sounds easy, but when you're used to viewing it as a dilutant to whiskey, its harder than you thnk, and to steal the words directly out of WP's mouth.. 'Simple but not easy'.

My first challenge was to add more water into my daily routine and I have found myself drinking so much fluids my family were in danger of thinking I had another kidney infection. Makes the prospect of the tipple, trampoline and tena lady party a stong possiblity... So I have had to cut down on the amount of fluid intake, and chose to cut back on the coffee (1 coffee a day from now on, got to be fresh and a treat) and no more than 5 cups of tea (Although in practice this is down to about 3) Clipper Teas were recommended to me and are proving to be delicious. This has made me very tired, as my energy has basically been running on caffeine. And then in the second week, things are looking different, I am starting to feel refreshed after a drink, the need for a cuppa to get going in the morning has been replaced with a glass of water. I am able to even manage a few words before 8.00am instead of the odd drooling grunt while I wait for my drug to start the metamorphoses from Zombie to yummy mummy.

So the intake of water has been a good thing. Its working for me and I have more energy and hopefully this will improve as I move towards being caffeine free.

A strange week...

This week has started off rather strangely, on Monday, workshop that was not all together great and left me with a very uncomfortable feeling. Its a two day workshop and I'm not sure whether to go back for the second one, still undecided on that.

Tai Chi on Tuesday and this week my arms and legs weren't so unco-ordinated, they seemed to actually realise they were related to each other! So my body is remembering what to do, even though my brain doesn't.

I also had an opportunity to be assertive, which felt fantastic. Really standing up for something I believe in which in turn leads to me feeling a stronger person within myself and my own practice.

What a pity I didn't use the assertiveness on Monday at the workshop, next time I will use it in my feet and leave!

Next week is going to be busy and has lots of meetings which I'm quite excited about.