You Know You Are a Real Artist...

When you start getting con men emailing you and as I've received mine today, I am officially a real artist. 

It's like getting that telegram from the queen on your 100th birthday, or your driving license at 17, giving you the freedom you spent the last few years angsting over.  An iconic landmark! 

Here's my lovely email from Mike Conley with his impeccable English. 

Hello and good day

       please i saved the details of the link to where i saw your woks online but i have lost it,so please i would so much appreciate it if you could assist me and also please i would like to know if i could make a direct purchase of your works from you,if so thanks so much for taking time to read my email and i patiently await your response.

Regards

Mike

It's a proud moment and I'd like to thank my family and friends for their support over the years leading to my success. 

New Years Revolution

Like most people, I've set some New Years resolutions, goals, intentions, aims... Call them what you like but they are there to help us improve out life. 

I've tried to make mine specific and achievable. No 'get fit and loose weight', but getting fit includes running a half marathon, loosing weight includes going to slimming world and I have an aim in mind. These are my more boring ones, but they're mine so I will do my best to stick with them. 

The ones that I'm more likely to let slide are the creative challenges because these are the ones that really ask me to push myself. To do one collage a week so that I have 52 pieces for an exhibition, these will reflect my year and what is happening for me emotionally and physically. I also need to find an exhibition space. 

I think I may need support with these, so here's my idea. To meet up with friends and take the baby steps needed to fulfil all my life goals and dreams for the coming year. I don't want to be sitting here next year with a feeling of regret because I let the dreams go. 

I've also picked a word for 2014 to stick by and that is to be Authentic. 

I'll be putting the idea of a meet up to talk about reaching for our aspirations out on social media, if you fancy joining me, let me know. 

Sunday challenge

A bit late on the Sunday challenge as I went to the cinema last night with my daughter and didn't have the time to stop and think. 

This weeks challenge really is a challenge as it involves going outdoors and in this weather that's not always pleasant, however, wrap up warm and it should only take 20 minutes, if the kids are off school, take them along to. Grab a note pad and pen and head out to a green space. It also means taking time out from all the rushing around. 

I've taken this idea from The Wild Project,  which gives lots of ideas for things to do outside. At this busy time of year, it's easy to get lost in the maelstrom of self employment/part time job/family/Christmas tornado, so take yourself out to the nearest green space and sit for 20 minutes and just listen. Focus in on some of the sounds that are near by, what are they saying? Are they speaking to you or to each other? Draw or write down what you hear. 

 It's raining where I am today, so I'm going to save this until tomorrow. Let me know how you get on and I'll be posting about my stop and listen challenge too. 

STOP MOANING!

Usually aimed at myself, the phrase, stop moaning does appear quite often in my inner monologue (often along with, 'I can't do this' and 'my lungs are going to explode and I'm going to die') and I get quite sick of myself. 

So I decided to challenge myself to the positive thinking mindset of not complaining, moaning or whinging for 24 hours and invited others to join in. 

I think I did ok today, nearly slipped into a quick moan at work, but stopped myself, just in time. 

It's harder than it sounds, because the real challenge is to stop the inner moaning. The stuff that isn't verbalised that is a diatribe of negativity is the real battle. 

It's that negative nag, the monkey mind, that keeps us in a destructive dialogue with ourselves. 

My challenge for the rest of the week? To stop taking notice of the inner whiner.  

Micro mosaic pendants

I've recently been exploring micro mosaicing to make pendants. 

I've used millifiore glass, ceramics and recycled pieces of jewellery.

I've really enjoyed making these, they are a pleasurable item to make that feel lovely to hold. 

There's still a few available although they have been selling really quickly. In looking forward to how visitors to the upcoming craft fairs will react to them. 

Too busy to blog!

I never know whether it's a good or bad sign that I'm too busy to blog... 

I need to write the words that get stuck on my head for a bit of clarity and stop a big tangled web of letters bumping into each other... But then I get so busy that I don't have time to stop and reflect, which I also love, the adrenaline of being busy organising events, taking part in art fairs, planning meetings, funding meetings... and making sure I exercise for my own sanity to keep those feel good endorphins flowing. 

I think that balance has been missing, the time alone to reflect and think, to read and drink tea. To walk my dog through woods. This weekend has been one of those welcome respites to the hectic run up to Xmas, with the opportunity to climb up the steep hill near my studio and crunch some autumn leaves, to laugh at my dog trying to squeeze her middle age spread through a stile (climb over!) and to take some photos of trees. 

A brief interlude before the mad rush of domestication. 

Inspiration.

A short while ago I was chatting with a friend about the quality of our materials and how our own pride and integrity won't let us use inferior quality art materials. 

This differs from the ethos of recycling and I think a good attitude for an artist, for whom the aesthetic is all important. For me it means a certain level of pride in my work is present. An attitude of 'I deserve better quality of canvas to work on because my work is worth it'.

However, I still have a few cheap canvas's leftover. What do I do with them? I no longer want to paint on them but I can't throw them away as that would be wasteful. So they have become the base for some new experiments, I have been working on and have been completely transformed by layers of paper, paint and wax. I hope you like the result. 

I love how I found myself challenged and inspired to thing laterally about using a base material. I'm really pleased with the outcome.