::goodbye to the summer::

Oh I can feel Autumn in the air. The other morning as I was walking to work, I had left without a jacket as it looked pleasant enough, but my protruding belly felt the chill in the air. I'm quite looking forward to the change in season. I love the autumnal colours and the way the leaves fall, swoop and glide their way down to huddle with the other leaves on the ground only for someone like me to come along and shuffle through them. Normally I'm quite sad to say goodbye to the summer, but this year I'm embracing the change and looking forward to getting out my winter woolies, the long shadows and comforting food....oh and a little person arriving!

Things on the art front are beginning to wind down. The exhibition in House came down last week and this week the exhibition in Putney will be coming down. I've also been submitting work to various open exhibitions, Jerwood and Salon 09 to name a few, but so far my work hasn't been accepted. Oh well chin up! There are a few other exhibitions I want to apply for before the Babog arrives and it's all change Piccadilly Circus.

Sweet Sounds

I went to see a lovely lady called Mel Wiggins play in Camden the other night. A friend of ours John Ryan was in town and he plays guitar in the band, so we went along to catch up, eat, drink and sway to the sweet sounds. It was such a beautiful evening in the weather sense, in fact in all senses and we meet some lovely folk. Check her out if you get a chance, hopefully she'll be back in London in the near future sometime.

Private View

The Private View went really well, there was a good group of people there and a great buzz about the place. I had loads of positive feedback and comments about my work, which is always a good thing to hear. It makes you feel like you're doing something right! I didn't sell anything and often think that the PV night is the mostly likely time to sell. Although, the exhibition is on for 3 weeks and I'm feeling a lot of PMA (positive mental attitude) so who knows. Even if I don't sell anything, I still think showing work is very valuable in itself, it's getting my work out there. Someone may decide to contact me in the future and want a whole series of works done or decide that my work would work perfectly in another major exhibition. Oh I can still dream...It's all about the PMA!

London Through My Eyes

The next in the series of artistic ventures is looming. Next week on 18th Aug to be exact, I am taking part in a group exhibition, with a few folk from work. The Private View is on Wednesday 19th August, come along if you're free.

The show is titled London Through My Eyes and runs from the 18th August to 3rd September at the Putney Arts Centre. I've completed 2 pieces of work, the aim is 3!! Panic hasn't quite set in just yet, as I do have some kind of idea what I'm going to do and the other two are framed and ready to go. It all needs to be hung and displayed by Monday as the exhibition opens on Tuesday, so it will be a case of coming home straight from work and working late into the evening over the next couple of days.

The pieces that I'm working on is a very loose interpretation of the title of the show. I have been working on some more pinholes using the song 'It's a Long Way To Tipperary' This song is so well known both in Ireland and the UK. I remember singing it as a kid. I started to look into the history behind the song and discovered it was written for a bet of 5 shillings by Jack Judge and Harry Williams. If you're interested in finding out more check it out here Having delved further, I discovered it became popular when troops went out to Belgium to fight during WW1. Messines is the smallest town in Belgium and this was completely destroyed in the war. There still remains a craters in this area, one of which is called Peckham Farm.

Now many of you may not know this little fact I am about to share, but I spent 2 years in Belgium and Peckham is close to where I now live in London. So I began to tie it all into the work I was making for the exhibition. Well I thought it was a genius idea anyway, not sure how it will translate on paper....literally!! Here's a sneak preview.

House

It took me longer than expected, but it's up! I'm really happy
with how it looks, the space feels like it was made for the the
piece.



Threading Memories
House

::it's all go::

Tomorrow it's up at the crack of dawn to go and hang my work in House gallery. I've also been working on my artist statement in order to have that ready. To be honest I hate writing about my work, if I could sit down and explain it to someone it would be a lot easier but I find the writing side of things difficult. Words come easier when I'm talking, written words seem so permanent and I get self conscious about what I've written.
I was away home for a few days, trying to make the most of things before life as I know it changes forever! I had such a fantastic time my sister whisked me away to a five star hotel for the weekend and I was treated to the full spa treatment. It was divine, if only all weekends were like that!! But now it's back to work with a bang, as I have this exhibition and also another one coming up in 10 days time, which I'll post about next time. Arghh...think I better get busy creating some work!!!!