Wednesday 30 July 2008

Crazy Day

Had a crazy but really brilliant day, making paper and willow sculptures at the youth club in the outskirts of Oxford with a group of young people with learning difficulties. They were brilliant fun - the noise level at 10am had to be experienced to be believed. Two massive sound systems playing totally different music full on at the same time, whilst one young man who likes DJ'ing urged us all to get on the dance floor.... bit surreal at that time of day. In between gluing paper, tearing tape and bending willow, Jono danced to bangra music and came last in a three man bungee cord race! The kids even made their own pizzas for lunch. The whole atmosphere was really supportive. With only an hour to go someone had the idea we could make a parasol (as in the Parasol project for learning disabled young people), so it was a race against the clock to get it made by the 3pm deadline.... so glad it all came together.
Early this morning I also took some photos of Portmeadow from Wolvercote - so flat there that the sky seems really big. Will now have a go at making my first slide show of todays activities...

Tuesday 29 July 2008

Zombie cow

Phew! Busy day with client in Oxford, along with four delightful artists and one really arrogant annoying egotistical mouthy one.....there's always one as they say, and at least he has to drive about 6 hours home now so maybe there is a God and there'll be freak snow and he'll have to sleep in the car with no dinner....

Have exciting pictures to post of my lovely friends who came to stay at the weekend, also cows - the bovine variety, who are our near neighbour's. One has come out in the picture with really scary eyes, like a zombie cow lurking in the background. The camera never lies and there are no other logical explanations.

M. ill with throat infection. Its all very dull here - can't wait for him to get better. Will also post the pictures of M with a bird on his arm - quite literally, a tame jay being fed in our very own backgarden.
Adios amigos.



Thursday 24 July 2008

Lovely hot day

Its heavenly outside - all warm breezes and hot sunshine. So rare. Don't feel I want to be on the computer at all but some needs must - just a bit of desk work to justify the lolling outside later!
M. has just been accepted for a sculpture commission in Portugal! Very exciting - his first professional commission for a public work. And it has to be made in public over two weeks. Its a tricky one though - the acceptance has come so late, that now planning for four weeks time is really difficult. He has to get off work, and he won't go unless I can go with him, so that's a trick to rearrange my work for the beginning of September.....don't know if it can be done yet. But hope so. He's got some great ideas and I know he can do it, but he'll be so scared that he'll probably find any reason not to go. Not just art but art in a foreign language.....aaaahhhh!
Ate logo, amigos.

Wednesday 23 July 2008

I'm making postcards for Woodstock's Around the World - an exhibition my friend Martyn Brown is putting together for Art in Woodstock. I know he's had loads of cards on the vaguest theme of Woodstock from all over the world....but curiously none from Woodstock in Oxfordshire where the exhibition will be held. SO - I'm hard at it, making postcard interventions along the lines of my earlier series based on postcards of the Madonna titled 'Iconoclasm (Madonna & Child)'.

The first two are done - an aerial image and the other a four image composition of the Palace and gardens from different angles. Interestingly you can only select from four postcards on sale in the Post Office, where I'm told they are forbidden to offer a wider selection since the Palace have very tight control over images - which are otherwise only sold in the official visitor shop. Which you can only visit if you've paid the exorbitant entrance fee of £16.50 - even the 2,100 acres of parkland costs £9.50 to walk around. So a typical example of an English 17th C land grab - the whole lot were a gift to the Duke of Marlborough for giving the French a thrashing. And now its a world heritage site - so forever preserved for the few who can afford it, in the great tradition.

weird neighbours

My strange neighbour L. is always hanging around outside my office window, usually just smoking and trying to listen in. Today she's pruning a bush right outside - very slowly with hand shears. Snip, snip, snip. Its weird how territorial it makes you feel. I want to open the window and shout 'get off my house and stop touching my bush'......

Tuesday 22 July 2008

First time out!

ok - its a first! artmummy meets the blogging world..... here we go.
I'm hoping to use this as a place to chat about the world of arts consultants and my role as a Creative Agent - bit like a Secret Agent only for the world of creativity! Will explain as we go I think.
I'm going to talk out loud about my own artistic practice as well, as a place to contemplate that particularly introspective navel.
I hope that other artists, creative practitioners and creative agents will join in the chat but since I'm new to all this I don't even know how it works yet.
So- hello world......