Only 63 days to Christmas

These days, it doesn't take much to make me feel under pressure. I have just got the West Bristol Art Trail out of the way, and was psyching myself up to make stuff for the Vintage and Handmade Fair, when I got an email to say that my work has been accepted for a large group exhibition called Art Presence at the Centrespace Gallery in Bristol. This is great, but I have to submit work by the 6th November. The idea of the show is to provide alternative Christmas presents (average spend is £30, apparently), so I'm not sure that the work I have to hand will be suitable. Hmm... I better get going.

I told myself earlier in the year that I must make lots of opportunities to sell my work in the run-up to Christmas. Now that I'm faced with just a few opportunities, I'm panicking slightly. As ever, I am hopelessly under-prepared. I think I got a bit side-tracked by making more 'arty' pieces for the Trail, which are necessarily more time-consuming and experimental. I have quite a few unfinished pieces, which are interesting, but not particularly saleable, and will just take too much time right now.

So I didn't even get as much done for the Trail as I hoped. This is my table in the pic below. The nice thing about my stuff is that people generally stop to look. Mostly in a 'What the hell IS that?' kind of way, but at least they look! It was a nice day, but not busy. I only sold one piece (not counting cards and badges, that is.) Oh well.

Art Trail This Weekend

This post is a shameless plug for the West Bristol Art Trail this weekend. Bristol appears to be a city of artists, and there are now at least four different art trails each year. Each one covers a different area of the city, and artists in that area open their homes to exhibit and sell their work. I'm not exhibiting in my home, but in the Hope Community Church. We have a preview evening on Friday (tomorrow) 6 to 9pm, and then we're open 10am to 5pm on Saturday (17th October). The trail as a whole is well worth a visit, if you're in the area. You get to see all kinds of art, AND you get to have a nose in other people's houses!

I haven't got as much work finished as I hoped, but I'm quite pleased with my new technique using beads and pins. I've pushed in a lot of pins now, and boy, are my fingers sore!

Pretty crazy

Goodness me, I've been a very poor blogger lately. But it's been deliberate, really. I've been trying to focus on getting some projects finished, and so I have to stop myself from spending too much time on the interweb. It's rather like not being allowed to watch TV until you've done your homework. Rather a sad state of affairs for a woman my age, but there you go.

However, I thought I'd do a quick 'show and tell' of the wonderful junk (or tat, if you will) I got from the charity shops in Weston-super-Mare on Saturday.

I was in sunny Weston to do another tour of duty at The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe (art exhibition plus sweets). In fact, I left Mr Kitsch doing the shopkeeping with Camilla, while I went went off round the charity shops. I haven't been shopping much lately, so I think I went a bit crazy. I would have bought more, but I just couldn't carry it. And, yes, obviously I need this many china animals...(rolls eyes and sighs impatiently). Well, duh!

Last Weekend, Next Weekend

I found this little pet on Sunday, at the Gimme Shelter Vintage fair in Bristol, held in the retro bowling alley called The Lanes. Lots of lovely vintage stalls there, including Lizzie's - it was lovely to meet her again. I'm afraid I added more to my over-large stash of vintage fabric...

On my way home, I went into Paperchase (in Borders) to look at their 'kawaii' stationery. I bought a pencil tin and a photo album (I did actually need a photo album!).

And then in the magazine section, I found this wonderful publication.
I loved Jackie magazine when I was a teenager. I got the retro 'annual' they published a couple of years ago, but I couldn't resist getting this as well. My favourites are the fashion illustrations. I used to copy this style of drawing and I remember drawing a whole page of platform shoes in a history lesson. History lessons really helped my drawing skills.

So that was last weekend. Next weekend, on Saturday, I will be a guest shopkeeper at The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe in Weston-super-Mare, weather permitting. (They people who have the keys to the shop aren't there when the weather's bad.) Ostensibly, I will be there to sell art, but really I intend to eat as many of the sweets as I can! Heeheehee!! Sweeties!!!

Is It Art?

The West Bristol Art Trail is only three weeks away. Three weeks! Yikes!
I've been pretty busy making work for it. Or trying. I start things and have lots of ideas, but finishing - that's difficult. Sometimes I lose confidence halfway through a piece. I did with this doll. (No, not the one Val's holding, the one below.)
I didn't love it. I think it's because I went for subtle colours. It's not very 'me'. I do like subtle colours, and I appreciate gentle colour combinations, but somehow it's not a way I can really express myself. Kitsch and garish speak to me so much more strongly and happily.

I know that much of what I do is strange and unpopular. But I need to express myself and explore these ideas, and I hope it's worthwhile. But am I an artist? I've called myself an artist when I exhibit my work, because I have to. I feel like I'm an imposter, but I do it to try to convince myself. The boundaries between art and craft are blurry in any case. Is it mainly about originality? Well, that's open to debate at the best of time, with purists arguing that there's no such thing anyway.

I don't suppose it really matters, except to me. Like so many women, I struggle to have confidence in what I do. I only finished the doll because Mr Kitsch gave me a pep talk.

And then I gave myself a pep talk. I may not be creating masterpieces, but I'm finding my way to what's important to me. It's about self-expression and creativity. It doesn't matter what other people think. Maybe this sounds like needy psycho-babble, but perhaps I'm a needy psycho. I don't know. Whatever the case, it helped me a lot, and I've got lots of new ideas which I'm excited about working on. I may even manage to finish them before the Art Trail, with good luck and a following wind.

I think I need to remind myself of all this at regular intervals. I suppose it's an affirmation.
"I am an artist."

Blogs and 8 things

We all do it - feel bad for not keeping up with everyone else's blogs. There's so much out there, and I'd love to comment more than I do, but well, you know... Every now and then I try to work my way through the list of blogs I follow, to make sure I haven't missed too much. I must admit I have to sneakily stop following blogs occasionally, when the list gets too long. I could look at pictures of vintage fabrics all day, but then I really wouldn't get anything else done, would I?

So on one of these backtracking journeys, I discovered that I had been tagged by another blogger way back in May, and I never knew anything about it. She seems to have stopped blogging since then, so I'll let her remain anonymous. Her lack of new posts since then, also accounts for why I never picked up on it. Anyway, the tag was about lists of 8 things, and the idea inspired me to give it a go.

8 things I did yesterday
1. Got hot (yes, hot! in September! Yay!), walking up the hill from the shops.
2. Looked for vintage fairs & carboot sales to go to in the next few weeks.
3. Made a watermelon slice from hama beads (a.k.a. perler beads, pyssla beads).
4. Crocheted a 'doll' body to work on.
5. Discovered the wonderful world of Allee Willis. I got sent an email about her new Museum of Kitsch. I'd never heard of her but her career is amazing. She has written hit songs - most notably 'Boogie Wonderland' and the theme to the TV show 'Friends'. She has worked as an art director on TV, she makes art, collects kitsch, and has some very cool and famous friends.
6. I read some more of my current book - Claire Tomalin's biography of Jane Austen
7. Enjoyed an hour-long phone call with my friend Tessa.
8. Inspired by the kokeshi exhibition I mentioned the previous day, I drew a couple of designs for decorated dolls.

8 things I'm looking forward to
1. Having auburn hair again. I coloured my hair 'golden brown' over the summer, but I think I preferred it redder, so I'm stocking up on a different shade of Nice 'n' Easy...
2. A flea market tomorrow3. The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe. 12 Sept - 11 Oct
4. The West Bristol Art Trail 17 Oct (Pic above is from last year's)
5. The Vintage & Handmade Fair 14 Nov
I'm participating in all these three events, but even if I wasn't, I would visit them anyway, as I think they'll all be enjoyable
6. Gimme Shelter Vintage Fair 27 Sept. (Definitely just planning to visit.)
7. Collecting conkers. I love them when they're fresh and shiny. (I'm a bit worried about the local horse chestnut trees though, because they've been attacked by a leaf miner parasite, which makes the leaves die early.)
8. The run-up to Christmas. I enjoy the anticipation and preparation more than the event!

I'm going to skip the rest of the tag, which was '8 things I wish I could do' (I think everyone wants to teleport, don't they?) and '8 TV shows I watch' (I get bored enough by TV without inflicting it on you) and finally the last list was to tag eight other people. Well, I tag anyone who reads this, if they want to do it. Can't say fairer than that.

American Museum Part 2

Why is there an incongruous tipi in the middle of the English countryside?
It's the American Museum near Bath, which I visited yesterday.

This lovely museum and its gardens gained a special place in my heart, when I went there in 1992, just when I was about to take voluntary redundancy from a job I disliked, and start a more creative career. It became associated with that feeling of freedom and creativity. I have visited it regularly ever since, and now I try to visit it every year, to see the annual exhibition. This year's exhibition featured American folk art. They have a wonderful permanent collection of folk art, which has long been an inspiration to me. They also have an extensive collection of beautiful American quilts. I'm afraid photos were not allowed, so I can only share some of the outdoor delights. Like the gardens in the September sun...


Some architectural details in the gazebo...

Tree roots in the arboretum....

And finally, the 'Tussie Mussie' posies they sell. They are full of sweet scented flowers and herbs, and the ladies used to carry them to church as a nosegay.