Creative Wednesday - Pictures at an exhibition

No prizes for guessing what I'm going to show this week - a few photos from The Smith and Jones Museum of Folk Art, our exhibition at Room 212 in Bristol.

Mr Kitsch's side of the room looks fantastic, and he is already having a very successful week, having sold several paintings. It's amazing that he has only been painting for a year and this is his first exhibition. I'm so proud and pleased for him. You can read more on his blog.

One of my ideas for the show was to put together my own version of 'Field for the British Isles',the Antony Gormley sculpture installation. My version is made of scores of British costume dolls, all decked out in their Welsh hats, kilts, busbies, and beefeater costumes. I love seeing them all together with their crazy eyes!

We've had some great feedback, and it certainly seems to be eye-catching!

Creative Wednesday - Only 4 days to go!!!

There are only four days to go until our exhibition. Our preview evening is on Sunday between 6.30-8.30pm. If you're in the Bristol area, please do come along and say hello.

Today we went and had another look at the gallery space. It's slightly bigger than both of us remembered, which is good, as in our minds we had started to visualise something smaller than a phone box. Now I have to worry about having enough stuff.

My business cards and postcards arrived today, which makes me feel a little bit more professional. However, there are a lot of things I don't have sorted yet. Like how to display some of my work which won't go on the wall. In an ideal world, I might have a plinth ot two, but sadly, I am not a plinth owner. Hmm... I will have to improvise.

I do have some pictures to go on the wall, like my slightly barmy Barbie collage. It's about A2 size and covered in girly stickers, jewels and sequins.

I'm sorry I haven't had time to do much blogging lately. It's an inevitable irony that when you're busy, and have lots to report, you have the least time for blogging. Hopefully I'll get back to it in a week or two, when I'll have nothing interesting to say!

Creative Wednesday - More weird dolls

A little late today, as I have been sorting out and photographing some of my work that I want to include in the 'Folk Art' exhibition. I hadn't looked at these two crochet dolls since I made them last year. In fact, I'd nearly forgotten about this second one.

It was quite nice to rediscover it, and find a few aspects that I rather like. On the whole, I don't like my work once I've made it. I'm never satisfied with how things turn out. Also, and this will sound weird, the things I enjoy creating are not really the things I enjoy looking at. I suppose in a fine art context, this would make more sense. A lot of artists create work for the gallery, which they would not want to live with. I don't suppose Damien Hirst thought 'Hmm, that shark would really brighten up the corner of my lounge.' But I'm not making that kind of art, and I keep wondering if I should be focussing on stuff I like more. 

One of the few exceptions is this yellow doll, which I do like. It has become a sort of mascot for me, which is why I used it in the publicity material for the exhibition. Sorry if you're a bit fed up with seeing it now.... 

Creative Wednesday - The Dolls Have Eyes (and other names)

Full steam ahead this week for the exhibition I'm putting on with Mr Kitsch. I have just designed some publicity material and set up a blog for The Smith & Jones Museum of Folk Art. I think it gives a good flavour of what we're up to. Mr Kitsch has been busy sending out information to all his many contacts.

My part of the exhibition is called 'The Dolls Have Eyes', a name which some of you will recognise. And, as you may also know, I have a lot of trouble with names.

When I was just dreaming about spending more time on making art, one of the things I wanted to do was to make dolls. Not dolls as you would know them, but small figures, in a folk art or primitive style. I was very influenced by masks, costumes and sculptures from around the world, like the wonderful collections in  the Pitt Rivers Museum. Along the way, I also started to discover (or re-discover) mass-produced vintage dolls, and I wanted to combine all these interests and influences. Looking for a suitable name to cover both the cute and the creepy, I came up with 'The Dolls Have Eyes'.

However, whilst 'The Dolls Have Eyes' is suitable for some of my 'art' pieces, it does not cover everything I do. So I became 'Kitsch and Curious' for selling vintage stuff. But I needed to put a name to the things I make, something suitable for stuff that wasn't about dolls OR kitsch (yes, there are a few things!). As some of you will know, I tried 'Nearly Teatime' as a shop name, but it wasn't quite right when I wanted to put my name to a piece of work.

I've been reluctant to use my real name, because there is a very good artist with the same name, and although it might benefit me to trade on her success, it could get confusing! After toying with various names and anagrams, I've decided to use the name Elsie (which was my grandmother's name). So my new professional persona is Elsie Jones, and as you can see I'm using it for this exhibition.

[The photos I've included are some of my older doll-related pieces. There will be lots of new things in the exhibition, but I've yet to take photos of them.]

Buying, selling, and getting stuff for free

I really enjoyed my weekend. On Saturday, I was invited to a sale by Camilla of Made by Milla. She had organised the sale in the basement of the Here shop in Bristol, to raise money for her MA fees (in Curatorial Practice). She was a bit worried she might be sitting there on her own all day, so asked me if I'd like to set up a stall alongside her. She needn't have worried.  An endless stream of her friends and supporters came in all day, and her things were flying off the shelves.

Despite my being there to sell, I bought rather a lot, as she had so much wonderful stuff. Like the ornaments in the pic above, and the fab craft magazines and plaques below.

And these packets of 'nylons' are wonderful! Why don't they have pictures like that any more?

She has also organised a brilliant art raffle, with some fantastic prizes donated by her many talented friends. Go to the Madebymilla blog for info and tickets and you could have a chance of winning some beautiful artworks (Even better art than the nylons packets!).

And if that wasn't incentive enough, I can tell you that Milla has organised (without pay) many wonderful art events in Bristol over the years. She will doubtless be a superb curator, and this is a great opportunity for her, so please help. I think it says a lot about her that artists of such high calibre have donated their work to support her.

Our other weekend activity was scrumping for apples and pears. There are some abandoned gardens near us, with lots of fruit trees, and when we went for a walk on Sunday, we collected a couple of bags. Free organic fruit!

The Computer is dead. Long live the Computer!

Well, computers do rule our lives, don't they? And like monarchs, when one dies, you have find a successor straight away.

I am now the possessor (or should it be loyal subject?) of a shiny new laptop. My computer gave up the ghost last week. It's always a traumatic experience, and I still don't know if I can get all the data retrieved.

I've also switched from an iMac to a Windows laptop. (If you're technophobic, you may want to stop reading now.)  I decided I couldn't justify the extra money for another Mac, but as I started to use Mr Kitsch's laptop last week, I began to realise that I'm a Windows user at heart, anyway. I just don't get why people rave about Macs. There's very little that works better on a Mac, and a lot that works better on Windows.

Now that I have my new laptop with Windows 7, it feels like coming home. Even the fact that they fail to put 'proper' email software on Windows 7 (yes really!), hasn't put me off. The main problem is that I only had half my data backed up, so if Dr McApple can't get it for me I'm a bit stuck. Main problem at the moment is not having anybody's email addresses. Oh well.

So that was why there was no blogging from me last week (did anyone notice?). I've actually got lots to tell you about, but that'll have to wait until next time.

Creative Wednesday - Pebbles on the Beach

Some 'land art' I created on the rocks at Ilfracombe. Or just arranging pebbles, if you prefer. It's always great looking at all the different shapes, colours, and patterns of pebbles. This beach had lots of disc-shaped stones, and I started looking for the most circular ones.

OK - it's not exactly Andy Goldsworthy, but I enjoyed myself!