ARTISTS TALKING

# 77 [6 March 2008]

The last couple of weeks have been interesting. The project refuses to be finished. All sort of follow-on bits are appearing at the moment. Some work from the project has been sold in an exhibition in the US and other pieces are being shown in Esher and at Farnham Maltings in Surrey and the 'Storytree' strand of work is threatening to become another project of its own. During the summer it has been suggested that I work with a group of local people on some more stories to make a slightly less ephemeral, larger installation of this piece. When these things happen I'll update the blog but until then I am going to start a new blog to give form and voice to the rather less purposeful yet potentially extremely fruitful year ahead.

# 76 [19 February 2008]

A lovely day with brilliant, bright, sunny weather so a good context for the last workshop of the Papertrails project. There were twenty-one 7 to 12 year-olds and three helpers as well as me. One was the Countryside Liaison officer and the others were from Elmbridge's children's holiday activity team. During the day we made sculpture and explored the West End Common at Esher. Activities included making things that responded to the environment. We made windmills, moblies and sun prints as well as having a go at papermaking.

# 75 [12 February 2008]

Coming up as part of the project are a workshop with children on the 19th February and a last showing of work (photographs this time) at the Civic Centre in Esher. Elmbridge Borough Council have been very supportive of the project despite having a small budget for art and so it is good to show some of the documentation of Papertrails in their home as it were. Several of the Councillors have been frequent visitors to the studio at St George's Church and have been enthusiastic supporters of the project over the year as has Maggs Latter, the Arts Development Officer for Elmbridge.
The other day I found out that instead of the 9 or ten children I expected to have signed up for the holiday workshop there were eleven on the waiting list beyond that, so there has been an element of restructuring going on to make things work with a full house.

# 74 [8 February 2008]

Until the last events connected with Papertrails have passed and my evaluation of the project both for ACE and for myself have been carried out I am continuing with this blog, however I keep finding things that don't fit into the heading of 'Papertrails residency' and aren't yet another distinct project. Perhaps I need to start a second blog!

# 73 [6 February 2008]

Today I have started the process of final evaluation for the project, totting up figures etc yet enduring results of the year for me will be difficult to put into statistical form. Being able to work on a project for such a concentrated period of time has had a huge impact on my work and the way I work. It has been fantastic to be able to work without the usual constraints of space and time and I have very much enjoyed communicating my interest and enthusiasm to other people. 
Coming up this month are a couple of events which relate to the project. On the 19th is a children's workshop run with Elmbridge and later in the month at the Civic Centre in Esher there is an exhibition of photographs from the year. 

# 72 [5 February 2008]

In theory my project has come to an end but evaluations are still to be done and some of the related work has drifted beyond the end of the residency. During February I am running an art workshop for children as part of the project and also there is an exhibition of some of the photographs of local participation and  of artworks, at the Civic Centre in Esher. I am really sad to leave my wonderful studio at St George's Church although it will be good to come to some kind of conclusion about the year. I met a fellow artist a couple of days ago who asked me if it had all gone as I had planned. That, I suppose is the big question. I think that the things that one hadn't planned or anticipated are probably the things that will ultimately seem most important. Looking back over the year it is meeting people that has made the most difference to me.

# 71 [31 January 2008]

Today my planning has gone awry. My son has had tonsillitis all week and I have managed to juggle things to cover my time at St George's but today I can't. I have had to put up a notice and close the exhibition for the day. Another problem with running a project as a one (wo)man band. However the cold weather has meant that there weren't streams of visitors anyway and it does mean that I will be able to catch up with my emails and starting to put together all the information for the final (dread word) evaluation.

# 70 [25 January 2008]

Since the private view I have been at the exhibition space at St George's Church six days a week. Partly to make the most of the last couple of weeks 'in residence' and partly because there isn't anyone else to mind the space while the exhibition is on. Unfortunately, though the church is full of atmosphere, history and inspiring detail it is rather short on internet acess so I have found it difficult to update the blog. A recap then over the last few days; the private view went really well, lots of people came and I was very encouraged. I was also pleased with the way the last pieces of work looked in the space. One of them, the one with thousands of cast paper fragments on pins caught the light in the way I had hoped it would. You are more aware of the mass of cast shadows than the construction. However, worryingly, considering how long it took to make, I have a huge compulsion to make another one, a bigger one this time!  The other new piece was an echo of my 'Storytree' series. I hung a large branch wrapped in one of the stories high in the nave of the church. I wanted to bring something from outside into the building and I was pleased with the way that the light strips of text illuminate the form. Its difficult to photograph though. 
On Tuesday I had a visit from a troop of 'Rainbows' and their leaders, mums and siblings of various ages. They were a lovely lot, very interested in what it was like to be an artist and very keen on being shown everything after which we did some big drawings on the floor and some of us got very grubby indeed!

# 69 [20 January 2008]

All the glitches and problems of the preceeding week resolved themselves at the eleventh hour (literally in this case as the private view started at noon!) and everything went well. Lots of people came to the opening and it was especially lovely to see people who had been involved in the project during the year. 

# 68 [18 January 2008]

Its been ages since I had time to write an entry. There hasn'tbeen time to reflect on progress (or the lack of it). I can't remember an exhibition that has been such hard work to sort out. Partly, I suppose that's because I have done so much work this year and there is only a limited space to show it. The exhibition has had to be an overview of the year rather than a distillation. I know that once I have had time to think about things I will be able to resolve how I am going to use / present the work in the future. 
In the last couple of weeks there have been a ridiculous number of things out of my control that have gone wrong; to the point that when I opened the second pot of white paint that I was using for the screen in my space and found that it was blue, I just laughed. 
The private view is tomorrow between 12 and 3pm. Note to self: artist initiated projects are brilliant, liberating opportunities which allow you step outside your box but they are also a lot of hard work!