ARTISTS TALKING

# 31 [2 June 2008]

It's all over finally. The last 3 weeks have gone incredibly fast. The show was last Friday

The show seemed togo really well. There was an amazing amount of visitors and it was quite chaotic. To be honest I don't really know how it went really. Lots of people looked at my work and seemed to like it. I guess we'll have to see over the next few weeks if anything was generated from it.

This week-end has been a real strange one. Luckily I have family visiting so managed to keep busy and it has kept my mind away from art. But after the hard work over the last semester to suddenly to come to a stop is a shock to say the least.

I have lots to be getting on with anyway. I have a few shows already planned and some applications to write. I am also looking at setting up a group with some other artist from my degree course. This looks promising and I look forward to it all going forward.

Uni is all over bar the shouting. We have to Invigilate over the next 10 days and we meet up with the external examiner on Thursday. We then have to take the show down on the 11th June.

In the meantime I'm going to have to get a job to start paying the bills. I guess this will be my last post for the degree show blogs unless something important happens over the next few weeks. I'd like to thank A-N for giving me the opportunity to talk about my work and also the people who have left comments on my blogs. I'd also like to thank the staff and fellow students at Derby University it really is a good place to explore your art.

Thank You

# 30 [21 May 2008]

This degree show lark is slow going. I put up work, then I take it down again as it isn't straight. I put it up and take it down again to put in another position. I continue doing work that may not even be included in the show. It's all good fun.

Thanks to our Head of Art at Derby Uni - Scott Green. He pointed out that my paintings were too low which affected how they viewed. I must admit that I had a bit of skepticism, but moved them anyway. I hold my hand up and say. Scott, you were right, I didn't think it would make that much difference.

The exhibition area is slowly starting to change, more people are in working, the spaces are all secure, work is going up on the walls and panic is starting to set in. We have to get our work completed this week-end. Our assessment starts on Tuesday morning until Thursday morning when we are allowed back in to tidy up and make last minute adjustments then Friday is the big day.

It's strange, when I think of the degree show I must admit that it is with a mix of emotions, nervousness, excitement, sadness and a touch of fear. It is the end of an era, but the start of something new. Our walking reins will be cut free and we will be off into the big wide world. Whether it is with faltering steps or a mad gallop remains to be seen. What is certain is that I will miss the university, the group, the structure and the safety net that these provide, but I am ready to leave. I need to leave, to recharge my creative batteries, to wander free, unfettered and unrestricted, to make my own mistakes and not to have to worry about trivialities like grades, critiques or even conceptualising every damn thing I make.....for a little while anyway, until I grab the next safety net that comes along  

# 29 [17 May 2008]

With all my paintings finished I can now concentrate on the display of them. I spent 3 hours cutting my small paintings to a common size. It was utterly tedious but was a necessity. In the timeframe I only managed to trim around 40 so I have another 60 to do for this show but another 100 for the future.

I've been struggling to find some mounting board for my panoramic landscapes. I need a length of 130cm and noone seems to have anuthing larger tha 96cm. I may yet have to join two boards together.

I have been amazed by the lack of activity in our exhibition area over the last few days. There has only been a small handfull of students working throughout Thursday and Friday. It scares me that i have so much to so, why don't the majority of my colleagues? maybe i'm just not as organised as them.

I met with my wonderful friend Carol today who has a Gallery in Derby (THE PRIDE PARK GALLERY) It's a wonderful space and has a great atmosphere. She has recently set up this gallery and is starting to have solo shows over the summer period. These should be great events with opening nights on the last Friday of each Month (I will be showing my work in August so the opening night will be at the end of July) There is some really interesting work at the moment so if you are passing the area pop in and see Carol, she is a lovely woman who will give you a warm welcome. I'm sure she would be interested to look at your work for the future. If you are looking to purchase some contemporary art then Pride Park Gallery is certainly worth a visit

The address is Pride Park Gallery, 4 Brunel Parkway, Pride Park, Just off roundabout 3, Derby.

# 28 [15 May 2008]

Today I finished all my paintings for the show (Let's hope they dry in time)

It is such a relief to have finally completed the work that I am using. That's not to say that I am ready to rock and roll. In fact I have an enormous amount of work still to do, but that is all about displaying the work.

The big question now is where do I store all my materials and equipment? I have absolutely no room at home, no studio to move in to and in around 10 days time, no space at university!

I havejust over 1 week until assessment so I think from now on it's going to be busy, busy every day.

Good Luck to students who are having their shows in the next few days!

# 27 [15 May 2008]

It really feels like I am making progress now. The last 2 weeks have been frustrating, it involved a lot of waiting but finally we got all the materials and equipment we needed. We all have our spaces and we can all get on with painting the walls, making alterations and displaying the work.

I feel like I've got ahead of my schedule. My walls are secure, painted and ready. I have put my large paintings securely onto the walls and I will take the next few days painting back into them again.

I had to drive over to Nottingham yesterday to pick up some hand made frames from a framer that had been recommended. The frames are great but the journey there and backk is a complete nightmare. This has to be the worst city to drive in. I have driven around London many times, Birmingham, Sheffield, lots of cities and never really have much of a problem. But every time I drive to Nottingham I get lost, get stuck on one way systems, stuck in traffic jams, get people with road rage. Oh it's such a horrendous place to drive. Although it is a beautiful city.

I've still neglected my journals, I am just not finding the time to work in them much. I have lots of stuff to go in them but just need the time to put it all together.

There just seems to be a million and one things to do before the show.

# 26 [11 May 2008]

With this beautiful weather I'm finding it quite hard to get motivated. I was in Uni on Friday and the space moved on leaps and bounds. My helpers (and a few others who were at a lose end) helped me get the space sorted ready for us to paint on Monday. I am hoping that I will only need a couple of coats and fingers crossed I can start putting the paintings up so I can work back into them.

We still haven't got the any wood or paint but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they arrive early monday.

The mood in the studios is quite tense at the moment. Students are worried that there has been so little progress, hopefully this week will be better.

We had the opening event for the 2nd Postcard show on Saturday at the Brewhouse, Burton upon Trent. It was really dissapointing, there was only a very small turnout, we sold some but not as well as we hoped for. I think the weather was probably mainly responsible for that. It was hot and sweaty and nobody wants to be indoors when it's beautiful outside.

I had another dissappointment yesterday too. I received a rejection letter from the John Moores painting prize. This hurt more than the New Contemporaries rejection. I was more happier with the painting that I submitted and thought I might get through to the second round at least. Alas it wasn't to be. At least by the time I finish Uni I will be hardened to rejections. I'm still waiting to hear from the Northern Design prize.

# 25 [8 May 2008]

It is really slow going at the moment. All the spaces are being re-built for the exhibition, none of them are properly finished with loose boards, missing supports and panels etc. It's all a bit of a mess really. Some students decided to paint their spaces today even though they look far from finished.

I went into the space this afternoon as I had to look after my little boy this morning. It took me about half an hour to locate some of my equipment and also to discover that most of it was missing. It has always been a problem at University. Certain students do not have any equipment and think that it is fine to use other peoples stuff. I wouldn't mind so much but it is never put back and often gets lost. I discovered that my drill and bits were all missing, I recovered my hammer and screwdriver but lost a quantity of wood that I had put aside for shoring up my walls. I also found one student happily painting her space with the remains of my emulsion paint that i use for priming my canvases. Sometimes it feels like I am funding more than just myself to be at Uni.

I will be in the university tomorrow. I have a few panels to secure to make a doorway and then repair the walls before painting which should mean that I can get my large paintings up on the wall and start painting back into them early next week.

I have a huge list of stuff to do that runs alongside the show. Career in practice, proposals, journals e.t.c I think that the only way to get it done would be to take a few days off. I'll have to see what the progress is next week.

# 24 [6 May 2008]

Today we were actually given our spaces, well correction. If they existed we would have been givent them. We had a meeting this morning with our 1st year helpers to find that only half the people had bothered to turn up..and incredibly that includes the third years.

The space we are exhibiting in has to be totally canged around and we made a start on it today but unfortunately we only got a few spaces done. We have to work around the fact that other courses in the area won't move out until next week and some who should have been out today just didn't bother. It all seems a little political. Anyway, the goog news is that my space is virtually built. I hope to tweak a few things over the next two days and then paint the walls on Friday...all being well.

I'm finding it quite difficult in this run in to the degree show. It's all a bit too sedate and slow paced. I must admit I am used to getting on with things as quickly as possible by putting in some good hard work but this affair seems almost static. It's really frustrating as I just want to get in my space, finish my paintings and then hang them. I suppose patience is not my strongest point so i'm just going to have to keep biting my tongue and groaning inwardly.

# 23 [4 May 2008]

The last week was not very productive at all. I got a few paintings done early week but that was all.

The postcard show took more time than I expected it to do. 2 full days in total setting up. To be truthfull I was extremely dissapointed with the majority of my fellow students. We asked for help in putting the show up and we only had the three of us. Vitor, Patrick (Husband of one of our students) and myself. To be quite frank I am fed up of doing all this hard work so the rest of the group will benefit.

Anyway, enough of the moaning, the show got put up and it looks really good. We start on the 6th May and we have a get together on the 10th May 12.15pm at the Brewhouse Arts centre, Burton upon Trent. I will post some photos up later.

I had a small setback on Saturday morning. I received a letter back from the New Contemporaries competition informing me that I hadn;t made it through to the next stage. To be honest I wasn't too surprised (just dissapointed) I had a problem with the work that I submitted. I found it very difficult because of the timings that the work needed to be available in putting my current work forward. They clashed with my degree show so I submitted images from last semesters work. The onlyproblem was that this work is not fully resolved. Oh well, you live and learn. In retrospect I should have submitted my strongest work and if it got through then I would have had to deal with the problem.

It does seem odd though that a graduate student competition requires submission during degree show times. Surely it would be more sensible to give us time to finish our degrees before we apply.

We all meet as a group on Tuesday with our first year helpers, whose help I will be so grateful of. To discuss the matter of setting up our shows and timetables. 

# 22 [29 April 2008]

It's a really strange week so far.

 We all got together Monday morning at a meeting, the major happenings were outlined. We get our spaces on the 6th. we get student helpers to assist in sorting out our spaces. We all meet on the morning of the 6th and we are told everything will be fine.

Maybe I am a fatalist but I can't help feeling something is going to go horribly wrong....It can't be this straightforward can it?

We are struggling to come up with a name for our show. We had a list up on the notice board with suggestions but a lecturer took it down as the suggestions were too abysmal.

I have been trying to find find fixing for my paintings. We have a few issues with the exhibition boards that we are using. They are really poor quality, lightweight monstrosities. They have a thin board front and back and the gap between is filled with a corrugated cardboard so it is very difficult indeed to get anything to stay fixed for longer than a day. Ideally everything should be double skinned to allow fixings to go all the way through but unfortunately they are only single boads.

We are putting up the next postcard show event on Thursday at the Brewhouse Arts centre in Burton upon Trent. The exhibition starts on the 6th May and an opening event takes place at 12.15pm on Saturday 10th May. All proceeds go towards the Derby University Fine Art Degree show.