a new week {and lots of links}

Kiki Smith

I told you I was doing a lot of reading. As well as Women who Run With The Wolves & Alice Through The Visual Arts, I am also working my way through e-books from The Mindful Artist and Roadmap to Action.
There's a good reason for these two. Today is a fresh start. Sad as I am (in that just-lost-my-right-arm kind of way) that my gorgeous girls have gone back to school after two weeks, Joe will be home later today for another two weeks. It will be the first time I've seen him since christmas and there will be much noise, music, mess, fridge-raiding, films to be watched and the kind of banter/heated debates that only 19 year old art students (who know everything) can instigate. Of course, he has to have his room back so for now I've got to work on the dining table.
I will be working pretty full on for a while too. Three, possibly four (different) exhibitions need to be prepared for. It's a mixed blessing that my car broke down big time on Friday as I'm going to have no choice but to stay home and get on with it.


I have also found so much inspiration:
snow pictures by Sonja Hinrichsen
cyanotypes for the Sigur Rós ljóspappír competition (my friend Jonathan is on page 19)
printmaking by Kouki Tsuritani
Omm writer - I love it to free-form ideas {and used to write this post too}
…..and above all, enjoying the return of the warmth of the sun

P.S. - Does anyone else find the new blogger word verification really annoying and a little discouraging to leave comments? I get round it on here by only asking for it on posts older than two weeks; spammers only bother with my old posts.

birth and death

In the same day. The deep sadness and slight bewilderment at the sight of the dead mistle thrush and the huge beaming smile across my face seeing these new lives, squirming, blind and totally helpless; an appropriate and poetic reflection of how I feel right now. I am ready to let go of so much, to be thankful for all I learnt along the way and to continue to bloom, to flourish and to feel loved. I'm sorry if that all sounds a bit cryptic, maybe even a bit touchy-feely but I've been doing a lot of reading lately and it's perhaps gone to my head? I'll explain later…….
Olympus OM10/Fujifilm 200

spots and stripes

Spotty horses and stripey big tops. I was in heaven.
{Pentax Spotmatic/Rollei Retro 400s}

A Sense Of Time

How neglectful of me. I remembered to mention this on my facebook page and completely forgot to say anything over here. Sea Of Tranquility and Time That You Love where selected for A Sense Of Time, a juried exhibition currently showing at Artspace in Lincolnshire, UK. If you just happen to be in the area, it's on until 3rd March and please go for me as I won't be able to make it.

{and much thanks to my besta Melanie who made me enter with her} 

P.S. I've added an *occasional* newsletter sign up over there on the left. 

Almost Famous

As the freezing temperatures rose only to give us more snow, I'm having to find lots of ways to stop myself going stark staring bonkers. I'm not well equipped to cope with this weather either mentally or practically. Oh well. So I'm biding my time with working on several projects at once to stop the monotony setting in, including: 

* clearing a space on the dining table to make 3D sketches in clay of horses

* cutting and tearing found paper and stitching it back together
* working on a book idea
* developing b&w film
* watching lots of films and listening to lots of music, loving The Science of Sleep and this record
* cleaning up my archives of old work and photographs on CDs from pre-2006.

I've really enjoyed looking at some of the photos I've taken at exhibitions and art museums I had stored and forgotten. In 2005 we took a trip to the Basque region of Spain and visited the wonderful Chillida-Leku Museum in San Sebastian. I had also forgotten how much I love the work of Eduardo Chillida, and his former home was one of the most beautiful, magical places I've ever been to. A work of art itself, it sadly had to close it's doors indefinitely last year but it's beauty and sincerity was such a contrast to the whistles-and-bells, full on theme-park experience of the Guggenheim Bilbao.

However this trip down memory lane wasn't the only one I've taken this week. To anyone that ever listens I love to just mention casually that once upon a time for a brief moment my boyfriend was artist Liam Gillick. How astonished was I to hear another ex-boyfriend of mine on the radio yesterday, and he is apparently quite a musical tour de force/DJ/producer/musician. So there you go, in their nascent years I was The Muse Of Hertfordshire. I wonder if they ever thank me?

Powering through

 

 Pentax Spotmatic/Rollei Retro 400S


The freezing temperatures are set to rise next week. In the meantime I get by with short burst of dog walking, lots of eating, tea drinking, music and working on a new book.

playtime

This is what happens when you've been housebound for days and start to go slightly mad.
1. You fish out a camera you've never used before, not even knowing if it works.
2. A quick rummage in the fridge and you find an expired roll of Solaris colour film.
3. You go out in heavy snow.
4. You soup the film in b&w developer that's been sitting in the canister for weeks with absolutely no idea of how long the developer needs.
5. You are thrilled with the results.

this morning…….

…….I woke up to this view

and someone had their first taste of snow. It's too cold to work in my studio or even spend much time on the computer right now. Lentil soup is bubbling away on the cooker, my ultimate cold weather food.
P.S. What do you think of my new look blog?