Implacable, Embraceable You!

On the subject of an audience.
I hate when I get false hope, I hate silence. I especially hate the silence that is the harsh echo of the sound of praise.
The gallery owner has not got back in touch. You have to wonder where you went wrong in this instance, and there have been A LOT of such instances.
If creative people aren't BORN mad, then this surely MAKES them so!
The number of images and types and styles of images I have released to people is getting quite staggering now. I'm all in favour of being accessible but you have to wonder, in this age of cheap and easy reproduction, whether the "fan" is just a third party exploiting YOU as cheap labour? What happens to the photography you put on websites, for example? I dont want to have to copywright stamp everything, it just doesn't look nice, and I want genuine fans to enjoy the images.
I also want to be told WHY people decide they dont like what I do!

A Painters Life is Not a Happy One?

Clives James says: "There are lots of reasons to be cheerful about the world, many the result of human creativity - the difficulty is remembering not to be miserable.

Jeffrey Smart is one of several great living Australian painters who have continued the success of their now-deceased role models in carrying our unusually productive little nation's name into the international world of art. Among the illustrious dead are such names as Sidney Nolan, Russell Drysdale and Arthur Boyd. Among the resplendent living are Margaret Olley, John Olsen, and Jeffrey Smart. They are all getting on in years but they have that unquenchable sprightliness that painters so often seem to have, possibly because they lead more enjoyable lives than writers.

This last opinion of mine might have something to do with my own temperament. My feeling that I would have been a happier man if I had been a painter and indeed a happier man if I had been a gravedigger - a very useful occupation, in my view, as it was in the view of the gravedigger who met Hamlet, himself a gloomy fellow - that feeling might have something to do with a disposition towards melancholy. From the inside I don't actually feel like a wet weekend. But apparently I strike other people that way."

Painters HAPPY??

Now come on...

MAYBE if you had someone to pay your mortgage. MAYBE if you were single and could do what you want in the hours you wanted (or needed) to do them in. MAYBE if you know for sure you are doing the right thing and have a happy client base that agrees with you. MAYBE if you haven't got a car in the drive, a cat that needs watching, a husband that needs feeding and a house that needs cleaning. Or a loan that needs paying, come to that (student loan system is biased towards graduates who join management training schemes such as advertised on Hobsons, Hobsons being a very apt name, its that kind of employment or nothing - but who wants an artist working in a bank or come to that what kind of artist COULD work in a bank??).

Notice only ONE of those names is female. She must be single! Or be blessed with a laid back bohemian partner, more than likely she is a lesbian. I'll have to look it up. If she is married, its probably to a fellow creative. Otherwise where is the permission (explicit or implicit) to embrace freedom? And ignore the washing, the dust and little bits of creeping flab?

Camberwell Degree Show

The Lull After The Storm

Its horribly quiet. Bit of a lack of purpose. Not that I had much of a sense of purpose in my 3rd Year (hence 2.2). Hardly my Coup De Gras my Graduate Show..
This is the final work:


Some posh bloke from a nice gallery is interested in the work I had in the catalogue. He has been on the blower. He wanted me to e-mail him some more images. I have done, with the unremitting suspicion this'll be another hot brick job.

I have to bring my work home tomorrow. It was a practical issue I had in my mind when I decided on those 5 skinny little canvases. The whole thing has been a horrible empty compromise. But then thats what life in suburbia is like..

I'll post a slideshow of a selection of the other graduates' works.
It has been said this show is better than Chelsea, Central St Martins and even the Royal College!

The Beeb only Rings Twice (aka Dropped Like A Hot Brick)

Well..

Some meeja bloke from BBC News 24 was supposed to be interviewing me yesterday. But no go. Not a dicky bird.
He was supposed to be phoning me back at lunchtime to confirm.
I even put the straighteners on my hair 'specially.. bastard..

Ah well.. wont be the first time I've been dropped like a hot brick, wont be the last.

It would've been really cool to have a TV crew turn up at my degree show, and just be for me.. even tho it was primarily cos of my ADHD (gonna make it WORK FOR ME.. EARN ITS KEEP!!).
Hell if the likes of Grayson Perry (abuse/transvestism) and Tracey Emin (abuse/feminism/general weirdness) can ride on the the back of so-called tragedy, why not me?

Class of '07

Guess I'd better promote my degree show.

Camberwell College of Arts' third year Painting Degree Show. The exhibition will take place between 16th and the 23rd of June showcasing what will be the culmination of 36 very different approaches to fine art.

See you soon.

Tuesday 19 - Saturday 23 June 2007

Tuesday - Friday 9am - 8pm; Saturday 11am - 4pm

Courses exhibiting at Peckham Road site:

BA (Hons) Ceramics

BA (Hons) Drawing

FdA Design Practice

BA (Hons) Graphic Design

BA (Hons) Illustration

BA (Hons) Painting

BA (Hons) Photography

BA (Hons) Sculpture

BA (Hons) 3D Design: Materials & Critical Practice

Courses exhibiting at Wilson Road site:

Diploma in Foundation Studies

BA (Hons) Conservation

Venues:

Camberwell College of Arts

Peckham Road

London SE5 8UF

Wilson Road

London SE5 8LU

How to get there

By Train

A train from London Bridge, Victoria, or Blackfriars station will take you to Peckham Rye or Denmark Hill which are both approximately 15 minutes' walk from the main Peckham Road site. The train journey takes approximately 10 minutes. There are also good bus connections to Camberwell from the following mainline London stations

Charing Cross: Bus 12

London Bridge: Bus 35

Paddington : Bus 36 or 436

Victoria: Bus 36 or 436

Waterloo: Bus 171

Blackfriars: Bus 63

By Underground

The following underground stations will bring you within easy reach of Camberwell

Elephant & Castle: via Bakerloo or Northern line, then Bus 12 or 171

New Cross Gate: via East London line, then Bus 36 or 171

Oval: via Northern line, then Bus 36 or 436

Vauxhall: via Victoria line, then Bus 36/436

By Road

If you are driving from central London, follow the A202 south from Victoria Station. Parking is available at the Wilson Road site.

By Air

There are five airports in or near London: City, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, Stansted. All have tube, train or bus links to central London.

Look on Streetmap for directions. Its between Peckham and Camberwell on Peckham Road and the building looks like this..*

nice.. like a squalid 60's comprehensive school, but dont be put off by the exterior!

Other departments are open at the same time, not just painting.
Everyone's work looks good. Its worth a visit. There's some nice ceramics that are the highlight of the art schools show this year and lots of other fanastic work too including a sculpture made entirely of black hair!!

Its probably the best free day out in London this week!


*tried to get image of front of college off their website but its not there any more, guess they think its ugly too!

My Mr Hyde

Been watching the trailers for the BBC1 drama Jekyll and I must say I was gripped and HAD to watch the first episode last night - no question.
A dark-eyed handsome man, Nesbitt's Hyde is deliciously charming and naughty. Yes, he is evil, but he's seizing the moment - and doesn't everyone REALLY want to do that?
Cool lines, great hair, crisp shirts... What more could you want?
Oh and the superhuman abilities are nice.. who wouldn't want to be able to drink like a fish then scale the outside of a building to let yourself in when you've lost your keys?!

But for me as a visual artist Nesbitt's physical duality and his rich performance is stunning.
Just look at this face, its like an animal waiting to pounce:


Wouldn't he make a great Dorian Grey, dont you think?

ETSY - not just a pretty face!

Hurrah! Have enough bare knowledge of HTML to be able to stick my Etsy mini-shop in the right place, with text and everything!! Ok I know a twelve year old can do it blindfold.. but still..

Its easy to dismiss such websites as "just for hobby artists", but this is such a well thought out and well presented site that it deserves a mention. Not only does it look neat and professional, but it has some very clever ideas - for example it displays a palette of colours, you can click on a colour and it comes up with a whole raft of objects and art in that colour. Pretty nifty! It could very easily be naff but I dont think it is. I err on the side of crafts anyway, and although I do flinch a bit when people ask for a painting to go with their sofa, I'm humble enough to realise thats what real life and real people are like, I'm not talented enough (or young or trendy enough) to go down the whole conceptual art route, and besides, I like the idea of appealing to ordinary people. If I was clever and socially gifted enough to be exclusive and successful that would be great, but the way it is I'll settle for inclusive and accessible.

Here's another place I frequent. No HTML code for this as yet, so you'll have to click on the link. Many of these guys are hobbyists but it is nice to share and support and be part of a virtual community, especially when you are met with so much indifference in a real-life one.
http://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?artid=28084

Ditto eBay. Scoff all you want!! There's people with an MA from Goldsmiths in my groups there! Just cos they dont sell to millionaires or frequently inhabit the White Cube doesn't make them any less serious or talented!
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/hatwearinggirl

At the end of the day, it helps clear space; and if people like my paintings I'd rather see them being appreciated than locked away in my attic or a warehouse gathering dust..

The Pursuit Of Happiness

I dont believe you can really seperate art and creativity from emotion, so sorry but I'm going to go on an emo trip here. You can always look at other blogs or websites if you get bored, but this is important to my work.
I want to comment on this story -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6711071.stm
I have been battling depression for years. But the moment things get REALLY bad, like facing bereavement, illness, unemployment - really terrible uncertainty, I feel quite elated! Reading this I realise its not so perverse, also I was told in therapy that - basically - shit happens and its OK to feel like shit when it does. Generaly day-to-day niggles wear one down, but it takes the big things to really slap you in the face and tell you to get over yourself! A good example of this is our current situation at home. My husbands good friend and business partner has only months to live after struggling with the sudden onset of terminal cancer. The whole situation of this illness came as a sudden shock, he was a fit and well man when we had the first company Christmas do. Not only does my husband face losing a great companion but also the prospect of a flourishing business, the papers to dissolve and divide the company are being signed in the next week. Yet we have had the funniest weekend - really sincere and spontaneous humour, not dark and contrived - swapping one liners like "Dawn's broken" "Oh I'll fix it later" at 4 in the morning. Sometimes you just have to sigh and accept things instead of thinking you should be singled out for more favourable treatment by some greater power. Human beings are capable of such courage in the face of adversity, look at the Blitz spirit, but sadly these days when we are being saturated by images of the ideal we find it hard to dig down and find these resources.
When we do, its amazing how much perspective you can have in the world, you realise whatever you do its not the be-all-and-end-all, puts the ego in its place, allows you to feel really oceanic and part of nature and what's going on around you. Its important to realise how precious life is, and how your plans can go a bit wrong and you can still survive, maybe go on to be stronger.
The best thing is, you can turn around to people who say "You make your own luck" and tell them they're talking bollocks, and you can do this with some authority and confidence - seriously I think people who say this are really trying to fool themselves. Failure is inevitable at some point, so is bad luck. As the saying goes - there's nothing certain in this world except death and taxes. Well it catches up with you in the end. The Inland Revenue's been on my case as well!
Life is not all wonderful. If it was, we'd be bored, we wouldn't appreciate the good times. In a nutshell - into every life a little rain must fall - and - like the grass - we need the rain to grow..

Whatever Happened To Peepers?

End of the course and I'm just sitting here quietly disintegrating. Its painful and tiring but its necessary, something has to disintegrate before it can regenerate, and believe me I've had more regenerations than Doctor Who. Every time it seems to take longer and sap more strength, but something new will come out of the end of it, I'm pretty sure of that, lor' knows what, but something...

Here's a sneak preview of what'll be in my part of the degree show. It aint much.. but its something.

I wanted someone special to come but I have lost their details...
You know who you are.