Crunch

Hello folks!! I've been soooo busy lately I can't tell you. Currently I am waiting for the transport company to pick up my artworks for transport to Sydney. There has been gale force winds and wild weather which has held up the truck. Oh My God!! will my work ever get to Sydney!! Hope so!!

After it leaves me it is just a matter of time til I'm in Sydney next week at my opening, hopefully selling out the show and making a name for myself and millions or even thousands of dollars.

I have also been working at a local High School with students on a community arts project and on a big event called "Chairity " in benefit of the Port Adelaide Artists Forum of which I am secretary. Hopefully we will make some money from the sale of hand painted chairs by 27 different artists to run arts projects in the community. Should be a great night. Hope the gale force winds die down.

The glamorous Life of an artist

Hi folks,

I'm currently in preparation for my next exhibition to be held in less that one month in Sydney. Yesterday, I started framing some of the work, looking up airfares to get myself to Sydney and accomodation whilst there. Oh My God!! Why didn't I apply for a grant to cover these costs?? I'll tell you why...because there is no grant I can apply for with adequate turnaround time before the exhibition. Even the short notice grants need three months notice, or so it would seem.

So, I am struggling on with virtually no income and living on my credit card which is slowly reaching it maximum as we speak!! Why do I do it I ask myself in these moments?? The art life is not a simple one sometimes and is full of peaks and troughs. Currently, I am making my way out of a very deep trough, but hopefully the next exhibition will sell out and I will be rich and famous the world over and live a life of luxury. Failing this, a less poverty stricken lifestyle would be quite welcome.

Well, as I was saying there I was framing my artworks on a budget with frames from Ikea (or the temple as we like to call it) in my pyjamas at about three in the afternoon and thinking God being an artist is sooo glamorous!!

My usual routine if I am working at home starts about 8am with a nice cup of tea and then straight out to the studio (or shed as it really is ) and into the work. Pyjamas are a comfortable and warm work attire for the artist and I usually don't bother to get changed before I start work. As a consequence all my pyjamas are covered in paint, varnish and other assorted materials, but I don't mind at all! Unfortunately, when people inadvertently drop in unnanounced in the late afternoon and see you still in your pj's they lament the fact that they arn't an artist and start going on about how they wish they had my life. If only they knew!! The art doesn't make itself, and just because you are in your pj's in the arvo doesn't mean you arn't doing anything. It's even worse when I take a lunch break that coincides with Dr. Phil and someone comes round! There I am in my pj's in the afternoon watching day time television. It must look very suspect. However, in my defence of Dr.Phil watching I must say the reason I watch him and his "guests" is because I can at least revel in the fact that my life is much more together than most of the people on the show even if I am not earning a lot at least I'm not addicted to crack, ice, sex or internet dating. Once I've had my fix it's back to the drawing board - literally.
At the moment it is so cold here that the shed /studio is an unworkable area so I am annoying my housemates by spreading out all over the house. Framing in the kitchen on the kitchen table, photographing the work on the coffee table in the lounge, editing photo's in the sunroom on the computer and storing the work in my bedroom. Anyway, the framed works are looking good and I'm happy with these works. Today, I'm off to buy some large paper to do some bigger works on. Twenty Seven days and counting until my opening. Aaaaaah!

XX SJ

Lock me up and shoot

Well hi there folks,

Here is my first ever posting on my first ever blog!! Welcome... I have written an article for a couple of art blogs by others so I thought why not start my own?

Today, I did an introductory session on photography at the Magill Centre in Adelaide. This is a centre for young people under 18 that have been imprisoned for various offences. I was asked to do an introductory session with the girls by one of their teachers who had noticed they are very keen on photographing each other. Having never before worked in a secure facility it was definitely an interesting experience. Not at least due to the amount of things you obviously cannot do, bring in, show or research on the Internet. It is prison after all.

I found that even after a short time in a secure facility you do start to feel quite claustrophobic and when I left after and hour and half I was quite relieved, not that I had noticed feeling much different whilst on the inside. I can only imagine what this must be like for young people after months.

Anyhow, I gave a talk and showed some of my images to the girls and they were quite keen and motivated to start taking some images of their own. The room we were in was the IT room and had no windows so we had to find a nearby room that didn't have anyone in it and which didn't pass by any males (never the twain shall meet as the teacher said) with some windows (albeit with bars on them) to allow some natural light in to photograph by.

The girls working in pairs started strong and took a few good images but deleted most of them because they didn't like the way they looked! I encouraged them to continue and use different lighting, angles and blur. This was moderately successful. We relocated back to the IT room and had a look on the computer at the images that remained after a pretty ruthless deletion. Some were quite good and I could see that these girls has potential. In particular one girl who once I showed her played around with some of the images on Photoshop adding filters etc.

I will hopefully be continuing this project with this group of girls subject to some funding and will keep you up to date on how they go!

Bye for now
Ess-Jay