Thursday, September 29, 2011

talking in church and cardigan arts triangle news...

my everyday working life is quiet solitary, and most of my thinking is internalised - i don't really have to explain myself much, or think on my feet. most of the time here it's just me and the pencils and the coffee pot and 6music or itunes.
so whilst getting out occasionally to talk about what i do is undoubtedly averygoodthing, it's also a bit daunting...

my 'leeds resurrection' pics have been on display in a local church recently, and so the other sunday i was invited along to be interviewed about them, and it was great. sue was there, and she told me that i didn't make a fool of myself, which is always a relief [and, from sue, very high praise indeed...]
people seemed interested in the work, and there were some good questions; and it's always a good thing to be made to think about your work.
it was nice to see those images again, to be challenged about aspects of them and to be excited by them again.

then last sunday i took part in the annual cardigan arts triangle day. it's an afternoon in a small area of headingley when local residents open up their houses and invite artists to display their work in there. i was invited to show my stuff at the tapper's home, and apart from a couple of incidents of blu-tac theft, they were the perfect hosts :-)
like an idiot i didn't take any photos, but here's a couple of pics that i stole from lee jackson's twitter feed...
www.simonsmithillustrator.co.uk  on Twitpic
At 6th Cardigan triangle art day where local homes r opened t... on Twitpic
[the figure lurking in the background is lynne tapper]
after a slow start, we had good numbers showing up; some really good conversations, a few very complimentary remarks, and some sales. it was a great thing to have been a part of and i'll definitely be doing it again next year [if invited!]

the bus trips project seemed to grab people's imaginations, and i got asked a few times what my next project was going to be.

and i've been thinking about that - it's been nice this year not to have the background noise of the printing project going on, but i am starting to miss it, if i'm honest.

so - as a memo to myself as anything - here's a few ideas that i'm toying with...

1. a leeds alphabet. i'll spend some time in and around the city drawing letters and bits of nice font-age that i can find [there's some amazing little bits of architectural stuff going on in leeds if you look for it] and compile an alphabet of individual linoprinted letters from those observations.

2. i'm 45. it always bugged me that i didn't do anything specific to celebrate my 33-and-a-third birthday, and i don't want to have to wait till my 78th [if i make it that far] so this seems like a good year to celebrate my collection of vinyl... i'm thinking of dusting off my old collection of 7 inch singles and selecting the top 40 to immortalise in print form. again, typography may well figure quite heavily.

3. something stupidly ambitious, and - again- music related, along the lines of seth's dominion city work or anthony green's 'resurrection' sculptural painting... only a bit quirkier, with more papier mache [and not as great as either of those things]...

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