karen joyce
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Flourish and bots

28/10/2018

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I lost my instagram account earlier this month - pinched by a russian bot, I assume, since the linked email address suddenly became  dot ru instead of mine. I accidentally (please don't ask, it makes me feel silly) set up another one the same day, and that was stolen next morning.  I wasn't happy without one, so I gave it a few days before going for a third one, and that has survived so far, though you lose faith in the system.  I disconnected it from here because I've long since forgotten how the code works and couldn't face finding out again in order to update it - I only mention the whole saga at all for the headline :-).

The Flourish part is, of course, the open exhibition at West Yorkshire Print Workshop.  Yesterday was - again, of course - the last day, so off I drove, across the rather miserable Pennines. Flourish always presents an enormously varied offering, both in technique and style, this year ranging from Kate Desforges' gorgeously textural lithograph and Sara Lee's delicate and muted japanese woodcuts, through many other pieces of work, to Theresa Taylor's large copper sulphate etchings. Even in one discipline the different outcomes are fascinating - Maxine Foster combined her screenprints with other techniques (including bandsaw!), Hazel Roberts - who won first prize - produced colourful graphic screenprints, and Nicole Polonsky's work concerning her brother's suicide was enormously poignant. 
Many of the pictures above are details from the original works. This was in most cases because where there was a lack of glass the detail and texture could really be appreciated, and I really did appreciate them - it's a shame that glass, useful and even necessary though it might be as a rule, must provide a barrier to the immediacy of the work.

One last arty thing to mention.  I was waiting for a friend outside Leeds Art Gallery, so went in to see what I could find not far from the entrance.  What I found was Mark Wallinger's 'Threshold to the Kingdom' (2000) - a slow motion video of travellers coming through automatic double doors at International Arrivals, to the strains of Allegri's glorious 'Miserere mei, Deus'.  "The music adds an aura of spiritual mystery to the work and makes the unfolding action appear to be perfectly choreographed" the accompanying board tells you, and says everything that needs to be said.  It was amazing. 
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The usual problem

26/10/2018

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... the usual problem, of course, being Where does the time go? Months pass while I'm presumably blinking or bending down to tie wayward shoe laces. I don't know quite how to spot this passage of time thing happening, but it might be a skill worth learning.

So what's been happening? There was the Hebden Bridge Print Fair in September, an excellent day of being behind a table, smiling a lot, connecting with folks as and when. I used to do a lot of it when I took part in more artist book fairs than I seem to at the moment. Erstwhile artist book fair partner Gemma came to visit and sat behind the table with me for a while - she commented that she never feels quite right on the other side of the table, and she's spot on, it always feels faintly unnatural being the visitor, as if I'm acting a role.  

Picture
There have been exhibition opportunities too - I had a piece in the Atkinson Gallery's summer exhibition, which I'm pleased to say sold on the opening night (I'm always pleased if something sells - on the opening night is definitely the cherry on the cake), and a piece in Chapel Gallery's open exhibition, and that sold too, again on the opening night, so what's a step up from pleased? Let's go with excited. I had three pieces in the Hebden Bridge exhibition set up to go with the fair, and two of those sold as well, so I reckon I can call that delighted. Seriously, it's all been a bit of a boost and rather good, and it goes without saying that I won't be mentioning the many other exhibitions I failed to get into, because the cherries would taste a little less sweet if I did that. I expect it's partly a case of try try try again (instead of bearing any kind of pointless and ridiculous grudge and feeling all petulant) but mostly learning my level with a degree of humility and realism. It might take me a while. It's not that I have an inflated idea of my abilities (well, I don't think I do), just that I'm not fond of rejection. Who is?      
I've been to the usual scattering of exhibitions too. I was very pleased that Drawing Projects, Trowbridge, was open on a Thursday, so that I was able to catch the last ever Jerwood Drawing Prize (the next one being Trinity Buoy Wharf instead). It was, naturally, full of all sorts of goodies - here's a small selection.   
I went to the exhibitions I had work in (although as usual I didn't make the private views - one day, I like to believe, things will be different). There are so many excellent artists out there and sometimes that can make you wonder what the point is, but of course art really doesn't have to be - really shouldn't be - about being as good as other people. I make prints because my brain spends all its time playing about with arty notions, and printing them helps to shift them on, get them out of my head. I have a love/hate relationship with the whole thing, and presumably after all this time I always will, but in spite of frequently playing with the idea of giving up for good on the whole damn thing, I'm not sure what I'd do without printmaking as an outlet. Hmm, seem to have allowed myself to stray from the subject of exhibitions.

Town Hall Arts in Trowbridge (what is it with Trowbridge at the moment??) currently has the Derwent Art Prize on show - perhaps not as show stopping as last year (I think - memory, eh, what's it good for?) but still good.  Another selection. 
I have the usual long, long list of exhibitions I want to see soon (ie before they finish), and almost certainly I shan't get around to at least half of them, but every visit is better than a miss, and that will have to do.
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    Hi there

    I make prints and book arts, though nowhere near as often as I'd like - no good reason, just an inability to get on with things.  I occasionally go on about landscape (with which I am mildly obsessed) and various of its elements, and I like to pass comment on exhibitions I visit.

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