Competition Time!

Ah man, usual problem. Weeks fly by, and no new blog posts from me. I just seem to be busy a lot. What am I doing? Sometimes I don't know - the time just seems to speed past me whilst I stand still. But hey, actually, now I come to think of it, I did do a few things these past few weeks, so let me tell you about them.
The first thing I did was a week's worth of workshops at Salford Museum and Art Gallery. This was an opportunity I had applied for a few months ago. It was an open tender for artists to apply for to get the work, and I was really pleased to hear I was selected over quite a few other applicants to deliver the workshops, which I also had to plan. The exhibition was about the history of a local blind charity, so my idea was to make "tactile art", pieces that have touch, sound and even smell as integral elements. Here are some pictures of my initial versions, that I made in the planning stage.

Sensory picture of Thomas Henshaw, founder of Henshaw's
Society for the Blind

Sensory rainmaker

The idea behind these pieces was to introduce as many senses apart from sight, as possible. So the picture of the charity's founder is made up of many different textured surfaces. The rainmaker, which produces a sound, is also covered in differently textured objects, and a bit of pot pourri can be put inside with the lentils that make the noise to introduce a third sense, that of smell. So, this is what I made with the children that came to see the exhibition over half term. Generally, everything went really well; the kids were all great and very creative and engaged with the idea, and the activity made people more curious about the exhibition and its themes, so I'm pretty sure that means it was a success! The only problem I had, to be thought about for next time I do an activity like this, is that I misjudged which activity of the two would be the most popular. Oh course, I now know, if you have a choice between an object that makes noise and one that doesn't, 9 kids out of 10 will choose the noisy one! Obvious when you think about it!

Here is some of the work that the participants made:

 

 

 

 

Overall it was a really great experience, and if I can only get a bit more work like this, I'll be all set for my career as a community artist/artist! Hopefully this will prove to be a good calling card when I try and get other commissions like this.

In other news... back on the other side of my "job", I may have mentioned before that I made the decision to stop doing markets for a while. I just wasn't making any money doing them, in fact, sometimes I was actually losing quite a lot of money. The annoying thing is, I kept having this nagging feeling that if I just got my product selection/pricing/marketing/you-name-it right, then the big bucks would come rolling in. So I may return to doing markets one day, when I have that all figured out.
In the meantime, I met this guy called Simon at many of the markets I went to, where he was selling loads of great quality fine art prints under the name of Wraptious. Now, he has a really good business model that works well at markets, as he works with lots of different artists that all produce work for him to sell as various things - prints, cards, mugs etc. So instead of just having one style of work on his stall, he has about 20. This is clearly a very good idea.
He is currently running a competition for someone to be the next artist that he works with, and I want to be it!! I had to submit 3 images of my work, and it had to be work that isn't currently for sale anywhere else, so that discounted a lot of my best shots. I have some new work based on pictures I have taken in Manchester, but I wasn't sure they were of the right type to have mass market appeal. I have a new photo series that I'm working on, but it's not quite ready to unveil (more on that in another post, I think). So that left me with some of my recent painting work that I have been doing in my studio, which has been going GREAT!! Again, this is a topic I might return to, as there's lots of images to share. So,  I took some close up shots of some of my recently completed painting work, played about on the computer a bit, and submitted it! I was really happy with all 3 of the finished pieces - now I just have to hope the general public likes them.
Now, dear blog reader, this is where you come in! The way I become the next Wraptious artists is if I generate lots of "Likes" of Facebook for my work, or if I sell any prints through the Wraptious website. So, what I'm going to to do post pictures of the three works I entered, with the link to where you can "like" it underneath, so if you do like it (let's be honest here!) and you feel like helping me out (pretty, pretty please?!) you can click on the link and it's a very simple job to then "like" it. We gotta deal??

"Diana's Dream" Click to like

"Minerva's Dream" Click to like

"Neptune's Dream" Click to like

So, there they are. If you liked any of those thanks very much. Please reward yourself with a cookie or some other delightful treat. If you REALLY like them, you can also buy them from Wraptious as high quality prints for the length of time the competition is on (until November 25th). Just go to the competition website page, HERE.

Ok, that's all from me for now, I'll be back with more, hopefully soon!

The Warrington Contemporary

Ok, so, exciting news!! You know the Warrington Contemporary Open that I mentioned in the last post? Well, as I said, me and my textile artist friend Claire, plus her husband and a friend of theirs went to the opening night. First we went to have a look at Claire's work, which was in the main show, in the second venue. There we bumped into some people from the Islington Mill Art Academy, which is something that both Claire and I have been active members of for a few months now (This is what I mean when I say I'm behind with news! Islington Mill has become a huge part of my arty life over the last few months, but I haven't blogged about it yet! That's coming soon, I promise). Then we went over and had a look at the photography exhibition, which is where my work was. Here's a picture of me standing proudly next to my picture.

A nice couple who saw this picture being taken asked if I was the photographer, and when I said I was they were so complimentary about my work! And it turned out that they were fellow photographers and also had a piece each in the show (which were both really good!) so that felt awesome!

Next we had to hurry over to the main venue at Warrington Museum to have a brief look at the main part of the show before the prize giving. There we saw "In A Flux", which is a kind of mini exhibition  by the "Manchester Salon" which is a group of artists including Maurice Carlin, known to us as Morry, as he's one of the founding members of the Islington Mill art academy. He's a really nice guy and a very interesting artist, and it was very cool to see work by someone I know in a real art show! We also had time to have a quick look around the rest of the Open Exhibition before it was time for the prize giving. First up was the photography, and you could have knocked me down with a feather when they announced the runner up and my name was called out!! Wow! That was a shock!

Here's a picture of me receiving my prize:

More pictures of the event can be found here if you are interested.

So, that was very exciting. And just when I thought the evening couldn't get any better, a lovely couple that bought a picture from me at the Summer Arts market in Liverpool (otherwise a bit of a flop for me - I didn't make the table price back!) were there, and came up and said congratulations, and how much they were loving owning my picture! She's an artist and he's a graphic designer - there seems to be a theme developing of other artists liking my work, which I take as the biggest compliment going!  The lady is called Jenny, and you can check out her artwork here. She had a piece in the show as well, right next to the guy that won the whole thing (my verdict on his piece - good, but not my favourite).
And then, to top it all off, Morry introduced me to a lady called Laura who had helped to curate the whole show and asked for my details as she may be putting together another exhibition soon! Wow! I would call that a pretty successful night! From this I've learned a couple things. One: never give up. It's a cliche but it's true! I was getting pretty fed up with entering these kind of open competitions, paying money to be entered only to not get accepted, and to not even get any feedback so to be left wondering if I was even close. But you have to keep putting yourself out there, and exposing yourself to the risk of failure, or else you can never have any successes like this! (The prize, by the way, was £100, so that should help make up for some of those entries that led nowhere!).
Secondly: people love a winner! I mean it in the sense that winning one thing like this can suddenly open lots of doors and get you noticed, and make all that slogging away worth it. I hope that's the case for me, and that this one event could lead on to more and more opportunities. I'll be sure to let you know if it does!

The Meaning of Success

Hi! See, still in September and I'm doing a new blog post. I'm cooking up a virtual blogging storm!

Well, not really, still could do better, but I'm trying. Part of the problem is, I'm so far behind with news that it feels a bit overwhelming. Let's see how much I can catch up with in this post: So, first I'll talk about what progress I'm making in getting my work OUT THERE, one of the biggest challenges artists seem to face, especially shy and retiring ones like me that aren't good at approaching scary people like gallery curators. I've had work in an exhibition called "No Place Like Home"  in a gallery in Huyton, a smallish town near Liverpool. The exhibition began in July and will run until October 11th. This was something I applied for months and months ago, and had kind of forgotten about when I got an email saying "We'd like to put 3 of your pieces into our exhibition". So, I had to rush and get the pieces printed and framed, and then put up. The gallery is an exhibition space attached to the local library, and is a really nice light and airy space. I haven't actually been back to see the exhibition since it was all hung, but I'm hoping to get there before the exhibition comes down, and combine it was a visit to Liverpool Biennial which is also coming to a close in October.
I also entered a piece into the Warrington Contemporary Open Exhibition, and to my great pleasure, got accepted into the photographic side. It's a competition/art exhibition, but I don't really care about the competitive bit, it's just really satisfying to get into the exhibition, especially as the main judge was also the judge for a previous art exhibition that I applied for but didn't get into. I think what did it was that I choose a piece that very clearly shows what my work is about - it looks like a piece of abstract painting, but at the same time it is clearly a piece of the urban environment. Here it is:

 It's just nice to get my work into a few exhibitions, especially ones that has a competitive element like this. I've applied for several during this last year when I've been seriously pursuing an art career, and I'd all but lost hope of getting anywhere. I only really entered this one because my friend who's a textile artist has got stuff in it before, and urged me to apply. She got her work in this year too, so we'll be off together to the opening night next Friday to sip wine and hob knob with the artist community. I'll post pictures and a write up in my next post!
Of course, exhibitions are all very well, but it's also nice to sell some work, and the good news is, I've been doing that too! I sold the two pieces that were in the Mill Bridge Gallery that I mentioned in a previous post, and as we speak, the gallery has a stand at the Manchester Buy Art Fair, which is on this weekend. In fact, when I finish this blog I'm going over there to man the stall for a few hours. There's a few of my pictures over there on the stand, but as of this moment, none of them have sold. Watch this space though! Here's a picture of the corner of the stand that has my work in it - they are the two pieces immediately behind the wooden sculpture.

 Also, I have sold 2 pieces fairly recently on my Artfinder page, bringing my grand total to 4. So, overall I've been making really good progress! Of course, I'm not really making much money from it - that may come in time, but experience of other artists suggests maybe not. It's hard to make being an artists into a paying career, I'm realistic about that. It's more important to me that people like my work enough to part with money for it, or to put it into the exhibition. That just confirms my belief that it IS good and worthwhile work, and that's the most important thing for me at the moment.

Ok, more soon. As usual, there so much more to say, but I have to go and try and sell a few more of my pictures!

What are the chances?

Right! Time to roll up the sleeves this Autumn and blog! I've been really neglecting it lately, partly from busyness, then from being on holiday, and then simply from a bit of blogging inertia, but that's all going to change! Oh yes! Really!

Ok, so what have I been up to? Well, loads of stuff. The Geocaching project I mentioned in the last post has finished now, and I think it was pretty successful. As a side shoot from that I have got quite into going Geocaching as a hobby, so maybe more about that another time. As I mentioned, we set up a Geocache to go on the global network as part of the project, but having submitted it I haven't been given the OK by the official Geocaching organisation, so it's not live yet. Chasing that up is one of the things on my "to do" list, so I'll let you know if it does make it. Having found a few official Geocaches myself now, I have a feeling they may ask us to move it, as it's currently pretty easy to find.

Other than that, I've been away in Hungary for three weeks. Hungary is kind of my second home, as it's where my husband's from, and I lived there with him for five years in 2000-2005, and we still go back regularly to see family and friends. 

We were based in Budapest which was a great place to live, and was/is full of young creative people making waves at ground level, not least my friend Peti, aka Petyka, who's a super talented street artist. Check out his website for lots of examples of his work, but here's one of my favourites, featuring lots of Budapest's architectural landmarks both famous and everyday, mixed up and given a cool urban twist. We own this as a large print and it always reminds me of Budapest whenever I glance at it.

Anyway, what I was trying to say was, although there's a good creative energy in the place, one thing it was lacking was a really good art gallery that put on internationally important shows. I've seen lots of interesting smaller exhibitions in various places over the years, but the national collections don't have a lot of great art in them, and the bigger shows have also been a bit lacking in star quality. However, I've been to a couple of art shows in the Hungarian National Gallery in the last year or so that make me think they are really trying to up their game. The first was a show about Post-Impressionism that I saw back in October that was excellent, and on this trip I saw a show about Dada and Surrealism that was awesome. Read more about it at the museum's webpage. It was full of really great work by the big names of the movement(s), and it was particularly resonant for me as I have been reading a book lately about chance in art that talked about a lot of the artwork here, including Marcel's Duchamp's 3 Standard Stoppages

In this work, Duchamp took metre long lengths of thread, and let them fall onto a canvas covered in glue. He then made these wooden measuring tools based on these new "standard" shapes that he had randomly created. This really chimed with a lot of things I have been thinking about in my art lately, where I want to try and actively re-create the chance marks you can see in my photographs. But how to make "random" marks? This is the question I've been trying to solve. I'm not sure I've come up with the answer yet, but here was my first attempt...

Yeah, so it's a random video of me hitting tennis balls covered in paint against some old wallpaper. Pretty surrealist, huh? I actually did this a few months ago. I had the idea and just went for it. This again shows the benefit of having a studio, you can try these crazy things and not worry that you're going to get paint everywhere. I want to try again in a bigger space, and maybe with more people involved instead of just me. But in the meantime, I think it did produce some pretty interesting images. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, but they're interesting.

Ok, as usual, more to tell you about, but let's do it later, OK?

The ever changing life of an artist

Oh boy, it ended up being soooo long since my last post! But really, the last six weeks or so have been absolutely non-stop so that's why. This is literally the first free day I've had in ages. Much of it has been really fun, some has been simple hard work, and some has been unexpected difficult personal stuff that this isn't the forum to discuss, but all in all it's added up to a hectic time!

S, let's talk arty stuff that's been going on! As usual there's lots of ongoing stuff that I need to mention. So first of all, there's the big Geocaching project that I have become involved with. For those of you that don't know about Geocaching, it's basically like a real world treasure hunt where you use a GPS device which is hooked up to a worldwide network of "caches" that can be anything from a tiny camera film tube (remember them?) up to a cleverly camouflaged hollow log. Inside is usually a log book to sign and in the bigger ones some treasure you can take as long as you put something else in its place. It's basically the best known way ever to get kids to go on walks, as it makes them a real adventure. I have some really good friends that do it all the time with their kids, and I sometimes tag along, which when I mentioned it to another arts officer that was involved in the emerging artists project I talked about in my last post, was enough to get me involved with the project! (that's how my luck goes lately!) So, for the last couple of months, and until the end of August we are doing Geocaching events with lots of local schools and community groups. As part of my job to make it awesome, I arranged a meeting with a professional games designer called Holly Gramazio, who I had heard talk at the Future Everything conference I mentioned before. She has been involved in designing all kinds of awesome, real world games activities that you can find out about on her website. So travelling down to London to have a meeting with her was one of the things that kept me busy in May! She was able to give us some really good ideas about how to get the actual "treasure hunt" aspect of the event to run smoothly. Aside from that, we work with the kids before hand to find good hiding places, make their containers and the treasure, and make clues for others to find them with. Here's some pictures of some of the things we've done so far:

Our first batch or containers and Easter egg treasure

Dragons and their eggs made for a Fantasy themed treasure hunt

A well hidden cache

A really well hidden cache 

Containers for a WW1 themed hunt

The treasure to go inside

There's still lots more of these to go, including two events in Princes Park in Irlam to commemorate the WW1 centenary, that will be open to the public, but at the half way stage I would say the project is going really well! With the school we are currently working with we are hoping to put up a permanent Geocache that can go onto the worldwide network for anyone to find. Watch this space!

Right, as usual I have to dash off soon, so just time to tell you about my mixed fortunes at getting some of my artwork out there for the general public to see and buy!

On the plus side, I have started becoming a semi-regular trader at the wonderful Levenshulme Market. If you live anywhere near Manchester I really recommend checking it out. It's on every Saturday, but I go once monthly when the theme is "Handmade and Home". There's always lots of great food stalls and a bar at all the events though, and it's a really fun day out! I've been for the last two months - the first was great, with awesome weather, the second a bit of a monsoon, and fingers crossed for the next time I'm there, which will be July 7th!

How my market stall looks these days; regular blog readers will notice a degree of improvement from my earlier efforts!

I have also managed to get my work into an exhibition and an art gallery! Yay! The exhibition was part of "Fringe Arts Bath", a big annual arts festival taking place in that gorgeous city. Unfortunately the actual exhibition was on when things were at their craziest for me last month, so I couldn't go and see the exhibition. The lady that organised it kindly sent me a few shots of my work in situ, so here they are:

  

I wish I could have got to see this exhibition, but Bath is a pretty long drive from Manchester, and I struggled to even find the time to drive the pieces down for the show, let alone go again for the exhibition! And they are currently in the spare room of my friends house waiting for me to go and pick them up, because I couldn't get down there to collect them yet! Life as an artist can be so hectic sometimes!

Finally, there's my work in a gallery! It's the Mill Bridge Gallery in Skipton, a gallery dedicated to photography and sculpture. I have actually been in negotiation with Carina, the lovely lady that runs the gallery for several months to have my work up there, but she only has very limited space so she had to wait until some was freed up. So now I have a couple big pieces up on the wall there, and I left a few smaller pieces with her in case some more room becomes available. I must admit, it was a pretty proud moment, hanging my work in a commercial gallery for the first time! Here I am with my work, looking pretty darn pleased with myself! (Excuse the quality, it was taken by my husband, who was also excited!)

The two pictures in context, next to the work of a photographer I really like. Note the distressed frame on the top piece, which is a new innovation.

Right, well that's all there's time for today. Still lots to mention as ever, including how I nearly got included in a pretty prestigious exhibition, but then didn't, plus other exciting moments in the ever changing life of an artist! I know I say it every time, but I really will try and make it not so long until the next post!

Wonderfully unexpected things

The wacky world of community art!

Once again the time has flown by since I last updated the blog. I begin to see why some bloggers make it a full time job! However, I have been putting my time to good use, so as always there's so much to talk about!

Well, firstly I should mention the Community Art projects I have been meaning to write about for a while now, as that has become a big part of my "job" in recent months.  

I say "job" like that as it still feels weird to call myself an artist as my job title. It just sounds so self important when I said it to people, so I always say it with a hint of irony in my voice, and then go on the add qualifiers like "which is probably a stupid thing to try and do, but..." I am getting a bit better though! And it's stuff like this community work that make my goal of being an artist for a living seems more feasible.

So, way back before Christmas I mentioned that I went to a meeting of the "Salford Arts Development Network". From this I met the local arts officer, a lovely lady called Andrea. Well, through Facebook I then saw that she had posted an opportunity for local artists to get involved in developing workshops for the community. So, I applied for that and was successful, so after a few days of induction I teamed up with two other artists with similar interests. Our brief was to develop a six week programme of events for a community group that we had identified as not currently being served by art activities available in the area. So, long story short, our group decided to do junk modelling and related things for parents and toddlers. There were two other groups formed from the same workshops, and they did a course of art classes for adult beginners and an up cycling class for adults. So, now we are in the middle of delivering these classes. It's not been easy attracting people so far, as the participants have to pay for the classes which is hard when money is tight, but we are actually changing the venue for the second part of the schedule, to hopefully make it more appealing. Here's some details on the Salford Council website (although it mentions to old venue not the new one)

Here's an example of what we made in the first week; junk model structures and vehicles - the weirder the better!

 It's been a really invaluable experience for me, giving me the confidence to think that there is a future as a freelance artist who delivers classes to community groups, and perhaps schools, as I have a lot of prior experience working with young people from my "old" career in education. So, in my mind a hazy plan is forming of being a freelance artist who offers tailor made one off workshops or ongoing art club style classes to schools, or the local council or community venues. It's still early days, but I have high hopes that this could be one of the ways I can make this "being an artist" thing into a realistic career. 

Through this I've also got involved in another big project in Salford, all to do with Geocaching. However, let's talk about that another day, as there is much more directly art related stuff to tell you about as well!

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I have been absolutely LOVING having some studio space. It's really given me a whole new lease of creativity, which so far has mainly taken the form of painting! I always had a slightly tortured relationship with painting; I loved the idea of it but was often slightly disappointed with the work I managed to produce - it never quite lived up to the ideas I had in my head. Well, I've kind of had a breakthrough on that front. My solution seems to be; don't go in with any fixed ideas of what you're going to create, and it's just freed me up so much. 

Here's a good case in point. I prepped a canvas with a clear idea in my head of what I wanted to do. Paint a dark base colour, then layer on some newspaper, then paint over the top, then tear away some of the paper, in an attempt to replicate the kind of images I capture all the time with my camera, and specifically something like this:

However, when I got to the painting over the newspaper bit, I somehow got the idea to pick out some of the nice patterned elements of the pictures on the paper, and then embellish them a little with some different coloured paint, then to use my newly acquired chalk pens a little, and then, why not?, a little pencil..... a few hours passed by in a blur. I was "in the zone", and as a result created something I didn't expect at all, and which was unlike anything I had ever painted before;

I was really excited by this! I realised that if I just relax my expectation of where things will go, interesting things start to happen. This kind of ties in with what my interests are artistically as well - I like very much how unconscious and unintentional things play out in art works - that's why I particularly like my photos that have the scribble of a workman in them or something - an element that was never intended to have an aesthetic aspect, merely a functional one. Anyway, I digress. This new style of painting really energised me, and made me desperate to do more as soon as possible, so the next free day I had I returned to the studio and made another. I'm not sure I was in the zone so much this time - I wanted to keep it light and free, but of course it would never be like the first time, as I now knew roughly what I was trying to achieve. Anyway, here's the result of my second attempt in this style;

I'm not sure if it's quite finished yet, but I'm pretty pleased with it. Again, it didn't turn out as I expected, which I am now taking to be the sign of a successful piece of work! Here's a detail to show you how I blended the newspaper beneath and the painting above;

I think I ended up using the pictorial elements of the newspaper less in the first picture, which maybe made it more successful overall, but I think that was also because this second piece is on a much bigger canvas, so there simply needs to be more stuff to fill the picture. Also, you can see clearly here how rumpled the surface is. I experimented with a new type of glue, and I'm kind of 50/50 whether I like it or not. As a general rule I like adding a bit of texture, but on the other hand it actually makes the images harder to see in places.  Hmm, lots to think about before attempting my next piece... I can't wait!

Ok, so I guess that's enough for now. As always, so much more I could mention. May looks like the busiest month yet since I've moved to Manchester, so I apologise in advance if it's another few weeks before I get back here. I'll try not to leave it too long, but there really is SO much going on! I'll leave a few things here as teasers for you/reminders for me: The Geocaching project, the lovely folks at Islington Mill, my first time at the wonderful Levenshulme market and other people's photos albums! And remember, if you want a bit more regular updating of what I've been up to, check out my twitter feed @HannahGerg

Painting and patience...

Argh! It's taken ages again! And I DO like blogging, it's just it feels like a guilty pleasure when there's so much WORK to be done! Ok, so as usual, loads to report. Lets see if I can get through a reasonable amount of it this time!

So, first up, I mentioned in my last post that I have some studio space now. Well, this has been really great for me, and has lead to a real burgeoning of ideas and creative work, even though I've only managed to get there for a few days. (That also feels like too much fun to be proper work!). Anyway, after not having done a painting in ages, I'm suddenly being very productive on that front. I also had a go at doing a collage partly using some images of my photos, and partly using some awesome paper I have been saving for just this occasion, which I bought at a sale from the irresistible paper selection at Paperchase (one of my favourite places to get art supplies, when I can afford to get the good stuff! The Manchester branch is just a few minutes walk from my front door, and has a whole floor dedicated to fine art supplies). Ok, so here's some pictures.

My collage piece

A painted study of different textures

A set of four (unfinished) smaller pieces

As you can see, these pictures are much more abstract than my previous painting, and therefore much more like my photographic work. They are all really more like preliminary sketches rather than finished pieces, but hopefully with these I am laying the foundations for some really strong painted work in the future. And that makes me really excited!

In other news: I sold a piece on my Artfinder page! If you sign up to Artfinder, you get a daily email with a piece of work and a paragraph of description from the artists. So, I applied about a month ago tot get my work featured, and then about a week ago it was, resulting in a bunch of new followers and this sale! The picture I sold was this one, already established as a firm favourite of many:

"Red Archipelago"

So, this just goes to prove, if I can get some exposure for my work, I can get some sales from it! This is really encouraging! I just have to figure out how best to do that now....

Also as a result of this sale, I had to actually take steps to find myself a good fine art printer in Manchester. I was really happy with the printer I used to work with down in Devon (the lovely Mike at Formatrix), and I was apprehensive about trying to find someone as good again, but DK at Sketch 360 was so patient with me as I procrastinated about how best to set out the print, and the finished product was every bit as good as my previous print, so I was really happy with the final result. So now I know which printer I'll be working with in Manchester, if and when I sell more prints, and that's a really good thing!

Ok, as usual, so much more to say than I have time to write. Just a few quick things then:

Last week and at the beginning of this week I volunteered at the Future Everything festival, which is a kind of a big deal around these parts, especially for people interested in where the future is headed in terms of technology/science/art/media/society, so every year they have a festival of music and art, plus a conference to debate these things. I was involved in the art part and the conference. Both were really interesting and useful but it would take all day to explain why - maybe I'll mention more next time. For now, here's a good summary of the arty stuff that went on: Future Everything: City Fictions 

review

Also, I will be at Paddiham market tomorrow from 10am. Longtime readers of the blog will remember that it was the very first art and craft market I went to, back in November of last year. I had good sales and response that day, so fingers crossed for the same again. As mentioned previously, I'm going armed with a new secret weapon: Stickers! Check them out:

Right, I'm just going to put down in writing now, so that I'll have to talk about it next time, something I keep meaning to tackle - which is my increasingly exciting and lucrative work as a community artist. This is something I've just kind of stumbled into, but it might be the best long term prospect of making this artistic career move pay off, so I MUST go into it in more detail. So, now I've mentioned it, I will have to NEXT TIME!! 

Oh, and finally, after some thought, I have gone ahead and done what I have been resisting for a while, and joined another social media platform: Twitter. If you have already succumbed then come and keep me company @HannahGerg. I might try and use that to post more small but regular news about what I'm up to, so if this blog moves a little slow for your liking, that might be the place to go.... if not, my patient friends, then next time...