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Lidya Endzo Kun iLLa
The recession is meant to be over now, but in the UK everyone still seems to talk as if it is still here. These are still difficult economic times, particularly for artists, and any help is gratefully received. So this week I was pleased to have arranged an interview for a part time job. The great day dawned and I arrived five minutes early at an unassuming white building up a muddy lane on the other side of town. The hours would fit in with my son’s school, except the holidays, when he would go to a holiday club. The place was empty and locked up. I waited …. And waited … for about 20 minutes before giving up and giving home. I sent him an e-mail asking if I was still needed, but hopes gradually faded when I heard nothing. I’ve never had that happen at an interview before, but that's life.
Fortunately, I realised I would be able to go to an evening event I’d been invited to, but hadn’t accepted because I thought I would be at work the next day. It was the “Creative Greenhouse’s fourth birthday”, including a question and answer session with a panel of four experts. The CG is a local organisation that tries to help artists and other creative people to sell their work and get better known. http://www.creativegreenhouse.org.uk/ At my table were a fashion photographer, an art gallery owner and two retired art teachers, husband and wife, who had begun to exhibit their ceramics around the country, apparently with some success. I was able to exchange details with them, and have linked my website to theirs, and my blog, via the link at the bottom of the page. Here's a link to their main website: http://www.polliegarryceramics.com/The photographer’s blog is a personal one, but beautifully photographed.  |
| Work of Pollie and Garry Uttley |
I also met a sculptor who produced dinosaurs from metal. His work was featured on the front of the publicity leaflet for an exhibition he’d done, resulting in people going along to see it just to see it. In spite of this, however, he hadn’t sold anything. My own experience is that that people will often hesitate over buying large paintings but go for smaller paintings or prints, I wonder if the same is true of dinosaurs. I am waiting to hear from him to exchange website links and hope to feature his very unusual work soon. Artists from each table were allowed to ask questions, and mine was on how best to publicise a website and blog. I was advised to get it into as many directories as possible (which I’ve already done), make it interesting (I hope so) and put something topical at the beginning, so that any journalists who were searching for an angle on a current topic would stand a chance of picking it up. This I’ve tried to do in my first paragraph above.
Finally, we all had our photograph taken as a group for a press release. I somehow managed to get myself onto the front row, and am stood near Paul Hough, the founder of the Greenhouse. He rather anxiously held the fourth birthday cake at an angle, hoping it wouldn’t fall off its base. This is the fourth press release I’ve been involved in this year, and perhaps this one will prove interesting enough for someone to feature it.
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| This year's Christmas Card |
At art group, I’ve completed my painting of the local church (above) - this year’s Christmas card, for some of my friends.
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