Tea, Toast and Knitting anyone?

I've been talking to a couple of lovely people recently about setting up a Weston based Stitch and Bitch group. I know that there is already the wonderful Suzie Johnson who hosts knitting sessions at The Wool Sanctuary but I wanted something that met maybe a little more often than once a month, and would also be somewhere that I could go to eat toast and drink tea. I know that there are other knitters around in Weston that might like to meet up so we've gone ahead and decided that we shall be meeting at Loves Cafe on Monday mornings from 10am. YIKES! But as Dr Rebecca says it's a good start to the week- if Monday morning can be creative then who knows what the rest of the week will hold.

Here's the Facebook group if you are interested: Tea, Toast and Knitting

More blogs

Here's another blog that I always read. Marci and Deth is the joint blog of Deth P Sun and Marci Washington, although it's pretty much always Deth that posts on it. It's another blog that I always like reading but somehow never really get round to leaving comments on it. I've got about a million saved posts that I want to comment on, but somehow it seems weird now so many of them were made so long ago. Deth and Marci both stayed at my house when they came over to show work at the here gallery, back when it very first opened, so i'll always have a soft spot for them and it helps that I really like their art too.

I have pieces by both Deth and Marci on the walls of my house and i'm looking forward to a time when we can all hang out together again.

Smarts and Crafts Photo Assignments

After many weeks/months reading the Smarts and Crafts blog and thinking each week 'I really should send a photo in to the photo assignment thing' I finally got round to it this week, with its theme of 'home'.

My entry is this photo of the mini beast home that has been built at Windmill Hill City farm. There's lot's of other photos over on the blog- but the one I like the best is this one by Christine:

Talking about blogs

I just wanted to take this time to talk about two of my favourite blogs. I've been having to really cut back on the blogs I follow as it was simply taking over my life, and sometimes it was making me grumpy reading about other people's crafty lovely lives, living in their perfect houses and making perfect art every single day of their perfect lives.

Enough of this grumpiness though here are some of my favourite blogs, starting with one that is SO perfect that sometimes I can't even bear to read it. Joetta Maue is not only an incredibly talented artist in her own right, but she has a magic touch for finding other artists whose work just resonates so strongly with me and makes me drool. I have to limit myself access to her blog and read it in little chunks because too much of it in one go would possibly lead to me overdosing on talent. I think in all the time i've been following her blog there's possibly been only one or two artists featured that haven't knocked my socks off. As well as the blog she is curating an exhibition, having a baby and teaching embroidery classes. Sometimes I think I will have to stop following her blog, but not because of her being too 'perfect' but because the exposure to so much goodness that I get from it is possibly rotting my teeth.


On a totally different track is Lottie Klaver's drawing blog. I love it when new drawings from Lottie turn up in my blog reader. Her drawings are done using brush and ink and are full of energy.

I'll be posting more about my favourite blogs in this sporadic manner whenever I have a bit of time, but not enough brain space to write anything very serious.

Struggling to write a post at the moment

I've got a half composed post waiting to be finished but at the moment i'm having some problems with concentrating long enough to write anything very coherent (what, like I normally am?) So rather than sit around trying to finish the post I thought I should just write something, anything to get me over this bump.

So here you have my new husband- I found him in a 1921 agricultural calendar from Finland, redrew him, turned him into a screen print and now he is mine to keep for ever. (He looks a little wonky in this photo because this image was printed onto paper and turned into a book)

I revisited the fortune tellers I was making earlier in the year and made some out of brown paper, covered in screen printed images that I drew from old postcards, photos and oh-there's- my-husband if you look closely.

This one has one of my babies in it. Actually you will be pleased to know that this is a 'British Child'- the lettering on the back of the postcard I took the image from states 'This is a real photograph of a British Child', no mention of the nationality of the dog that she's sitting with (which can be seen in the photo above her)

Well there you go- a short and sweet post. I might try and write some more just like this while I can. Thankyou all for the congratulations on my acceptance to the MA in Falmouth by the way!

Home again

Well I had a lovely, very wet, few days down in Falmouth. I got home yesterday and jumped straight into bed with one of my cats and tried to recover from thunderstorms, gale force winds and a long drive home.

The most important thing of course is the fact I have been accepted onto the MA! I am so excited about this, but of course with that excitement comes a lot of worry and nervousness about the future- i'll be moving away from one shabby seaside town to live in another (less shabby) and I think I might've forgotten how to move house now. I'm also worried that i'm just not clever enough to do the MA, I know that's probably stupid talk, my application was strong and I had a good reference, but I can't help thinking i'm going to get caught out once I get down there and start- someone's going to discover i've been faking it all along!

While I was down in Falmouth I got the chance to pop into the here and now shop- it was really nice to meet Kate and see Mark Pawson's show, it makes me feel like there's a little bit of Bristol already down in Falmouth so I have at least one person who I can talk to when I get there next September. Yes next September- it's nearly a year away, but I wanted to give myself the best chance possible to raise the funds that will allow me to do this course- from now on i'm going to be putting any money I make from selling art into my Falmouth fund in the hopes that I can start to build up a little pot of money to cover a deposit on a flat or something similar (it's been so long since i've rented that i'm kind of rusty how these things work)

Falmouth bound...

I'm heading off to Falmouth tomorrow, I wish it was going to be as nice weather as it was back in February when I took this photo. I have an interview for a place on the MA in Curatorial Practice on Friday so think good thoughts for me at round about half past two! Of course the interview is just the first step (or maybe it's the second or third) in what could be a long process, but who knows- this time next year I could be writing this from my new home in Cornwall.

I've been pleased by the number of enquiries we've had coming in about the exhibition opportunities at the Bath Spa Gallery, please pass the info on to anyone you think might be interested.

Want to work for a magazine and get lunch cooked for you?

Just got this email forwarded to me and thought I might as well share it with you lovely lot:

Apologies for another email about interns but we are getting desperate. I am going to print with my Anthology of Illustration at the end of the week and in the meantime we are about to lose all our current batch of interns and we don't have people to take over for three of the sections: art, music and earth. If we can't find any new interns in the next week the blog will stop running. So if you love reading Amelia's Magazine and if you know of anyone who might possibly be interested in an internship, please please tell them about the spaces available - we've never had so much trouble and I am about to lose my mind because I am so busy with getting the book finished.

The lowdown is:
You need to be able to write, own a laptop, (and can support yourself with another part-time job) and can come in here (brick lane, east London) 4 days a week (mon-thurs) You also need to be able to commit to a 3mth period as editor of the section- which would now be until the end of February because of the christmas break.

I can't pay any expenses - the website makes no income - but I do cook you lunch and it is absolutely invaluable experience both in writing and in learning how a small publishing house and website runs (from commissioning other writers and illustrators, to interviewing up and coming bands, to going to fashion shows - yes you can help out our fashion editor during fashion week! the list is endless) It looks GREAT on your cv to say you have been editor of an entire section of a well respected magazine.(we were ranked one of the top 10 arts blogs in the UK a few weeks ago)

Plus:
I am about to launch my Anthology - we're having a launch party in early December and you can get involved with that

SO:
please email hello@ameliasmagazine.com with a sample of writing that would be relevant to your desired section now!
Plus: when you can start and when you are available for an interview.

or post the info on your facebook or twitter and help me find someone, or in all seriousness the website is no more

x Amelia x

wooohooo!

I've just put my MA application form in the post, which means I can cross one thing off my very long to-do list! I have an interview next Friday (the 13th- eek!) at Falmouth so i'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that it all goes smoothly. I'm so glad i'm not having to put a big portfolio of my work together- i'm applying for the Curatorial Practice MA, which means no big presentation of my work. It has however just occurred to me that maybe I should be getting a little bit stressed out about the actual interview...

But before that happens there's this:

Claire and I (and Becky too) will be on hand tomorrow to teach you the fine arts of monoprinting, badge making, knitting and pompom making. It costs £1 per adult and 50p for kids- all ages welcome, my nephew was making badges before he was 2 years old so we do mean all ages! Claire is also going to be a MISI down at Paintworks- because she is a crazy fool that likes to take on much too much...but say hello to her if you see her there, and maybe offer her a cup of tea too!

Call to artists!

As part of my new job curating the gallery space here at college i'm delighted to let you know that we are putting out a call for artists to submit proposals to use the space next year. Here's the details:

Where: Bath Spa University Gallery, Weston College- University Campus

When: 1-12th Feb and 1-26th March (both sets of dates include time for installation)

Who: Artists from any discipline that have completed a BA (hons) degree, or higher, in their subject area within the last five years.

What: Current work, or work made in response to the space- visits are welcome at any time to view the gallery. You will be required to deliver an artists talk or workshop.

Contact: Please apply for gallery information, including plans and images to Camilla Stacey, Weston College, University Campus, Loxton Rd, Weston-super-Mare, N. Somerset, BS23 4QU or email manukenkun@yahoo.co.uk

Deadline for proposals: Friday 15th January 2010

We can't offer payment, but we can offer free mail outs, e-fliers, free space and invigilation.

Windows 204

Claire and I teamed up again for another show- this time we had a window each at 204 Gloucester Rd, Bristol. We originally thought of showing here months ago, so by the time it came for us to actually install our work we couldn't really remember exactly what we'd put in our proposal. Turned out though that our installations were pretty much spot on- although mine wasn't as fully developed as i'd like, I still think it's a nice little show. Can you guess which window is mine?

I filled it with things from my house- I joked that I just picked things up as I walked from the bedroom to the front door, but that's almost the truth. I was asked if I missed the objects while they were away from my house and I have to say you can't even tell they've gone- there's still so much STUFF here!

I think at heart i'm a shop keeper- I really enjoyed running The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe over the summer, and the here shop and gallery before I left Bristol. Maybe one day i'll have my own shop again?