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?

cross posted from The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe

Our last day and the weather decided to be specially gloomy for us. Not only was the weather sad we were shutting up shoppe, but the lifeboat was out- we watched it come back to the island in pretty horrible rain and wind.

As you may remember I stood on my camera the other day, which means I can't actually see anything until I get home and plug it in to the computer- hence some slightly strangely framed photos.

A poor rained on, twisted arrow that once pointed the way to the Shoppe

Even the Gorgon's were sad today

All empty- this is Becky helping to pack away the last few things from the Shoppe.

Knitting in the library!

I was so excited when I heard about a new venture at Uni that I ran down the corridor and up the stairs straight to the library to book myself on to an 'Inspirational Knitting for Students' day workshop that will be taking place later this month. I had no idea that the librarians were secret knitters, and not only have they arranged this workshop with Suzie Johnson, but they've decided to set up a knit and stitch club every week starting in November.

I could KISS them it's made me so happy! What i'm not so happy about is the fact that the club is timetabled for when i'm in lectures, but i'm hoping that there may be a way round this. As the weather is turning so grim I have been feeling the urge to take up knitting again, and the thought of meeting people at Uni who want to knit too is really exciting. God I never thought i'd be this excited about KNITTING!

I'm also excited about wrapping up things at The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe- just two more days to go and then I hand over the key and return the sweets to their rightful owners. The exhibition at Frou Frou ends this weekend too, so if you haven't been able to see it then you've got one last chance to get along and see work by Cathy Cullis, Karen Ruane, Lou Trigg and Joetta Maue (and me), it really does look stunning and I hope it's the first of many collaborations with Rebecca the shop owner.

Catherine Knight

I first saw Catherine Knight's work at her MA show last year. When it came to picking the first artist to show in the gallery space at the University Campus I picked her, partly because of her links to Bath Spa Uni, and also because I love the way she works from old photos, which is something I do a lot of in my work. So almost entirely selfish in choice, but I think it's going to turn out to be a good one as when I met with Catherine the other week she was full of enthusiasm for engaging with the students and using the gallery space in new ways.

There's just a few more days left for the shows at Frou Frou, and The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe, and then i'm on to opening a new exhibition that Claire and I are joining forces on again- this time we're a few doors down the road from where Calm Air All Ice version 1 took place, and we'll be filling the windows at 204 with planes, pom poms and pegboard.

I love being a shoppe keeper!

Chipfork made me this amazing picture- it's me measuring out strawberry bon-bons in the Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe. I totally LOVE this! It makes me think of my Grandma's family for some reason- I think it might be because they all had orange skin and blue hair too...

Oh dear, it seems that it's been a while since I last posted something here. And now it's late and I have to get up bright and early for another day of Shoppe keeping at The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe tomorrow. It feels like my life revolves around a series of points in the week at the moment- Wed/Thurs in school, Sat/Sun in the Shoppe, Mondays are teaching and that leaves Tuesdays and Fridays which always seem to get filled up with one thing or another- today I had a forum meeting to chair, which seemed to take over my entire day whilst only being a couple of hours long!

The weather looks set to be lovely again tomorrow- just what we need at the moment as the Shoppe can only open if The Friends of the Old Pier open up their shop, and they only open up if the weather is good and they have enough people volunteering- just keeping my fingers crossed that this good weather lasts until the end of the arts festival.

I've had some lovely visitors over the last few weekends, and some people who are promising to visit before the Shoppe shuts up it's doors. These two are David and Jodie, also known as Peskimo, and they came to visit last Sunday. We went and ate ice cream after the shoppe shut, took a walk around the marine lake and then back to my house for a jam jar pick up.

They gave me this lovely little cup for a birthday present!

I've also had visits from Bo, Karen, Bonny, Becky, Lucy and numerous other friends who called in to buy sweets. It's been hectic at times and i've wanted to stop and just sit down and drink a cup of tea and chat with everyone, but selling sweets is almost as much fun.

The online shoppe is selling well- you've got 24 hours to order things this weekend if you want them shipped to you on Monday, otherwise you'll be in for a week long wait- just listed some of Simon's lovely postcards.

Ballooooooons!

Another lovely sunny day for The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe, it's almost as if some beastie is keeping an eye on us and keeping the rain away (famous last words no doubt). Today started off super slow, with no-one even popping their heads in for the first hour or so, but then after lunch it all picked up and at times we had up to 8 people in the (very small) Shoppe at one time! Had some lovely visitors today, including Chipfork's parents, his sister Katy was the guest Shoppe Keeper and Bonny brought a collection of people with her for a day at the seaside.

New postcards from Simon Daly (aka Chipfork) which were flying out of the Shoppe- we sold half of them on the first day of getting them in. Wish i'd made some now...

Also heard that the show at Frou Frou is going really well- lots of people are going in each day to look at the art, and to buy clothes too- I heard that Johanna was the first person to buy some work, a pair of buttons made by Karen Ruane- let's hope lots more work gets sold over the next month.

Is it over yet?

Oh i'm pooped! I've spent the last few weeks/months working towards events that all happened over the last weekend, and now i'm just about recovering. I slept for 24 hours mind you...

Saturday was a lovely day, spent in the sunshine in Uphill Quarry with artists and friends (most of whom are artists, some of whom are rollergirls)

Not a very brilliant photo, but you can see the lovely high-vis jackets we had to wear (we being the official Arts Festival bods, not everyone who attended)

A big pile of cucumber sandwiches from cantfindamatch.com's performance

Sunday was spent in The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe. I had so much fun working as a Sweet Shoppe keeper- I think the highlight of the day for me was selling sweets to a real live lifeboat man (I have a fascination with the RNLI that's inexplicable).

We had lots of lovely visitors, including fellow Westonian Karen, who I 'met' last year when the Grand Pier burnt down, and now have had the pleasure of meeting in real life too- I hope we get to spend some time drinking cups of tea and talking about art in the near future.

couldn't have asked for nicer weather- in fact it was so sunny over the weekend I caught the sun a bit and ended up with heat stroke...

World Suicide Prevention Day

In a change from all things Mythical Beast related I wanted to just draw your attention to the fact that today is World Suicide Prevention Day, and encourage you to visit the website and learn more about warning signs and ways to help prevent suicide. I'm a little conflicted on this as I believe that some people are so determined to end their life that you will never be able to prevent it, but I also know that it is a horribly painful thing to lose someone to suicide and anything that might help prevent that loss must be a good thing.

I've been thinking more recently about which 'bits' of me I show on this blog and I think this is as good a place as any to start to show some other pieces of me. Next week I shall start to teach an 8 week course that I have co-developed specially for people leaving Secondary Mental Health Care, and supported housing. It's something that is really important to me as for two years I received support from a 'floating support worker' from an organisation called Second Step. It's amazing how far you can come with the right support. Who would've thought that the person that once upon a time needed so much help could end up being the person that was (hopefully) helping others.

I still have the same illness I had when I first needed support, but look at the list of things I have achieved since then:

gone back to University
been offered a place on an MA
joined the committee for Weston Arts Festival and organised a bunch of events
had my own shows
shown work in America
been published in 3 books
taken part in a Bust Craftacular

and that's just the things I can think of off the top of my head! My message is simple: look after your mental health, and look out for others. We mad people can do amazing things, we can be a pain to live with, we can waste days staring at the wall, but we're full of potential so you better watch out for us...

Getting to the Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe by foot

My partner in Sweet Shoppe crime Simon Daly has made a video showing you how to get to the Shoppe by foot from the train station. It's pretty awesome, even if you never intend to come to the show you should watch it!

My mail box has been very happy this week

Let me show you some of the lovely things that have dropped onto my door mat this week shall I? Here's a small sampling of the treats i've been unwrapping for The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe that opens next Saturday.

Brooches from Anna at Custom Made UK

Artist Books from Emily at Lost in the Forest

Unicorns from my some time partner in crime Claire Elizabeth Platt

and lovely colourful flyers designed by Chipfork.

I would stay longer to talk to you, but right now bed is calling me- the last few weeks have been a cycle of art/bed/art/bed/art/bed and I think my cats are starting to hate me!

So much to do, so little time

I have SO much to update you about, but so little time to do it in. Instead can I direct you over to The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe, where you will find some of the strange creatures i've been spending the last few weeks with; and to Frou Frou, where you will see some of the beautiful work that will be on show during Weston Arts Festival.

I've got 8 days to pull together all the loose threads for three exhibitions opening on 12th September- and somewhere in those 8 days my nephew turns 2, and I turn 36! Please send calming thoughts and big bars of chocolate my way via any method possible, including Unicorn mail.

Weston Arts Festival updates

Sorry for the cross posting, but I thought maybe some of you would be interested to see who is taking part in The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe this year (and if not, why not!)

I thought maybe it was about time we updated you with a list of who is contributing to the Sweet Shoppe this year, hold onto your hats it's an impressive looking list!

Edith Abeyta
Heather Anacker
Emily Chandler
Matt Cipov
Custom Made UK
Simon Daly
Laura Harris
Jenny Hart
Gunilla Jahnichen
Miss B
Katy Parrett
Alys Paterson
Peskimo
Claire Elizabeth Platt
Julia Pott
PRSC
Camilla Stacey
Tizzy Treatz
Ian Walker
Rebecca Weeks
Johanna Ziegler


I also wanted to let you know i've just set up a new blog for the Frou Frou exhibition- you can find it over here at Frou Frou. I realised that not everyone has access to Facebook, and it's nice to have somewhere to gather all the information together- hopefully there will be more added to it soon.

And now I have to sleep- i've had terrible insomnia recently, no doubt due to all the many and various projects on the go at the moment- I think I need to curl up in a big ball of lavender and see if that does the trick!

Just a quickie

I just updated The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe blog with some photos from the venue we shall be using- take a look

I'm at full pelt at the moment organising things for my three events during Weston-super-Mare Arts Festival.

There's the Sweet Shoppe, which will be open weekends during the festival (12th Sept-11th October)

Frou Frou, an exhibition of work featuring Cathy Cullis, Joetta Maue, Karen Ruane, Lou Trigg and Elin Thomas, which will be opening on September 11th and running until the end of the festival at a boutique in town.

And then there's the Art in Uphill Quarry event that will be taking place on September 12th, from 10am-dusk and will feature artists creating site specific work, performance, a picnic and lots of sweets.

I've also just had it confirmed that I shall be curating the exhibition space in the University gallery- this was mentioned to me earlier in the summer, but I got the official confirmation today from Kate Parsons my tutor there. It's really exciting to think of having a semi-official gallery to play with, wondering how much different i'll have to do things to fit in with an organisation. In the past i've pretty much only curated events/exhibitions at spaces i've set up myself or borrowed for the duration- haven't really had to play along with anyone elses rules, but this will be good practice for next year when I should be down in Falmouth studying for an MA in Curatorial Practice.

Hyphen- Tania van Schalkwyk

My copy of Tania's book arrived in the mail the other day. I started to read it and found that I was having a little cry! I am so proud of all my talented friends who have had books published this year. You can now buy Hyphen via Amazon, and i'd recommend you do.

Also check out Allyson Shaw's The Desperate Ones, a cyber punk, apocalyptic novel, and Gunilla Jahnichen's Drawings, a collection of her drawings (we have copies of that available in The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe)

Gunilla Jähnichen

(CROSS POSTED FROM THE MYTHICAL BEAST SWEET SHOPPE BLOG)

A package of beasties arrived in the mail today- all the way from Germany. Gunilla Jähnichen has sent over three framed postcards and some copies of her new book of drawings for inclusion in The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe UK.

The framed pieces will be selling at £30 each

and the books go for £17

Work will be for sale in The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe UK, when it opens it's doors on September 12th, and then it will also be available online.

A sort of to do list...

Some of the many things I have ticking along at the moment include:

organising a sculpture exhibition in the quarry

some of the artists that are going to be showing work in the quarry

curating an exhibition of lovely embroidery work at Frou Frou

Work from Karen Ruane, Joette Maue, Lou Trigg and Cathy Cullis

rustling up artists for The Mythical Sweet Shoppe UK

Proposed Venue for the Shoppe

and anything else that The Weston-super-Mare Arts Festival chooses to throw my way.

In addition to Arts Festival work I have been invited to be the curator at the Bath Spa University Gallery, at the Weston College Campus, which means i'm going to be doing a lot of emailing and plotting and planning in the hopes that we can get the space off the ground this year.

As well as all that I am still trying to make my own work- I shall be exhibiting as part of the quarry exhibition and as part of the Sweet Shoppe- just when I shall get my work made i'm not so sure!

But...before all that happens I am heading off to this place:

photo by rbanks

I'm going to MOOMINLAND!!!

Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe- more submissions please!

(x-posted from the Sweet Shoppe)


Dear Sweet Shoppers,

it's nearing the time that the Shoppe opens it's doors for the first time in the UK and we are hoping to round up some more people to contribute to the project.

We are looking for are artists/makers who are able to come up with work linked to Mythical Beasts, preferably Unicorns and Mermaids, but other beasties considered. We would like work to come in the form of multiples of at least six items (ie six prints/ zines/toys) so we are able to create a real shoppe feel to this show. One off's will be considered, especially if they are large scale pieces that are too good to miss out on.

The deadline for work to reach us is September 1st, with the Shoppe opening it's doors to coincide with the start of Weston Arts Festival on September 12th.

There is no fee to take part, however a small commission of 20% on work sold will be charged to cover publicity, venue rental, etc- if for some reason we magically get the venue for free then the commission charged will be even smaller.

The shop will be staffed by volunteers, and if anyone would like to add themselves to the list they would be very welcome- ridiculous shop keeper costumes will be made available to you.

If you would like more information, or want to submit work could you email:

manukenkun@yahoo.co.uk

or send a message via comments,

looking forward to hearing from you!

Camilla and Simon

The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe UK

Pegasus by Chipfork

Today I had an unexpected visit in the form of Chipfork who had the day off work. We had a mini-meeting (or conversation perhaps) about the plans for The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe when it re-opens it's doors in September. As some of you might remember the Sweet Shoppe was a creation of American artist Edith Abeyta, who I collaborated with last year. I was really keen for the Shoppe to visit the UK at some point and now, thanks to my involvement in Weston Arts Festival, it's going to happen!

Self-Confidence is contagious

My collaboration with Edith Abeyta has been receiving some press recently, here's what the District Weekly has to say about The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe:

Start with the candy, because it’s so, so sweet: Edith Abeyta’s multimedia installation Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe, where your unofficial host is a frilly pink unicorn—represented on pink tote bags and pink purses—and sometimes looks like one of those Tijuana zebra-burros without the stripes. (But happy, without the whole painted slave-creature thing nagging at you.)

Abeyta stocks her shop with unicorn note paper and wrapping paper and candies familiar and strange: three of the -head variety (Lemon, Grape or Cherry), plus Yum Yum Candy Cones, Jaw Busters, haw flakes, C. Howard’s Scented Gum and something called BB Bats. (Maybe it finds you in the dark.) It comes off only half like a commercial business—but with way more heart than your average downtrodden candy store.

I love how they referenced Tijuana zebra-burros because when my friends from California came to visit one time they said that Weston-super-Mare was like the Tijuana of the UK, which means Weston donkeys (which my 'Unicorn' is derived from) really are just like zebra-burros! Poor things...

The rest of the article is worth reading too as it sounds like there's some really interesting work in this show.

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