Tag Archives: ceramics

A Serious Attack of Brain Weasles

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When did I get so smug?
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I know all their little foibles.

I spent Tuesday evening with a fabulous group of people at the Royal Opera Arcade Gallery in Pall Mall.  It was the private view of a sculpture and ceramics exhibition in which I had been invited to have seven pieces.  The gallery was full – of wonderful art and super people.  I arrived thinking that this was it – I had arrived!  In actual fact there is something horribly daunting about putting one’s work into a gallery such as this.  I suppose part of the problem is that while making a piece you get to know it intimately.    I spend hours and hours on each of my pieces and when they are finished I know they are not perfect.  I am fully aware of each of their little foibles.  I can convince myself, in the privacy of my own studio, that they will do but then I have the stupid idea that it would be good to send them off to a public space and expect everyone to think they are amazing.  When did I get so smug?

The thing is, as soon as I walked into the gallery, the feeling of smugness evaporated faster than frost on a warm winter morning.  There they were, crouching among some truly fantastic works.  Was anyone even looking at mine?  Did anyone think they were any good?  Was anyone actually thinking about them at all!

As the evening wore on, my nerves settled down a bit and I could see that people were taking notice of my work and that some did appear to be appreciative rather than just curious.  Later my darling daughter tried out her amateur psychology on me.  Do I trust her? Yes.  Does she like my work?  She says so!  Therefore if I have no confidence in my work I am questioning her judgement.  Well . . . . . . . . I know she loves me and wants me to be happy so she is hardly likely to tell me there and then in the middle of a private view that my work is by no means the best there, is she?

707665[1]The fact of the matter is that I think anyone who runs the risk of exposing themselves by putting work into the public arena is going to worry about it.  These are my babies; nurtured and brought to life by me.  I desperately need them to be admired and yet, until the reach the plinth I have only my judgement to go on and of course I am biased.  I am told these fears are called brain weasels.  Yesterday, they were eating me from the inside out!

My very first ‘grown up’ exhibition.

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The Private View at the Salisbury Open Ceramics Exhibition

This week I visited the beautiful city of Salisbury.  I arrived early for the private view at the Salisbury Arts Centre thinking that it would be good to have a little wander around the cathedral close and the market first.  Instead, by the time I got to the station, I was is such a state of jitters that I ended up making straight for the nearest well known high street coffee shop for a restorative cup of hot chocolate and a piece of Tiffin!  No size 12 in sight yet!

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I am so excited to be taking part.

I am not that great at going to things on my own so I was particularly relieved to be greeted by some good friends who I had no idea would be there – Thanks so much, Adam and Meredith, for helping me find my feet!  This is the first time, other than selling fairs and my college exhibitions, that I have put my work ‘Out There’.  I felt really rather exposed.

The show has been curated by Fiona Cassidy and selected by Professor Simon Olding, from the Craft Study Centre, and Sophie Cummings, from Swindon Museum and Art Gallery.  I am absolutely over the moon to be taking part.  There are 47 pieces in the exhibition; one of them is mine.  The variety of work is astounding. All of it is contemporary.  The imaginative work of Elise Menghini juxtaposed with that of Suzie Gutteridge who works in felt as well as ceramics and Martin Harman whose fabulously crisp thrown and joined forms are so different to my own work but truly beautiful and so skilled!  The exhibition, in an up-cycled church, is a real feast for the eyes and I would commend anyone with an interest in contemporary ceramics who is in the Salisbury area to visit it.  It is on until 14th November so you have plenty of time.  If you go, don’t forget to vote for your favourite piece!  I voted for Jo Taylor’s End of the Pier which you can see front left in one of my photographs.

For me the private view was a great evening.  Not only was I able to practice talking about my own work but I was able to network – I hate that expression – with other artists.  I met some great people and we talked a lot about ceramics, art and art in the landscape.  I was particularly intrigued by the ideas which had been offered by a project called Step In Stone.  This is currently taking place in Quarries in the Mendips in Somerset and finishes this weekend.  I am asking myself how I could possibly have missed it!  I would give my eye teeth to take part in a collaboration like that.  I think working alongside other artists who are all interpreting the same landscape through their chosen media for a chosen project would be my idea of heaven.

So I think that my plan for the New Year is going to be to approach all and sundry with the idea of setting up some kind of collaboration based on the landscape that I love – anyone want to join me?