Reading, Ready, Red

A dear new friend has lent me ‘The Time Traveler’s wife’ to read. I can not stop reading. I need to be getting ready but I can not put the book down. It is almost in my hand as I write. This week is another mentally and physically busy week getting everything ready for this weekend. The other art Fair.

We have all been under the weather, for what seems like the whole of the year. However, I am attempting to boost our immune systems with vitamin tablets and positive thinking in aim to get us all to London. Whilst my husband has been in the middle of a little drama over van hire and driving to city, transferring sculptures across town, I am anxiously preparing for the train journey with our two boys. I wish I could time travel and just get us there in a flash. When I tilted this blog it had a familiar feel to it and I did do a search just incase there were any other sculptor’s wives out there. Perhaps I was subconsciously thinking of ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’. On reflection, is the book is about the Time Traveler or The wife? It is, if you haven’t had the pleasure of reading it written in both his and her voice. Not quite like this blog which I feel is leaning too heavily on my voice but then perhaps that is the point!

This piece has been newly painted, and in all its red glory looks very different to its former metal state. It is one of my favourites, it’s me balancing motherhood and all the colour it brings to life. For some reason it makes me think of the ‘Time Traveler’s wife’ perhaps the futuristic feel to it or that ironically she was a sculptor too. So would definitely recommend the read. Better go and get ready. Lots of ‘red’ at The Other Art Fair this weekend.

Friday 11th May 11am-8pm – Sat 12th May 11am-6pm – Sun 13th May 11am-6pm – AMBIKA P3, MARYLEBONE ROAD, LONDON, NW1

Muse

After a few attempts at writing this post, I finally had inspiration and the inspired image. This last month, I have been purposely finding inspiration from many ways. Connecting with people more, in both real and virtual ways and making a little bit more time for myself. Inspiration is, after all, around us, “staring at us; we just have to see it”, as my husband says.

Despite declaring that this blog is the ‘musings of the muse’, I am not the ‘the sculptors inspiration.’ Most of the time inspiration is hiding from me, tucked away under the laundry of daily life. I am not  a vessel of inspiration.We can have a romantic idea that the painters muse is the painted woman. That somehow someone can give us the ‘fire’ of ideas. I am sure that people can be a muse, a number of people have inspired me this month. Perhaps there is a difference in the process of how a painter gathers inspiration and creates work to that of a sculptor. However, in writing this I realise that even if asked to do a portrait from clay my husband would work from memory rather than have someone to ‘sit’. My husband has a way of absorbing everything around him and then the talent to be able to translate that into a drawing which is more often than not a sketch of a 3d piece. This piece had been sketched years ago – I found it in an old sketch book but also more recently the same idea came back again and so it had to be realised in 3d form. On a design level the difference about this piece is that it explores the horizontal much more than the other pieces but using the same geometric design and playful colour.

This piece again has a fun element as it could be a number of things, our eldest son, on seeing it today in the kitchen thought it could be an aeroplane but he then said, no ‘it has to be a bird because it has eyes’. It has a feel of a Manga cartoon character and by giving the title to this piece, “The girl next door’ it almost instructs the viewer to see a ‘portrait’. Although, as our Son rightly pointed out, “girls ponytails don’t got out in a line like that Baba”. The purpose to such an obvious title  highlights that inspiration can be found right in front of our nose. Indeed, inspiration is inside all of us we just need to know where to look.

 The girl next door will be visiting:

The Other Art Fair, next week. 11th -13th May. Ambika P3, Marylebone Road, London NW1.

Weekly Window

Weekly Window (click here to read)

I couldn’t put it better myself, so here is a link to Debut’s blog with admiration at Eva’s writing about this last Saturday’s event.

Three or Four P’s

Is planning and organisation better than spontaneity? I can never decide, in my indecisive nature, I don’t think I am much of a planner but having children requires you to have some sense of routine. I believe as humans we do require some order and daily rituals. The negative side is when things don’t go to plan. Expectation is a heavy load. Read ‘Outside Air‘ about expectation.. I think I tend to procrastinate a lot, which is not great for organisation. I recently read that procrastination is associated with perfectionism. Is that good or bad? As in all things, balance is key. My husband does everything in the moment, now. He doesn’t procrastinate but it most probably a perfectionist.

As an artist my husband has a dual personality towards planning. In making his sculptures there is a sort of plan. He sketches, almost constantly. Then revises and choses to develop a certain piece. After it’s made the colour is then chosen. We currently have two new pieces sitting in our hallway. One of which was designed to be something but has since become something else. So there is always room for manoeuvre. We are having to be a bit more organised at the moment with his regular trips to London. He is on his way down again today. Since being selected as an artist with Debut Contemporary (currently curator’s pick if you go through to the link) he has featured in Candid Magazine, also been selected for The Other Art Fair and is having his work showcased on a large board outside BOXPARK  in London. This Saturday he is back down in London again for his Debut and Debut with his workshop. So it is a busy time.

In preparation for his workshop it has been interesting seeing how he has approached the planning side of things. Various email exchanged have happened to organise the curatorial side of his sculptures in the gallery. When he was first thinking about organising it, the worrier in him kicked in, he really started planning, went out and bought all the various equipment for what he was thinking of doing, had some great ideas. Then it went on hold. Now the spontaneous artist has appeared and what will happen on Saturday, who knows. Why not plan a visit to Debut Contemporary to find out …..

Saturday 21st April 2012 12-6pm

Crazy, Crazy, Crazy

Crazy Day. Crazy Good Day. Took the boys out on a relatively big trip for us. So, exhausted on the way back in the car, they both fell asleep. So much for my

good plan of wearing them out so that they will sleep well at night! We came back in the house which was still looking like a bomb site from the mornings antics and my husband in the living room with a new sculpture sticking small question marks all over it ????? I waded through the kitchen to make a quick tea and tried to tidy up whilst the boys ran around the table with various kitchen utensils and my husbands asking me for various spellings whilst he ‘twittered’ away on his laptop. It all seemed a bit crazy in my head. The development with his art work has been going a bit crazy over the last few weeks.

Easter Holidays has meant having both boys at home for two weeks and before that my eldest was off school so I have failed to keep up with blogging. I am now into the third week of trying to keeping my sanity levels stable. Consequently, perhaps, my eczema has gone crazy. And, in all honestly I was going a bit crazy in this blogging world. Checking up on stats. and reading others blogs was not helping me to be creative. I was comparing my writing skill and style to others and becoming negative about my own and then constantly checking to see if anyone had read or remarked on what I had written. So the break has been good. The fresh air today has given us all a new energy.. and the sleep on the way back a later night than I had hoped for the boys.

Six years ago it was also a crazy night, It was the eve of my wedding day. We didn’t have a traditional English wedding nor did we have a traditional Egyptian one. We did it our way! A week before I cut my hair very short and dyed it bleach blond. Crazy! Maybe, but it looked great with little red roses in and set off my black and white spotted dress! We drove back from the registry office listening to the very current track by Gnarles Barkley ‘Crazy’ and the words kind of summed up that time. Now the words do have an echo, and they do take me back to that time and place. It has been an amazing 6 years, bought a house, bought a business had two boys and started to establish a name in the art world. Crazy busy.

Getting down to the art work then, I will have to blog more about that next week when I have a little more time to myself. The image here, is not a great one to show the quality of these works, and I ironically made some odd remark about just that, to my husband after he put them on Facebook. We’ve had some great quality images recently but can’t keep the imagery to the frequent entries in the social media! Anyway, they have been repainted and renamed Adam and Eve, seems appropriate to be mentioning them at the time of our wedding anniversary and also when there has been so much in the media recently about marriage. I don’t often have black and white views more like shades of grey indecision but with the discussion about marriage and civil ceremonies of late I am very clear. In relation to our marriage, the fact that these fantastic stainless steel sculptures have been given a facelift making them even more vibrant and exciting symbolises well, our relationship. We are very different personalities and characters, (will have to go into more depth about ‘My husband, The Sculptor’ another time) so together we are like ying and yang. I guess that is how it works for most couples and it just seems crazy to me! Crazy Day, Crazy life, Crazy Love!

If you are interested, I just looked up the definition of Crazy;

1.mentally deranged, especially as manifested in a wild or aggressive way

2.extremely enthusiastic

3(of an angle) appearing absurdly out of place or in an unlikely position

I am not sure I meant any of these for any of the times I wrote the word in this blog. That’s the English Language, or perhaps I need to start reading a thesaurus. Crazy!

'Adam'
'Eve'
'Eve'
'Adam and Eve' painted Black and White
Black and White

Alone

'The Thinker'

This sculpture, from this angle looks like a Japanese mask. Warrior like. Powerful. Strong. Alone.

In 1997 I spent 6 months in Japan. It was the first time I left home and I was on the other side of the world. Although I made lots of friends and worked there, so was  settled in a routine, it was the first real experience of being alone. I definitely experienced loneliness rather than homesickness. On my days off work I would sometimes go to the local shrines or the ‘apple cafe’ to draw. I remember  on a walk up a mountain, and on resting, lying down on my back and seeing a circle made from the tall trees above me. Then watching a single swallow flying across the sky. Like a Haiku poem. I realised I was alone.

As a teenager, I do think I dwelled upon the world ‘alone’ being a lonely place. Now in adulthood, being literally on my own is almost a luxury. So when I do have the time to myself I relish it. I find strength in it. There is peace and contentment to be found in being with yourself. Which leads me to my next question, are we ever really alone?

Whether we are the only planet which inhabits life is one big question of being ‘alone’ or ‘not alone. For me, another more profound reason as to why I am not alone is my belief in God. We watched something last night that resonated with me. The idea that those who don’t believe in a higher being or struggle with the concept, need to have an absolute proof, a certainty that there is something ‘greater’, ‘a creator’. For myself, having had almost, a before and after experience. I feel that believing in something is not just simply a comfort, as it then brings up so many more struggles and challenges.

Yesterday, our eldest boy was having a conversation with a friend of ours.

 “Alien’s don’t exist” our boy said.

“How do you know? Asked the friend.

“Because in my dreams about space I don’t see any aliens”

I was amused and intrigued by this exchange. He had logically thought through, that if he didn’t see them (in his dreams) then they didn’t exist. Proof of children’s ever-changing states of mind, the number of drawings we have of aliens almost disproves his own argument. (I think he has seen them in his dreams!)

It made me think about the arguments:

Do we really need to see things clearly to know they exist?

Does finding comfort in the idea of a creator just stop us from thinking we are alone?

Or, do we struggle with the idea of being alone because when we are, we are forced to think more deeply about whether we really are?

Post…er?

'The Thinker'

Post, post stick, poster, post box…

Distracted by ‘the lollipop’ in my last post, I completely forgot my initial reason for ‘blogging’. So this post stick looking sculpture is a good reminder !

Imagine a poster for Northern England, a farmhouse nestled within rolling hills, surrounded by newly bleating bouncing lambs, sun shining and the daffodils a plenty, topped off with good old fresh air.  I returned from this idyllic scene, to reunite with my husband returning from London and his first Debut Contemporary mentoring session. Via the ipad I listened to the session. From posts to platforms and pinterest I was bombarded into another world of  SOCIAL MEDIA. I immediately thought of my hesitations about entering into this world, couldn’t write it better than ‘knowingthesphere’ (I Think bloggers are also connecting on the webs of thought).

While I sit thinking about things and weighing up the pros and cons, my husband just gets on with it. He has now a  twitter  and Pinterest, and we are both seeing the benefits of him being in this virtual world.  Unbeknown to me I had stumbled across pinterest before and not realised what it was. Like a  mood board it is a virtual pin board, way of collecting images. Great idea. A visual post. What happened to walking to the post box?

The Red Head

'The Red Head'
'The Red Head'
'The Red Head'
'The Red Head'

Putting up these pictures has given me a memory of those huge red round glass looking lollipops. The colour in my husband’s sculptures has a vibrancy and playfulness that does evoke the senses. These works are not huge but they could be great public art pieces. The geometric shapes and segments of colours bring the artists of the past into a futuristic style. Like a physical, Mondrian. I guess I could say so much more about these pieces……I’ll leave it to your imagination!

(Currently on display at Debut Contemporary, Notting Hill London)

The Nightwatchman

'The night watcher'
'The night watcher'

“I believe that art should represent the time period of the artist. However you can not deny the fact that an artist will draw inspiration from the past” twittered my husband.

Ah yes the world of twitter has now been opened, encouraged by the mentoring of Debut Contemporary, where the piece above was ‘snapped’. We haven’t many images of this piece since it has been ‘coloured’. So this is the only one I can put up for now.

The piece is very much about its title which was inspired after my husband visited a gallery in The Netherlands and saw Rembrandt’s ‘The night Watch’. It is quite rare that he goes to galleries concerned he will get overly influenced by another artists work and also frustration about getting his own work into galleries.

Rembrandt’s, ‘The night watch’ now “one of the most famous paintings in art”. Painting, after his wife’s death resulted in a stylistic change.  What happens in daily life affects the work of an artists, therefore, art  reflects society at that time. “An artist’s life and work are reciprocal”.(Fowkes. C, 1978)

In the Spotlight

Featured, Artist of the week here

Featured, part of International Artists here

Entering the world of  YouTube !!