Exhibition Excursions

Another week has flashed past. On Saturday I visited the CHAT exhibition in Thaxted(Essex). I always enjoy this exhibition because, not only is it in a very pretty venue, but the work is always inspired. Having said that though I was slightly disappointed this year. CHAT's number were down which may have been the problem but for me it didn't have its usual spark. I think special mention should be made to Helen O'leary's work called 'King and Country' which was extremely evocative, well executed and thought provoking. Of course they allow no pictures so I'm afraid readers will have to track down their website.
On Monday it was my birthday- usually we don't do much but I always refuse to cook so I might get a Chinese takeaway if I'm lucky, but some of the Material Girls had been invited to one of our member's houses. She moved there last year and this was the first time I had visited and it is so pretty. A country cottage with roses around the door opposite a village pub need I say more. We were supposed to be discussing our work for the forthcoming ERTF exhibition (and we did a bit) but really it was just a nice day out with lunch in the pub. It was really nice to do something on my birthday and the weather was beautiful.
Then after working flat out on my module for the rest of the week I met up with some of the ERTF and JCS girls to visit the JCS graduates show yesterday. (again no piccies allowed -sorry)
This year it was held in the Gallery in Redchurch Street instead of its usual Mall Galleries venue. It had a somewhat different atmosphere needless to say- down the road from Brick Lane rather than down the road from Buckingham Palace- and personally I can't say the venue enthused me. There was always a great buzz at the Mall Galleries but I found Redchurch Street rather dead. Shoreditch is supposed to be terribly trendy but it will take a bit to convince me and I was born a Londoner. There were only 5 graduates exhibiting this year and the Mall Galleries are horrendously expensive so that was obviously a consideration but it still seems a shame. Congratulations to all the graduates but a special mention for the wonderful work of Susie Vickery (who produced exactly what I thought she would - wonderful interesting and incredibly executed work) and Andrea Butler.
We them progressed on to the Truman Building to view Loughborough Unis. Textile Show and wow! what an explosion of colour and talent. Brilliant work and sketchbooks so big congrats. to all.
We rounded off the afternoon at Spitalfields market with coffee and chat - which was the best bit of all. It is so lovely to meet up with the JCS and ERTF girls. Distance learning is quite a lonely pursuit and the chance to get together with like minded people is worth its weight in gold- we had a really good time, some moans, a lot of discussion and most of all lots of laughs.
ps. The Julia Caprara School of Textile Art website should be up and running in a month or so and they have big plans. It could be a very exciting future after such a down period.

Stressed out already

This new JCS module has only just started and I've already written in excess of 5000 words this week and that's just on a couple of assignments and doesn't include notes, reading and research. I'm a long way off the actual essay yet. The topic - professional practice- is really interesting and will definitely be of use in the future its just that its MORE writing and that really wasn't what I signed up for. Also its really difficult to fit this sort of work in during the summer semester as the family is home much more and want to go out and about, Uni. open days to attend , animals to look after, gardening to do, there are 2 exhibitions looming large and the work for those is nowhere near finished and the fact that we have holiday (I know I shouldn't moan because I haven't had a break since last August and really need it) coming up means less time to get the work finished. Goodness knows when I'll fit in the housework, perhaps I'll give up sleeping!

Here, There and Everywhere

Its been a very busy weekend. Had to accompany Kirsty to the first of the University open days on Saturday. So that meant a trip to Elephant and Castle to take a look at South Bank. It was quite impressive and would give her the opportunity to train at Great Ormond Street or Tommys at Guys which certainly isn't to be sneezed at. They have told her she is already eligible to commence the course so long as she passes interview and numeracy and literacy tests- the only one she is worried about is the numeracy as she hates maths but I know she will manage it and told her to just practice the areas that the senior nursing lecturer suggested. She won't be interviewing until next year as she can't commence until she is 18 so she might as well get 'A' levels under her belt as well. I think the next 2 open days are at Kings College and then City - both of which will allow her to train in specialist London Paediatric units so its fingers crossed she gets into the one she likes.
After the presentations I suggested we eat at the Tate Modern but the walk was slightly longer than I thought , however, the food in their cafe was excellent as usual. I did think I might manage to persuade them to look around but Martin Glazed over after 10 seconds so it was a quick flit around the bookshop and home via the 'wibbly, wobbly' bridge and Mansion House .
Today I managed to get an interview with Yvonne Pedretti at her studio during the Leigh Arts Trail. The work there was great and yvonne really helpful. I did take piccies to use for my module but as I don't have permission to put them on the web I'm afraid I'll just suggest you look her up. She doesn't have a big web presence but you will be able to find her. Her work is really different and quite absorbing, she works with fibre optic lights to create wonderful sea creatures and structures so I would recommend a look.
Next weekend I'm off to see the Chat exhibition at Thaxted before it closes- so long as the other half isn't 'arted out'.

Better Late than Never

Tea and Textiles

The Tea and Textiles event went really well last Friday despite the fact that it rained all day on and off which meant we weren't able to hang work in the Garden. We had about 50 people in all- some were already ERTF members others came from EG, the degree course, quilters and even calligraphers. It was a great chance just to have some social interaction but although it was enjoyable I don't think I will be repeating the experience in the near future as the amount of work to put on this relatively small event was horrendous. I didn't get a chance to take any photos but one of the other Material Girls did so I'm going to try and post a couple of her images on this blog. The work is a complete mixture of levels from my group and some I'm afraid is quite old as we are saving our 'new stuff' for our next exhibition.
Now its down to the degree with a vengeance. Tomorrow I have my first proper tutorial for this module and I'm hoping my tutor will be able to sort out some of my confusion. I've also got an exhibition or art/degree associated event every weekend now until the end of August so its going to be even more hectic than usual.

Why do I do these things?

Well the Clothes Show went well. The girls both seemed to have a great time even though they spent most of the time drawling over George Lamb, even the replacement service for the underground- the Fashion Bus- ran smoothly and the catwalk show was excellent. its a shame they don't cater for anyone over size 10 or age 25 but it was an experience. I also picked up a vintage handbag for next to nothing and am now trying to work out if its 1930s or 50s. There was also one buried at the bottom that I suspect was 1910ish but I couldn't run to what they wanted even though I still think it was cheap.
I've started the professional practice module and am a little confused (as usual) but hope the fog will clear once I'm really into it next week. As for now I'm prepping for a Tea and Textiles event for the ERTF that's taking place at my house on Friday.We Material Girls are providing the art and the cakes and Liz is bringing her shop Threads 'n Things, to provide the shopping fix. We could end up with 10 people we could end up with 50, who knows. So for the next 2 days I am cleaning, making cakes, hanging work and after all that fine weather they are predicting rain - why do I get myself into these things? wish me luck.