Long Live Alan Measles

Tick,Tock,Tick,Tock... The relentless march of time has become a little overwhelming just recently hence the absence from blogging. Each week seems to bring a new commitment. Number of exhibitions now committed to for next year -4, number in the pipeline for 2013 onwards so far - 3. Its all very exciting but I must be careful not to allow quantity to override quality.

Some of these I can divulge;-

3 venues now in place for the Bridging Waters work - one of which will be a textile weekend hosted by Material Girls with all sorts of goodies other than the exhibition on offer in a delightful country venue in May (so watch out for more info on that)

and

A brand new arts trail being set up in Romford this summer as part of the cultural olympiad. Needless to say I have ended up in the organising group (basically if you came to the initial meeting you were hijacked!) .

The other events you will have to wait for news of but it will be worth the wait- definitely for one we will be trying to break totally new ground with regards to textiles. Am I tempting you?

In the meantime I have just been to the new Grayson Perry exhibition at the British Museum 'Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman' (what a great name)

and I am totally inspired . Perry's work is always a joy - beautiful and humorous and totally unpretentious. The balance between hi s pieces and those items from the museum collection were thought provoking but somehow just 'right' and I've come away with oodles of ideas.

And the best thing - the very best thing -was the ethos. Nowhere was there one piece of art speak- just plain English and common sense. The whole exhibition seemed to say 'welcome all, enjoy, have fun and just appreciate these beautiful things for what they are'. That doesn't mean to say pieces had no concept behind them - there was a reason, a concept for all , thought and care and love they just weren't trying to pretend they were something they weren't and trying to exclude those who weren't 'in on the language'.

There was one quote that really resonated with me

" Craftsmanship is often equated with precision but I think there is more to it. I feel it is more important to have a long and sympathetic hands-on relationship with materials. A relaxed.humble. ever curious love of stuff is central to my idea of being an artist. An important quality of great art of the past was the pure skill in the artist's use of materials. In celebrating craftsmanship I also salute the artists,well, most of them"

Grayson Perry 2011

And then there's Alan Measles- whats not to love about a rather battered well loved teddy bear.

Long live Alan Measles and all who love him.