Arts Weekend

Sunday 2nd April
Arts weekend for women

Last weekend Clare and I held our workshop for women in Bethnal Green. We were exploring how to find and work with your inner guide, working from the outer perceptions of ourselves as women, and those images of ourselves presented in the media ect.to an inner experience of ourselves.

We used meditation, reflection and discussion and then played around with art materials,to start to make connection with that deeper aspect of ourselves that can be a source of guidance and confidence.

Over the weekend we worked hard, enjoyed ourselves and produced some great images of what our inner guide might look like, or found colours, forms and textures that corresponded in some way with our sense of intuition, heart connection or deeper sense of ourselves.
Initial feedback was very good, which was great, putting on events that are a bit different is always a bit nerve wracking I find.

I found myself with imagery reminiscent of folk stories coming out in the work I did over the weekend. Clare and I always demonstrate using the materials and try to do some of the same work ourselves. When I've been on art events or classes I always wanted to see what the tutors did themselves, and they rarely ever showed anything of the process of their work, which as an artist I'm always deeply interested in.
I'm going to follow up people to see if I can post some photos of the weekend here.

I've been reading an interesting little book Class Myths and Culture by Stefan Szczelkun, Ruth must have found it in a charity shop at some point. For those interested in class issues, it is good. I think the bit about the exploitation of artists struck me, as I attempt to start trying to make a living as an artist.
"There is a massive amount of paid workers living off art. Gallery curators, attendants, frame makers, glass manufacturers, auctioneers, critics, magazine and newspaper owners, TV programme makers, local and national arts bodies, publishers, administrators, technicians, tutors, so many people rely for their living on the artist who is paid next to nothing.
And art is defined as NOT WORK. It's play, It's pleasure, It's fun, It's non repetitive, so it cannot be work"
Just a taste of what's in the book.

Urban Arts Retreat
No sooner is one weekend over than Clare and I are back continuing with the planning and publicity for our next event, more details to follow.