the evening before meet the artist

 

and i returned from an evening walk thinking i'd like to write down some stuff about the trail. 

sitting with my laptop to write i became aware of the achy limbs and overall fatigue from today's heat. i recalled the times back in january when i wrote about the snow.

it has been a long journey to get the trail to this point and i thank all those involved in getting it ready for their effort and patience for staying with the process.  

for me right now i'm too close to be reflective about the journey, in fact after my walk i'm tired and would really like a cup of tea.

the website description has been tweaked for new visitors and all that is left to do is ... well nothing really. there's  the odd tweak here and there to satisfy process end.

we still have some preparations to do for the stall at the food festival and that can wait till next week. my thoughts turn to tim as he prepares for tomorrow... the car packed and all things set to go.  we've has loads of really positive and complimentary feedback about the radio interview. i'll write about that...however not now as just maybe i should have something to drink and put my feet up.  after all ... all the hard work is done. 

#belperarttrail update

as belper comes to the close of their arts festival, where is the belper art trail in it's preparations ?

well we're not doing too badly.  may has been so busy for the town that we've kept a low profile so that the trail can emerge during june. we certainly are liking the idea of the trail being discovered. we're also liking the possibility that in wandering around the trail in july that there's an opportunity to slow down and become a tourist in one's own town.  this is of course a sentiment that totally locally has proposed during may.

in terms of where we are with venues, the open and honest situation is that we still need at least two mores venues, if not three. the process of contacting and waiting is very much a waiting game and often without a conclusion. it affects so much that at times i get a little down about it. i become so like a teenager wanting to paint something that when it doesn't look like how i image it to be, i have a strop and storm off and play with my lego.

as deadlines for press releases approach we will soon have to make decisions and choices. 

once again my own journey is punctuated by height and lack of height. maybe it's this contrast that makes a journey interesting and memorable.  soon the audience will be able to make their own call on contrast as we will be there in july with the art trail.

i'm tempted to add..... come rain or shine ..... is this tempting something ....... time will tell !!!!!!

lunchtime reflection...

after a morning where we braved the sun and the rain and the hail to visit prospective venues for the trail.











i'd forgotten just how delicate an operation this part of organising the trail is. i say delicate as i learnt a very big lesson last year about the relationship between the art work and the venue that it's in. maybe in our first year we were just lucky as everything we tried simply worked. the second year had some steep learning, so this year i'm certainly keen to apply what we learnt.


we've begun the delicate operation and while relaxing with soup felt that we had had a good morning. there's still a lot of work to do and more venues to talk to, however i feel a lot happier now that we've visited venues and shown images and begun conversations.

there's follow up emails and information to send and more waiting to be done.

for us another stage of our journey has now begun.

learning from january weather

january presented many sledging and sliding opportunities and also one for me to experience how weather conditions affect decisions to do things.  

24 hours before the january peer to peer meeting we had clear roads and a venue that would be open. there was also a warning of overnight snow.  


reflecting upon last weekend, the peer to peer meeting went ahead not only because it was booked for that day but also so i could experience the position of potentially needing to make a decision based on weather conditions.  last weekend presented an opportunity to research something, so that in the future i can make decisions based on an informed position.

we did have a meeting with a small turn out, however once again the space to talk proved invaluable for those present.

since last weekend the weather has cleared of course and a return to a regular rythym of life has been noticed.






also since last weekend i visited the latest exhibition by ivan smith in the bulls head pub just outside belper.  i found smith's work amusing and placing it in a pub presents interesting discussional points about the liberalness of a white cube gallery space.  it's well worth the drive out to the pub to take in the ambience of an exhibition in a pub space.

preparations for the art trail continue. our january social media push about the call out has been responded to well and we've had some initial contact from sara brighty about her own journey project.  we were deleighted to recieve the email, so thank you sara and we look forward to your submission.  there's still time to spend time on your own journal journey before the deadline on march 10th.