Speaking to the crowd

My friend the librarian rang me yesterday with a proposal.

It was one she had mentioned to me last July when I had my exhibition at the library, and she had been so upbeat about my art, and about me as an artist then, so the full invite wasn't a surprise, it was just that I wasn't expecting it JUST yet! She asked me if I still wanted to do it? Yes, I said, I do. She said that if my nerves were going to get the better of me, it was best if I backed out now, before they have the publicity printed. No, I said, I will do it. I said I would last year, and stand by my promises. Ok, she said, as she gave me the date, and the time, and told me what was expected of me. I listened to her, she's always so inspirational in her positive attitude and supportive comments, and feeds my positivity. I could feel the excitement rise in me as we made the arrangements.

It helps somewhat that there will be more than just me there. But, I can see why she's asked me, and I can see my place within the setting. And I feel strongly that it is the right setting for me. There will be others there too, also doing their bit, although their "bits" are different to mine, but then perhaps that's what will make it more interesting for the audience.The audience isn't expected to be more than a hundred people, but it will be bigger than I've spoken to before, hence her asking me if I was still happy with the idea. 

The event is for Women in Arts, and she wants me to be part of it. I am proud to have been asked, and especially happy to accept since I am a female artist, mainly doing art based on women and the female form, so I can see my place there. I also know that part of what I do is good therapy for the people who have posed for me, and that I produce artwork that people really respond to, and which I hope is life enhancing. So, I am passionate about my profession as well as my art.

She wants me to talk for fifteen minutes with perhaps five minutes afterwards for questions. She assures me that as soon as I smile, I will win them over. She suggested I talk about any funny moments, any amusing tales, and just to talk about what I do..... as an Erotic Artist. Ok, an interesting subject already, and one that will intrigue most people before I start. Its my subject. I just need to get the subject matter in order, and dredge up the amusing tales.... there are enough of them, and certainly it helped when the librarian referred to me being the "cheeky one" during the event. I like that! It is, after all a cheeky subject. And although I am professional in my approach, I try to include humour and cheekiness within my demeanor, it helps to break any awkward moments I suppose for other people. I've got a few weeks to prepare, but I want to start as soon as I can to get my notes ready, and think what points I want to get across....... and whether I should mention the Fantasy Fannies or not. UUmmm........

Talking to the magic writers

I quite enjoyed it, in the end, talking to the writers at Stuarts Magic Attic group. But I'd spent all week writing, re-writing, editing and practising my talk. It was only ten minutes, and in a way it was harder doing ten minutes than a longer time, because there is so much I wanted to say, but had to keep it down to the bare facts. Of course, it helped enormously that Stuart did his talk before mine, as he was an excellent "warm up" guy - being both entertaining and amusing. And that's hard to do - to be funny. And in the right places! But he's clever with words, and that helps.

I hadn't met any of the writers before, and they knew nothing about me or the subject matter of Stuarts or my talk. And I wasn't sure what any of them wrote about until I got there, and had an introductory chat with the woman running the meeting. Most of them were local historians. Ok, then, no problem. And some had never been before. Ok, then, no problem. And the talk wasn't to go over ten minutes, as people start to get bored then. Ok, no problem. What about mentioning erotic art then I asked. Better not, she said. Ok, then, good job I'd decided on a two part talk, the basic promotional one, and the other about the more specific very erotic art. I'll cut the second part, don't want any of them walking out in disgust and being offended.

I went up to the meeting room with Stuart and his wife, and we decided where to sit - I opted for the far end of the room, with a wall behind me, as then I could put my art carrying bag down easier, and also could talk to the room, without having to swivel around to include the people behind me. It was all very informal, with tables laid out in the refectory style, with seats either side. There were about 25 people there, drinking tea and coffee and chatting, and I was told they meet every three months.

Stuart and I settled ourselves in, and I sat conversing with the woman next to me, who I hadn't ever met before but she knew all about my website and the artwork on it because Stuart had told her about it months ago after I'd done the drawings of him and he'd shown them to her. He's a walking advert for me!!

After a few minutes the meeting started, a few points that needed mentioning, then we were introduced as the speakers "Stuart and his friend Jackie". Stuart stood and did his talk. (The gist of it is featured here on my blog). And he entertained them beautifully, and they laughed in all the right places, and he got a rousing round of applause for his efforts. Then it was my turn, I stood, and explained that I was an unusual artist because of all the different types of art I do, so I call myself an erotic artist as it gets me noticed more! I explained what erotic art is, and how I started doing it, I told them I was in two art organisations - Ashby Guild of Artists, and the Guild of Erotic Artists, and that I had sold artwork locally and internationally to Canada, and the USA. I said I was a writer too, in that I write a blog, and told them about my website, and said that if any of them wanted any illustrations done for their books, or a dog portrait doing, for them to contact me, and said I had flyers and business cards to hand out to them all there. That was it - ten minutes! And I got a good round of applause too. Phew!

But that's just the fishing, I suppose. That's the bait thrown out and I never know what sort of interested things I'm going to catch with it...........................

A few people came over to view Stuarts drawings that he keeps in a large folder. He hadn't held them up incase any of them didn't want to view them, someone had joked earlier that he should have had them on the large projection screen behind him!

Then they came to me - the first chap asked me how much it would cost to repaint a print he had of a dog picture, I replied that I'd have to see it to be able to give him a full answer, but yes, it was certainly possible for me to do it for him....

The second chap asked if I would do a talk to his local civic group of 50 or 60 people, maybe next year, and I said I would be interested in doing it.....

The third chap said that Stuarts and my talk were the best thing they'd ever had at the Magic Attic, and that he was a speaker who did two or three talks a week to local groups, on local history. He'd written a few books that he pointed out to me on the shelf at the side of the room, one of the books was about the history of the privy, and he said he knew within five minutes of talking to a group, about which stories he could tell, and which to avoid!!!!!!!! He asked if I was on the WI list of speakers, and I said no, it was only the second talk I'd ever done, but I'd bear it in mind.

And the fourth person was the most interesting for me - she was fascinated with the white on black erotic drawings that I do and asked me if I'd be interested in exhibiting at Burton on Trents library. Yes I would! She said that she would book me straight away, if she could, but because it was erotic, would have to check it out with her colleagues. Ok, that's fine. I can do tasteful and acceptable art for the visitors to the library, it doesn't have to be strongly erotic.

So, ALL good stuff!

And I found them a friendly bunch of people, who made me most welcome. So that was nice too.

And maybe someone is writing a book, and maybe they want some illustrations, and maybe they'll contact me. But at least they know who I am now, and they didn't the day before.......

Relishing new beginnings

My new friend Stuart rang me the other day to say that later on in the year he's been booked in to do a talk to a local group of 50 or so writers, and has asked me if I'd like to go along to hear him speak, as I think he's going to talk about his experience of being drawn by me, probably in a bit of a humorous way - it made me smile at the thought, so I said I'd be glad to! A couple of days after that he rang again to confirm it, and asked if I'd also like to speak to the group for a few minutes or so, and after the briefest of moments to think about it - I said I would.... it should be fun........ if I don't upset them too much.... "Hi, my name's Jackie Adshead and I'm an erotic artist"..........sharp intake of breath from the collective audience......!!!! LOL Well. if the Women's Institute can stand it, I'm sure local writers can too - I do ordinary landscapes, and flowers, and paintings of vanilla things too, you know!!! Tee hee!

Chatting with a friend the other day, she said that a friend of hers had seen an erotic painting of mine, and had screamed out loud when she saw it, and covered her eyes in mock horror - I know I like a reaction to my art, but I did wonder if this seems somewhat extreme (LOL). She did then spend fifteen minutes staring very intently at it, and analysing it. This was the painting that caused the reaction. I suppose I'm so used to painting erotic art, I forget that some people are only used to chocolate box pictures of fluffy kittens and horses in fields.....

And this week I've spent a lot of time thinking of pastel shades. They're not colours that I usually go for on their own, because I normally paint with dramatic colours. But, I'm getting into the subtleties of these really beautiful colours, and liking where they are taking me, so far. I'm half way through a painting using them, and liking the restraint I'm putting on myself to keep to the soft pinks, blues, oranges and sunshine yellows that I'm using. I shall be interested to see how the painting turns out when its finished....... Does that sound odd, that even I don't know how the painting will look when its complete, and I'm creating it! Usually, I know exactly, and I think I actually do know....thinking about it - I can see it in my minds eye already.