Unexpected changes

I really enjoyed chatting to the journalist from the Burton Mail the other day. I was pleased he'd given me 20 hours to mull over the questions, because that meant I could give him some indepth answers. But then his questions were very deeply personal ones as well.

It was a real fun thing to do, and we went through the answers over the phone. But I had to give him a pre-warning before we'd even started........

Some of the answers had been changed, to ones that were more a little more, well, suitable for a family newspaper.   Ok, he said with a laugh.... and we started with the questions....

Where and when I was born, hobbies, favourite food (which he was surprised about since my choice wasn't a typical one), favourite book (again a surprise for him since he'd never heard of it) and favourite film (I did really well and narrowed it down to four from about twenty! Since I've never had the just one answer!). Proudest moment, biggest inspiration, biggest love, favourite belonging, most embarrassing moment, hopes for the future, what I'd like to have written on my epitaph, but it was when we got to biggest and best achievement that we had the biggest problem. Because I was emphatic on my answer, and knew that he would struggle to put it in the paper. When I explained, he said that he himself was ok about it, but the paper wouldn't be. Ok, then, how do we phrase it so that they are happy with it, because this is definitely my answer. Ok......  I told him how I would word it, and asked him which part he wasn't happy about, and it was the one word I was expecting, the rest was ok. So, we had to write it so that I got the point across without spelling it all out in exact wording to make the vicar blush! 

At the end of the session, he had a word count and was surprised that it was 600 odd, and that left him with a problem since it had to be 420. Ok, a bit of editing needed to be done then! Between us we went through what he had written, and he apologised for the fact we had to cut my words down, and he said that normally people don't put enough words in and it needs padding out. I said I could have easily doubled it, and had struggled in the first place to cut it down to make it more succinct! We worked on the phrasing, and between us got it down to 420 words. I said to him that he was the expert wordsmith and should know how to do it naturally, but as I worked through it he said I did it easily, and I grinned over the phone and said I wrote a blog post two or three days a week so was used to it!

I enjoyed chatting to him very much, and have a feeling we'll chat again.


Oh, and the thing that I feel is my biggest and best achievement, and the thing we had problems with? Well, it was the Fantasy Fannies, of course! LOL
I think we rephrased it to something like "feminine abstracts" which sort of hinted at it, without it being a problem for the paper!!!!

And whilst I'm on unexpected changes, I have offered to make a few subtle changes to the erotic abstract that I finished the other week, since the woman I did it for finds it a little perplexing still. Now, don't get me wrong, she knows exactly what is in the picture, and why, but she can only see parts of the image. It seems like I've made it overly complicated! We had discussed it a number of times, and I wanted her to look at it and be happy with it, not frustrated and confused, so I offered to make it a little more obvious, and she gratefully accepted. I shall do them infront of her and explain the changes first so that she can see what I'm going to do. Her children can't see anything in it but blobs and erratic shapes, so adding a few more blobs shouldn't make it less so, but it might make it a little more obviously erotic.......

I'll show you when I've done it, and explain a little about it for you.................

Radio days

I was early. I had made a point of being early.
Because I wasn't sure what to expect, this was ALL new territory for me!

I walked in to the reception at Radio Derby and was greeted by a smiling black girl - hardly surprising since this was the "African Caribbean Experience" show that I was going to appear on.  She showed me through to a glass fronted office and a black guy looked up "Are you G-Man?" I asked and he replied "How did you guess?" as we shook hands. He montioned me to a seat as he carried on checking his emails and chatting with another guy there, discussing recent sports events and asking for opinions and offering his own. I watched him with interest and asked how long he'd been doing the show? "Not long, twenty five years" he said, and I grinned at his joke. He made his preparations, then kindly took me around the empty building to show me where the offices, news desk, sports desk and the other, empty, studio were, explaining that it was similar to the one he used and showing me the various controls so that I had a basic understanding of his working environment. All very interesting and novel, to me! But then, people are invariably fascinated in my work as an artist, since it's so different to theirs, and other people's work places are always a place of wonder and intrigue and mystery.

We went back to the reception area, and more people were gathered there, I hadn't got a clue why, or who they were or what their purpose was. Was it normal to have that many people there? Were they part of the show? The clock on the wall showed it was two minutes before the show was due to start, the other black presenter signed off, and G-Man replaced him in the presenters seat, as we all filed in. There were a few more than the four he said he was allowed - infact, I counted EIGHTEEN!

He indicated that I should sit opposite him, as he knew I was new to this and wasn't quite sure what to expect, since nothing had been explained, it was all so very laid back and relaxed. Probably, a good thing for my debut show!

He played some music, the guy next to me was texting, someone else was reading a paper, the blonde girl on the other side of me was from the local visual arts place with loads of information of forthcoming events, the  guy next to me made the odd comment throughout the show to G-Man. When the red light came on, it was live, and it was obvious to anyone listening that there were a lot of people in the room, but their voices were silent. Weird. G-Man had said that his show was unlike any other, and I could see why!

He passed around the sweets I'd taken, as he rang a musician in America and chatted to him about his music and his latest album and played a couple of tracks from it. Then it was the turn of the blonde girl next to me to tell of the forthcoming art events in Derby. G-Man played another track then whilst he played it, he said it was my turn next. Ok.............

We chatted, and he asked me about the exhibition I'd got on at the Burton library, the times, what sort of art I did, I'd taken some artwork with me to show him, and there were gasps of "That's good!" from the collective group, as they looked at them and he made comments and asked a bit about me and my art.  Then my four minutes was up, and as he played more music. I had to move to stand at the side of the room whilst someone else replaced me to talk.  Eight mintues later and the show had finished.

But my art had created a buzz - the texting guy was intrigued with the bright colours of the "living flame" picture, and asked me if it was the chakras I had depicted within the picture, I explained about the life-force being shown, and he really related to it. And the smiling girl who'd greeted me in the first place came over to say hello and say how much she'd liked my art, she was G-Man's daughter I realised as I started to sort out who was who in that room.

I went over to say thanks to G-Man and we hugged as I kissed him on the cheek and he said "You know where I am now, and you've got my number if you want to come again!" I thanked him, he said he was going to look at my exhibition tomorrow, and we exchanged business cards as I picked up my stuff and headed out onto the street. And it was only a few seconds later that I wondered who ALL those people in that studio WERE - since only six of us had spoken!!!!