I was hoping to put the link in for the "Five minutes with" article that was featured in the Burton Mail paper this week but they don't seem to have that part on line. No matter, I know the answers I gave the journalist although he had to edit them down to 420 words for the paper. I could have doubled that figure, easily! So, I'll give you my answers in full here...... which will give you a better insight into me.......
Born and bred
Born in Shropshire, then moved back to the Burton area since my parents are originally from here. My formative years were mostly in Repton (near Burton on Trent, East Midlands).
Hobbies
Film, photography, travel, reading, writing my blog, collecting wooden puzzles, walking, quiz shows, playing computer games
Favourite book - The Chimney Sweepers boy by Barbara Vine
Favourite film – Femme fatale, Perfume the story of a murderer, Notting Hill, Shakespeare in Love
Favourite food – Satay chicken with peanut dipping sauce
Proudest moment
Designing an erotic landscape where the couple are the geography of the land itself, after three months of hard work on it.
Having one of my tiger portraits win Ashby Art Clubs top prize, then having the artist doing the judging buy it from me.
Watching the sun rise over Machu Pichu in Peru
Exhibiting at Erotica, Olympia, London
Most embarrassing moment
Almost missing a flight out of Pisa, after waiting in the departure lounge for over an hour, finding that the flights weren’t actually announced, and having to run at full pelt from the departure lounge, along various empty corridors, across the tarmac, and arrived breathless on the plane, being the very last to arrive, whilst everyone else was seated and having to walk the length of the plane knowing that everyone on it despises you for being the idiots who held the plane up and almost lost the flight.
Biggest inspiration
Caravaggio, because of his use of strong dramatic light and darks, and the emotion he conveys in his art, as well as the fact that they are beautifully painted as well.
Hopes for the future
Wider recognition for my art, more solo exhibitions, inspiring others through my art. I currently have paintings hanging on walls on two continents, and I’m still working on the others!
Biggest/best achievement
The Fantasy Fannies series of paintings that I’ve created as they are the ultimate piece of feminine art. The are the most interesting of conversation pieces, since they contain humour, a deliciously naughty secret, are personal, bright and vibrant, and the ultimate of feminine portraits. They have empowered the women who have participated in them, since they find them therapeutic and spiritual. And they have touched women worldwide as far away as New Zealand, USA and Canada.
Travelling unaccompanied through Japan when we didn’t speak the language, or could even read it.
If you ruled the world ........
I’d get rid of road humps, call centres, cold calling, phone menu options, and my paintings would hang on everyone’s walls!
Pet hate – Road humps
Greatest love
The power of communication - whether it is through the spoken word, touch, empathy, painting pictures for other peoples pleasure, or my own, the written word, or just the look between two people.
Favourite belonging
A very large framed photo I have on the wall and look at daily, it depicts a moody sky, the sea, a beach, black rocks, and the stream of water in the foreground carving through the sand as it snakes down towards the sea is almost the shape of a woman’s body. I get great pleasure looking at the picture and find it very inspirationally uplifting and also calming at the same time.
Perfect night in/out
Being in the company of good friends, when the conversation, wine, and laughter flows.
What will your epitaph say
She brought a lot of pleasure to people through her art. She touched people’s hearts and they felt more enriched through knowing her. She was an inspiration. And she had a dirty laugh!
Showing posts with label personal details. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal details. Show all posts
Friday, 4 March 2011
Monday, 8 June 2009
What on earth do you look like?
Does it matter what I look like? Is it important? Does it matter what sort of person I am and how I appeal to people?
I'm beginning to think it might.......................
Last week I had quite a bit of correspondence going back and forth between me and the library where I am hoping to exhibit next year. I'd met the woman I'm corresponding with at Stuarts Writers group, as she is part of it, and she also works for the library and thinks my erotic art would be fabulous at her library. Great!!! Very exciting, and a delight that she was so enthusiastic and positive about my art, and about me too. BUT, she and I both knew that I do erotic art, and some people struggle with it, and they might struggle a lot with it in a public library, if they are of a sensitive nature - or, of course, children. Some of my art is not at all suitable for children to view. I understand that. So, for that reason, I was asked to send some erotic images to my new friend at the library for her to check with her colleagues that it was "acceptable". No problem. I sent 30 of my more "acceptable" ones, 29 of which only had a single woman in the picture, so there was nothing sexual going on between two people in any of the pictures. The answer came back that whilst all the work was considered good and accomplished, some of it was deemed to be a little risque for the library, but if I would like to get together a collection of my other art, and put in some of the tamer erotic stuff, then that was fine by them, and I could ring up to book a date for next year. So, I rang to make the arrangement, and had another positive and upbeat conversation with my contact there. She made me smile when she said that some of the little old ladies might complain about some of my art and yet they took out "Mills and Boon" books by the dozens, and those books in particular are FULL of erotic goings on on EVERY page!!! I'm imagining all these fevered old ladies now getting all hot and bothered by the muscular thighs, square shoulders, tight buttocks, chiselled jaws but sensitive hands of Peregrine or whatever the hero's are called as they rip the clothes off the heroines in a frenzied and heated passionate embrace!
But, there was something else she said, that made me think. She said that she had shown my website to her female colleagues for them to see what sort of work I do. And whereas the art was considered acceptable as most of these women in their 50's and 60's had "seen it all before" there was one burning question they were intrigued about...............
They wanted to know........................... what I looked like. Was I young or old? Was I a punk with spiky hair? What was I like as a person? It REALLY mattered to them.
And that's got me thinking. Because last week I went to the annual art festival at Patchings and had a lovely day there looking around the arts and crafts being sold there, buying a few art materials, and chatting with the artist friends I bumped into whilst I was there. But there was one artist whose work bowled me over, it was stupendous. It was stunning (I'm not chosing these words lightly, I truly was *stunned* by them to the point of losing my words to start with, then after having a long and very positive chat with the artist in question, I had a strong feeling of the other art there being of a far lesser quality, and therefore not so important for me to spend my time looking at it afterwards!). But when I told other people about her, I said "The artwork was stupendous, the technical ability was fabulous, the way it was painted really spoke to me, the choice of composition called me, and the artist was a really nice person, she was lovely to talk to, and look at, and I really liked her!"
So. Have I answered my own question. Should I put more about myself on my website? Should I put a photo of myself on it? Would it make a difference to the people who like my art? Could they relate to me better because of it?
I've always presumed that I don't need to put more personal details on my site, because "the art talks for itself". But does it say enough?
And as a post-script: One of the reasons I haven't put my photo on my website is because I do erotic art. And I'm a woman. So, if I put my photo on my website, am I going to get aggravation from it?
What do you think? And I know some of you know me in real life, and some of you don't have a clue what I look like.
Does it matter?
I'm beginning to think it might.......................
Last week I had quite a bit of correspondence going back and forth between me and the library where I am hoping to exhibit next year. I'd met the woman I'm corresponding with at Stuarts Writers group, as she is part of it, and she also works for the library and thinks my erotic art would be fabulous at her library. Great!!! Very exciting, and a delight that she was so enthusiastic and positive about my art, and about me too. BUT, she and I both knew that I do erotic art, and some people struggle with it, and they might struggle a lot with it in a public library, if they are of a sensitive nature - or, of course, children. Some of my art is not at all suitable for children to view. I understand that. So, for that reason, I was asked to send some erotic images to my new friend at the library for her to check with her colleagues that it was "acceptable". No problem. I sent 30 of my more "acceptable" ones, 29 of which only had a single woman in the picture, so there was nothing sexual going on between two people in any of the pictures. The answer came back that whilst all the work was considered good and accomplished, some of it was deemed to be a little risque for the library, but if I would like to get together a collection of my other art, and put in some of the tamer erotic stuff, then that was fine by them, and I could ring up to book a date for next year. So, I rang to make the arrangement, and had another positive and upbeat conversation with my contact there. She made me smile when she said that some of the little old ladies might complain about some of my art and yet they took out "Mills and Boon" books by the dozens, and those books in particular are FULL of erotic goings on on EVERY page!!! I'm imagining all these fevered old ladies now getting all hot and bothered by the muscular thighs, square shoulders, tight buttocks, chiselled jaws but sensitive hands of Peregrine or whatever the hero's are called as they rip the clothes off the heroines in a frenzied and heated passionate embrace!
But, there was something else she said, that made me think. She said that she had shown my website to her female colleagues for them to see what sort of work I do. And whereas the art was considered acceptable as most of these women in their 50's and 60's had "seen it all before" there was one burning question they were intrigued about...............
They wanted to know........................... what I looked like. Was I young or old? Was I a punk with spiky hair? What was I like as a person? It REALLY mattered to them.
And that's got me thinking. Because last week I went to the annual art festival at Patchings and had a lovely day there looking around the arts and crafts being sold there, buying a few art materials, and chatting with the artist friends I bumped into whilst I was there. But there was one artist whose work bowled me over, it was stupendous. It was stunning (I'm not chosing these words lightly, I truly was *stunned* by them to the point of losing my words to start with, then after having a long and very positive chat with the artist in question, I had a strong feeling of the other art there being of a far lesser quality, and therefore not so important for me to spend my time looking at it afterwards!). But when I told other people about her, I said "The artwork was stupendous, the technical ability was fabulous, the way it was painted really spoke to me, the choice of composition called me, and the artist was a really nice person, she was lovely to talk to, and look at, and I really liked her!"
So. Have I answered my own question. Should I put more about myself on my website? Should I put a photo of myself on it? Would it make a difference to the people who like my art? Could they relate to me better because of it?
I've always presumed that I don't need to put more personal details on my site, because "the art talks for itself". But does it say enough?
And as a post-script: One of the reasons I haven't put my photo on my website is because I do erotic art. And I'm a woman. So, if I put my photo on my website, am I going to get aggravation from it?
What do you think? And I know some of you know me in real life, and some of you don't have a clue what I look like.
Does it matter?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)