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No, not a reference to songs by Lionel Ritchie or Ella Fitzgerald but rather the name of my latest print, which includes elements pertaining to an unusual type of performance from the 19th century – ceiling walking. This is the first of a new mini-series that I’m doing on an ongoing basis that will be smaller both in the scale of the series and in the size of the actual prints, making them more suited to selling through outlets such as the arts markets and in shops. This one will also be part of this year’s Edinburgh Printmakers Winter Exhibition which opens on 14th November and they will be for sale through the gallery there and also at the Christmas Arts Market at Out of the Blue on the 5th, 12th and 13th of December. Oh and on my website and etsy shop too (incidently I’ve set all shipping costs on my website to zero hence the higher price). I will be trying to produce as many new ones before the market as possible, as well as a new Christmas card design for this year and a re-print of last year’s design too. I’ll also be putting up simple instructions here soon on how to float mount these small prints, which is the best way to display them.
‘Dancing on the Ceiling‘ Screenprint, © Sharon Whyte 2009
All of this does not mean that work on the major new series has ceased, however. It is still in the development stage, and no actual printing will take place until early 2010 (other than the odd test print). Producing these smaller prints keeps me in the workshop though which is good, and with screenprinting I find that I learn something new with every print I produce – therefore it’s all preparation for ensuring that I keep producing better and better work. Indeed I am feeling extremely enthused about the new project and the book, especially since my recent visit to the home of magic historian Eddie Dawes and his wife Amy, who herself has done a lot of research and writing on the subject of female magicians. They have an incredible collection and their generosity in sharing it and in sharing their knowledge is truly inspiring and I feel incredibly privileged to have been able to spend that time with them.
My recent series of prints on the subject of learned animal performers are still touring the Highlands as part of the magic themed exhibition Now You See It, with the show in Inverness opening on the 14th of November at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery. I’ll be going to the private view on the 13th armed with my camera to record this, the first showing of a full series of my work in a public art gallery, which I’m a little bit excited about! I’ll also be represented at the Edinburgh Art Fair this year for the first time by the Mansfield Park Gallery who will be at stand 16.
I’m very happy to report that two of the learned animal prints are now in the collection of Paintings in Hospitals for London and the Southern Regions. The Java Sparrows and Munito at Work were chosen by the curator and could now end up on display at any hospital in the region that they cover (there are different collections for each region). I do really think that having art in hospitals is of benefit to people, so I was really happy to donate to the collection.
That balanced out the rather negative experience of being involved in the fiasco that was the closing of the Artworks Galleries in Newcastle. I won’t go into too much detail because I’m trying to just forget about it all now, but basically I had work there when the bailiffs were sent in to seize everything due to the owner Matt Forster not paying his rent and sub-letting part of the property but keeping the money himself (he’s also angered a lot of artists by allegedly not giving them the money owed to them from work that he has sold of theirs – and he’s supposed to be an artist himself!) and it was a real pain trying to get my work back. I’m pleased to say that myself and two other artists I know who had work there Chantal Powell and Annabel De Vetten did all get our stuff back, but when I visited the auction house there was so much artwork there and I very much doubt that all of it made its way safely back to the artists who made it as we were not told about any of this happening and only discovered it by chance.
The fact that things like this can happen so easily makes it very hard to want to do the things that you have to do as an artist in order to have your work seen – ie: just hand over your work to people – especially since the insurance that’s available to artists is either prohibitively expensive or just not that good (often it doesn’t cover the full cost of the work, or it’s only for one off exhibitions, not usually for long term loan on a sale or return basis) but then again the vast majority of galleries are not in the business of ripping people off and provide a good service to the artists they represent. I just wish there was some way of knowing beforehand if the person you are dealing with has a bad reputation or not.
Anyway, on a more positive note to end with, please do come along to the Arts Market and the exhibition at Edinburgh Printmakers if you live in Edinburgh and support local artists and crafts people by buying original Christmas presents – much better than 3 for 2 at a certain high street retailer! And if you come to my stall and tell me about 3 non-bog-standard presents that you’ll be giving people this year then I’ll give you a discount. For years I’ve been considering giving up on Christmas altogether – what with my being completely non-religious just for starters, but also because I can’t stand the ritual exchange of either absurdly expensive or absurdly crap commercial presents (especially since I can’t afford the absurdly expensive ones!) – but I’ve now decided that instead of giving up on it altogether, since there are aspects of it that I really like, that I’m going to produce a special print edition every year that will be exclusively for friends and family and won’t be sold anywhere and give those as gifts instead. If you were hoping for an unnervingly pink bubble bath gift set with matching eye mask you’re out of luck I’m afraid.
So happily I can now reveal a couple of things that I’ve been keeping under my hat recently, one is that A Sage of the Stage, not a Beast in a Cage (I’m suddenly starting to regret choosing such a long title for this series since I’ve now had to type it so many times!) will go on tour from September as part of an exhibition organised by the Touring Exhibitions Unit of Highland Council called Now You See It! which will start off on 19th September at the Swanson Gallery in Thurso, moving on to Inverness Museum and Art Gallery on 14th November and then finally onto the St. Fergus Gallery in Wick on 16th January 2010. I’m really delighted to have been asked to take part in this magic themed exhibition – I think it’s going to be fantastic! I’ll be putting up more information about it as and when I get it.
The other thing is that I’m going to be doing a talk (eek) at the West Port Book Festival in Edinburgh on 14th August, along with my good friend, magician, musician and book collector, Gordon Bruce. I’m thrilled to be appearing at all but to get to do this talk along with Gordon is really quite amazing for me. Gordon is a legend in the magic world! So no pressure then *gulp*. I’ll be talking about the learned animals series and what went into creating it, as well as telling a little bit about the subject matter and the books that I used and that inspired me to do it in the first place. Some of the pieces will also be on show throughout the three days of the festival at various venues as part of the Magic Trail. Also appearing as part of the trail will be fabulous magicians in the form of Eireann Leverett, Neil Stirton and Paul Besly.
The programme is out now and should be available at all shops in the Grassmarket and the West Port and probably anywhere in Edinburgh where flyers and leaflets abound. You can also view all of the events on the website.
West Port Book Festival programme – front cover
I’m feeling completely worn out this week. Last weekend was the first public outing for the new series of screenprints at The Magic Circle as part of the Collectors’ Day event – which was brilliant but also very tiring in terms of the amount of effort required to transport everything to London, set it all up and then get it all back to Edinburgh. It was great to be there though and to get some very very positive feedback on the project and meet lots of interesting people, as well as get to listen to some great talks on magic history.
Munito, Life and Talents; screenprint, image © Sharon Whyte 2009
Since I’ve been back I’ve been struggling to do anything useful at all. The sun is out and I hate being stuck indoors doing the kinds of things I really need to be doing such as continuing to look for venues to exhibit in, putting together a catalogue for the show in August, sending out more funding applications etc etc. I’m also desperate to get back into the print workshop and do some actual proper work for a change – this year has been far too much about the administrative side of being an artist for my liking so far and I can’t wait to get stuck into the next project.
Some more good news has been forthcoming recently, however, firstly that I’ve been chosen to take part in the Cut-Click exhibition at the Abbey Walk Gallery…
And that on the horizon there is the possibility of a touring exhibition of the Highlands – more news on that as I get it. It sounds very exciting though and would mean that the series would be permanently on show from August this year until February 2010 as it would follow on almost immediately from the show at the Tron Theatre. There is also another little piece of exciting news for something happening August but again I don’t know if I’m officially allowed to talk about it yet – so much secrecy!
I think one of my main aims for the next week is to make it down to the Ingleby Gallery to see the Francesca Woodman exhibition before I miss it completely. Woodman is absolutely without a doubt one of my all time favourite photographers, her work was introduced to me by my lovely friend and talented author Nova Ren Suma, and I’ve been trying to get to this exhibition since it arrived in Edinburgh in April. I stupidly missed the talk at the Gallery of Modern Art about her work in May (part of the Artist’s Rooms series) so I absolutely cannot let anything get in the way again.
I hope I’m not going back to my old ways, leaving a whole month between posts – aarg, but rather that it’s just the result of having been ill over the past couple of weeks. Only time will tell!
A lot has been happening despite my lack of interaction with the world. Mostly I’ve been preparing for the forthcoming Collectors’ Day at The Magic Circle in London where I’ll be exhibiting pieces from my series A Sage of the Stage, not a Beast in a Cage. This has in part involved me trying to engage more with things like self promotion, which I find somewhat excruciating, but happily I have found that on the whole people are receptive and friendly and one nice bit of news last week was that I’m to be included in the next issue of the online art magazine Cut-Click.
I’ve also started a new blog, in addition to this one (yes I know, seems slightly ridiculous given my recent tardiness) which is going to focus entirely on artists that use magic or illusion as themes in their work. My aim with The Fine Art of Illusion is to showcase these artists and, over time, for it to become a resource for anyone looking for magic themed art.
Do pop back later this week, as I’m going to write another post about my trip to meet artist Roxana Halls and to see her exhibition at the National Theatre.
Today I moved out of my large sunny 2nd floor studio overlooking Arthur’s Seat on one side and Portobello on the other, and moved into my new studio on the ground floor of the same building. The new studio, once all of my stuff was in, looked a bit like a store cupboard when I left it this afternoon, rather than a place I’m going to be spending a great deal of time in – but tomorrow it gets a makeover, and I’m feeling really positive about the move (which was for financial reasons) and looking on the bright side: having people around me since it’s a semi-shared space as opposed to the solitude of the old one, having doors direct to the outside world for sunny days, and never again having to cause myself bodily harm hauling framed artworks up and down the stairs whenever I have an exhibition.
The past couple of weeks have been the usual hard work and relentless list ticking off, but a number of nice things have eased the pain. Afternoon tea at the Howard Hotel for my cousin’s 50th birthday, another trip to London and The Magic Circle for research, where I also met up with a magician friend Will Houston (who’s book has just come out) to talk magic history over lunch, the opening of a friend’s exhibition in Glasgow – FeltusFeltus, Domestic Zirkus at the Citizen’s Theatre – which is getting rave reviews and is also showing at the Whitecross Gallery in London, and my own little bit of good news: that I will be showing some pieces from the learned animals series of screenprints A Sage of the Stage, Not a Beast in a Cage at The Magic Circle Collector’s Day in May. I also got to see the invites for my show in August at the Tron Theatre which are looking good.
And something to look forward to this weekend, Hauntings: The Science of Ghosts at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, where amongst other things, stage illusionist Paul Kieve will be talking about staging ghost effects in the theatre – can’t wait!
And as if that weren’t enough, the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album comes out on Monday!
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