It’s around us

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!

Great finds think alike

In my quest to find other artists working with similar themes to myself I’ve recently discovered the wonderful Roxana Halls. Roxana’s recent work depicts scenes from a night at a cabaret with fantastic characters and acts. Her theme of women and performance is of course one that is of particular interest to me because of my book and my next screenprinting project. I can’t post any images of her work but here are some links to particular pieces from her website that I really liked.

Miss Leah Muller

Mrs Angela Saul and the Britannia

The Two Annas

And from an earlier series of paintings…

Levitating which I want to own so badly!

I’m also totally in awe of her studio – the disused bar of a 1930′s theatre!!! Arg!