As one exhibition is about to end…

The past few weeks have been so busy it’s actually difficult to remember what’s been happening. After the opening of the exhibition in Glasgow I had one day off (where I basically felt ill all day) and then went headlong into more deadlines and festival activities. The talk that I did at the West Port Book Festival went really well and thankfully drew in a large audience. I really enjoyed it, and it was great to have to put so much thought into what I’ve spent the past 2 and a half years working on and actually talk about it. I even managed to include a taster of what an actual learned pig act might have been like with the aid of a toy pig, some number cards and a very silly magic trick. Not sure the audience were entirely convinced of the sagacity of the stuffed pig but they seemed to like it nonetheless.

On the exhibitions front the show in Glasgow is now in its final week and will finish on the 5th September, after which it will all go up to Inverness for the touring show Now You See It with Highland Council until February 2010. And I’m pleased to announce that I now have a space in London to exhibit the series in May 2010 at artsdepot, which looks like a great venue and I’m really looking forward to that.

In the meantime, three pieces from the series will go on show in Newcastle at a group show on a vintage theme called Past in Present at The Art Works Galleries during September and October. My friends Annabel De Vetten and Chantal Powell are also going to be in this exhibition. The opening for that is this Thursday but unfortunately I won’t be able to make it down.

Next week I’ll be in London where I’ll be meeting up with Roxana Halls once again to see her studio, which I’m very excited about. I’ll also be going to see The Bay, a play that my friend Rachel Stevenson is in, which was running at Te Pooka’s Big Red Door during the festival and has now transferred to Theatre 503 in London and runs until 11 September.

Incidently, it’s a bit late now, but I really meant to write a blog post earlier in the festival and mention some friend’s exhibitions and events such as Carmen Moran’s mini exhibition Kunst Im Klo (Art in the Loo) at the Glasite Meeting House, Madeleine Shepherd’s exhibition and collaboration with Writers Bloc Alba Ad Astra at Transreal Fiction and Gav Inglis series of spoken word nights Underword at Fingers Piano Bar. Oh well, better late than never? Hmmm.

West Port Book Festival and other news

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