Steps in the (Right) Unknown Direction

THIS is the beginning... whether this will be a blog of total randomness or a journey into wonderful, luscious marvel, I have no idea... like this empty page which needs to be filled, often I start my day like that, with an empty mind. Or should I say, full but emptied mind. I sit, look around slowly around me, whilst being in the moment, grabbing the tiniest tingle of inspiration coming my way. Usually there is a rush of images, sounds, memories, feelings. I don't know how I choose but often the other images disappear and I am left with something to work with, the one image that lingered....

I am an artist - for a long time I found hard to say it aloud, as if you needed an arts degree or a validation for something which no amount of education can validate - and of course I had those days when I wondered that maybe being an artist isn't a 'real' job. It was Picasso who said that 'every child is an artist' and Ursula K. Le Quin wrote that 'the creative adult is the child who survived'. In many ways I agree with these thoughts, as it is only due to my persistent inner child, which has got me to this point, where creating and playing is my work; work that nourishes, calms, and rejuvenates me. The child who just couldn't give up, even if I made hundreds of 'mistakes' and felt so awful and useless at times. You have to love the child, who wants so much to try and learn and understand, because we ALL have one inside... 

So this blog is my way of showing my artist's way; how I get from A to B, sometimes fast, sometimes slowly, sometimes via C first and at times, I may even fall in love with A enough to never reach B.
Life is not a straight line, you can plan it all you want but it will still create twists and turns which weren't in your original plan. As a creative mind, I need to cherish those turns, because that is universal intelligence offering me guidance; sometimes that can be pleasant, at other times challenging, but all of it is a way of learning, as long as I remember to keep an open, child-like mind. Watch your young children, they are often your best teachers.

Today, like most days in the last weeks, I am preparing for the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate, my first ever trade fair, so it feels quite stressful (and I don't do stress particularly well) to not to know what to expect. I keep thinking I can only do my best and whatever happens, I will learn a lot about the business side of my art, particularly as that is the one thing I am not so good at.
At BCTF (stand 252), I will be exhibiting my illuminated paper cut work, as well as a selection of my paper cut greeting cards - and hopefully a couple of cushion covers and cotton bags, screen printed from those same paper cut designs....

In the process I have had to learn about LED lights, wiring and cables, in order to be able to light up and exhibit my work; sometimes I only discover an easier way of doing something after several attempts to pound a hole in a wall with my head, but that's the way with A to B sometimes (and maybe the fact that I am a Taurus). To cut the long story short, today I put all my work on the kitchen table and plugged them in, for the first time together. Here is the result.... I still have one large piece to finish, but apart from that, they are ready to go...! Excited. :)

I will try to write here often, as I am trying to make a move away from Facebook as my main social media. It has its advantages but it can only ever show one photo snippet of the story. And life is a story, not one snapshot photo that hopefully as many people as possible will like. My artistic life is full of ups and downs, and sometimes it's good to write it out too (i.e. it's not all just pretty pictures). I love writing, maybe not as much as visual arts, but it is a close second. It is also a great way to express, which I can't do with photos alone. So I hope you join me on my creative journey, with words and images and find a bit of childlike magic from these pages. Til I see you again... creative dreams x