This & That

I was just about to leave work on Friday evening when I got a text. It was from my friends and colleagues Karen Pine and Ben Fletcher and it said that they were at the Brooklyn Art Library (above) and had just been talking to the people there about my sketchbook. This brought about one of those rare moments of connectedness -- I'd sent off the sketchbook back in October, thinking, 'Ah well, it's gone now but it was a good thing to have done,' and now people I know were across the Atlantic talking about it. Okay, enough already, but it made me very happy.

Then I went onto the Sketchbook Project website (still only one comment on the page where you can see my sketchbook images so not exactly setting the world on fire just yet -- got to keep things in perspective!) but was stunned to see that the 2013 Project kicks off next month -- they're already counting down to it on the homepage (above). Am I going to do it again? I'm not sure -- it was soooooo much work and I've got a ton of other things I want to do in the coming months, but I'm still seriously thinking about it. I might wait until the tour comes to London and then go down and see what 'vibes' I get. Are you going to do a sketchbook this year?

Well you may have noticed that I haven't been posting very frequently lately, which I regret, but I've been really busy with things that haven't really been bloggable. However, I can post a picture of a painting I've just done for my mother-in-law's birthday which is based on a photo of her as a little girl with her parents and a beautiful dolly. We're going to give it to her today so I do hope she likes it and feels I've caught everyone's likeness.
     Something else that has been capturing my attention is my first commission. This is also thanks to Karen and Ben, who really are exceptionally encouraging and supportive. They've asked me to do their portrait and I'm currently in the early stages of something I hope they'll like. I'm not going to say too much about it here as it's their private commission, but the whole thing has gone to a new level since I went to their home to take some photos of them which I intended to use as references for a double canvas (ie one image split across two canvases -- I'm exploring the idea of their strength and unity as a couple). However, while I was there they showed me all the art they've collected and we talked about what they find exciting, with the result that I came away thinking that a conventional painting wouldn't do. I have quite a few ideas, one of which is ahead of the rest at the moment, but I'll keep it all under wraps for now.

What else can I tell you? I'd really like to grow my blog, so as soon as I get to 50 followers, I'm going to celebrate with what I hope will be a nice giveaway -- something special for the first name/s out of the hat, but also a selection of my Housham Home card designs (above) for everyone who leaves a comment, no matter where they are in the world. So I just need two lovely new followers to trigger that all off.

Amie and Ali on Get Your House in Order (C4)

Did anyone see the new reality show on Channel Four last week, Get Your House in Order? I did and found myself shouting at the telly like my granny used to at the wrestling on a Saturday afternoon. Pretty Amie did seem to have a problem with accumulating too much stuff -- she and her fiance Ali were having trouble finding their bed amidst the chaos. So the programme sent in two bruisers who stripped Amie and Ali's house bare apart from the bed, sofa and telly (it looked like). They took all their stuff (or rather just Amie's stuff -- it wasn't clear what happened to Ali's as he was not the 'guilty' party) and arrayed it in a warehouse. Then they took A & A to see the huge quantity of stuff that had been packed into their house. True, it was incredible. Then they gave Amie a modest rail and told her she could only 'save' what she could fit on the rail. She wept as she gathered as many pairs of shoes as she could carry, then festooned the rail with handbags, hair straighteners and clothes. The next stage was that everything else was sold off in what was essentially a pop-up charity shop, but the charity was money for a makeover of A & A's house -- the reward for Amie's big sort out. Poor Amie had to sit at the till of the shop and put her own possessions into carrier bags for people who had paid one or two quid for her things. As a person who feels, rightly or wrongly, 'defined' by her possessions, I found it almost impossible to watch this stripping bare of Amie's life in objects. I might not share her taste but I shared her pain, I really did. It really annoyed me that the only people there to look after Amie while she went through this trauma were the guy who was basically a house clearance man and the interior designer who would be doing the makeover (not the finest, I thought) -- oh, plus ghastly Jane Horrocks doing the voiceover and giving us contradictory tips on how to buy designer shoes and so on -- I'm sure she only got the job because of the incredibly ANNOYING way she pronounced 'hoard', which the script called for her to say every three minutes. If poor Amie had a real problem with over-accumulation of belongings (which she well might have done -- and from the sneak preview of episodes to come, it seems that future 'targets' are even more seriously afflicted), then there should have been some element of counselling and support for her, not just ripping all her things out from under her very nose. Ooh I was cross.
     But do you think I might have the same problem....?