My Reward!

 

Jo here – a Solero was my reward for walking the 32 miles from Ditchling Museum (just north of Brighton, West Sussex) to Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne. It was part of an Artist Collaboration project that I am doing with Ditchling Museum called ‘In Search of Gill Sans’. Whilst DM is closed for major Heritage Lottery Funded rebuild, the collection, including the wooden, Gill Sans, Letterpress is housed at Towner. I’ll now be working with different groups, inspiring them on the contemporary uses of Letterpress.

A few weeks ago I was privileged to be commissioned by Fermynwoods Contemporary Art in Northamptonshire to work with artists, David Littler and Simon Woolham for two weeks  - on a narrow boat! We went from south of Milton Keynes to Waddenhoe and back. I became completely obsessed with crochetting……

My wonderful project ‘Field Studies’ for the Timespan organization in Sutherland, has finally finished. It had many aspects and took 2 years to complete – if you ever get the chance to go to this amazing part of the world and meet the great people – do –  they are really in to their contemporary art.

So having finished my Solero, I’m now off to Midland Road, Bedford to do a project called ‘The Excursionist’ for Bedford Contemporary Arts – i’ll let you know how it goes.

An update (ness)

The Ladies have all been too busy to meet of late but did agree over a snatched coffee in Warwick to post updates on their individual progress.

Since last August Ness has been busy on a wide variety of theatre projects. Apart from running workshops and reading scripts for people, she wrote a new play ‘The Watched Sea’ for CAPITAL at the Old Joint Stock in Birmingham as a response to Cameron’s call for “people power”. She attended the first read through of her new play ‘His Naked Eye’  at the Citz in Glasgow. She also took part in Pentabus Theatre’s Writers Week and wrote ‘The Game Anew’ for their show MAY FAIR at Latitude Festival. And, the postmistress observes has become completely obsessed with George Eliot.

International Women’s Day

A great morning was had on the 8th March celebrating International Women’s Day, at the cafe of the Herbert Gallery, Coventry. Nine very creative ladies brought books of some of the women who inspired them. We started a list….Maya Angelou, Billy Holiday, Alice Walker, Virginia Woolf, George Eliot, Louise Bourgeois, Sophie Calle, Helen Frankenthaler, Kate Bush, Rachel Whiteread, Clara Peeters, Justine Themen, Judi Dench, Vivienne Westwood, Cornelia Parker, Alison Turnbull, Susan Hiller, Mierle Lademann Ukeles, Vanessa Redgrave, Cora Sandel…….as we talked, we decided that we were part of what we called ‘the real women’ and should be added….so here we are….Vanessa Oakes, Jo Roberts, Mary Partridge, Sally Carpenter, Janthi Mills, Janet Vaughan, Julie Boden, Justine Themen, Anne Forgan.

Quote of the day, “This is women’s art, it takes as long as it takes.”

A Resume…

The Postmistress is pleased to report that all the ladies have been gainfully employed in their various roles over the past few months. Julie has been working as a Creative Agent and running a hectic schedule of workshops and readings. You can see the results of all Julie’s hard work for ‘The Piano Room’ on 11th Sept during Birmingham’s Artsfest.

Vanessa was commissioned to write ‘I Am Active’ (Act 2) for Bitesize at Warwick Arts Centre  and also to write/read ‘The Permitted Number’ (Come To Where I’m From – Coventry) by Paines Plough/The Belgrade. She is currently lead artist on Building Sights  and busy writing ‘His Naked Eye’ for Theatre in Action.

Jo and Vanessa were involved with the launch of  ‘The Red Teapot Day’ book.

Jo  produced a new body of work for Warwickshire Artsweek - ‘Travel Sketches’ and ‘Map of the Day’  and has been commissioned to do a project for Timespan developing their organisation. She will also be doing a residency at Much Ado Bookshop.

The Postmistress thanks all her loyal lurkers out there (4,856) and will continue to keep you informed of the Ladies progress.

A Pause….

The individual ladies of The Ladies Salon are fortunate to be engaged
in a variety of creative activities at present, and for the
foreseeable future. So it has been decided that The Ladies Salon will
be taking a sabbatical. The year of 2010 promises to be a very
productive one and the ladies look forward to keeping you informed of
their many exciting projects.

The Artists Studio: Day 7: Journeying & Collecting

The Postmistress observes that Jo is never happier, or more creative, than when she is journeying and collecting – people, objects, experiences – along her travels; and that by far her favourite studio is moving through the city of London.

Correspondence

The ladies would like to thank you for contacting us by email, text and telephone.  The postman has been rather busy of  late  which has meant that the ladies have not been able to respond to all of the mail arriving at their private residencies.

Thanks are due to Philip who said he has  enjoyed the quirkiness of the ladies’ various endeavours.

Thanks  also go to Elizabeth for her one worded  correspondence  ‘ What?!’  and  her coded illustration (which transformed into a bright smiling face) 

Thanks to all who said ‘Great’ , ‘ like it, ‘keep up the good work’ and ‘good stuff’.

Some readers have expressed a concern about Julie working in an office:

‘That’s not you!’

‘How are you going to manage?’

‘I’ll believe it when I see it!’

The Postmistress is happy to inform you that your concerns  that she may  soon be singing Dolly Parton’s, ‘Working nine to five’ are unfounded and that, as usual, Julie is often seen burning the midnight oil, wandering from room to room and over fields in order to find the most conducive place for each particular piece of writing.

Julie has also been kindly afforded the opportunity to use her office at any time of the day or night and so, it appears, that for those of you who thought it may inhibit her writing – your fears were unfounded. The postmistress can also report that her office is looking more homely by the day.  For those of you who feel the need to feast your eyes upon  evidence we have provided some thumbnail photographs and illustrations to show a few of the places Julie has been working this week.

Ness has been seen taking her constitutional walks with a certain canine friend and has continued to work diligently in her office in between  pressing engagements.  The postmistress is happy to report that her spies have just returned from observing Jo at work and you will soon, dear reader,  see evidence of her recent activities on this site.

Once again, thank you so much for your kind letters. Please do continue to contact us but please do  spare a thought for the poor postie as s/he sets off to each lady’s independent address.  The postmistress would like to urge you on the Ladies’ behalf  to address all future public correspondence to the comment boxes provided for this purpose on the postmistress site.

Kindest Felicitations

The Postmistress

The Artist’s Studio: Day 6: Writing

The Postmistress notes that the Ladies all depend on the use of telephone answering machines and/or the total absence of telephones from their various workspaces. Indeed it is well known that although Ness owns a mobile phone she never turns it on (except for the time before Christmas when the car broke down in Earlsdon and she turned it on only to realise that it wasn’t charged). This is key to her practice in that it allows her to concentrate on the task in hand – writing plays.

That is except for those times when Ness is visiting one of her favourite web sites e.g. West End Whingers http://westendwhingers.wordpress.com/

But then everyone needs some procrastination time don’t they? The Postmistress hopes that you all (3,605 of you as of today) remember to make space to procrastinate – why not procrastinate by posting a comment? Or indeed as Scarlet O’Hara said ‘After all, tomorrow is another day’.

The Artist’s Studio: Day 5: Research & Development

The Postmistress has observed  that all the Ladies spend a great deal of time doing what they call ‘R&D’. This seemingly involves a wide variety of activities and patterns of working. For Ness this process inevitably involves the purchase and reading of books (she rarely finds the books she needs in our public libraries) as if she needed an excuse.

It often requires the odd trip (recent research trips have taken her to Glasgow and Prague) to see places and meet people. She has been known to hide this fact from her nearest and dearest who is sometimes under the illusion that he is ‘going on holiday’.

Ness: ‘Oh, look that’s where he lived…’

Mark: ‘Is that why we’ve just walked right across town?!’.

Ness: ‘I’ll just take a photo for Davey and Suzanne’.

The Artist’s Studio: Day 4: Walking

The Postmistress has noted that walking plays an important role in the creative process of two of the Ladies.

Before Ness sits down at her desk each day she heads off with her dog for a breath of fresh air. She can usually be spotted tredding her desire lines out on Coundon Wedge – a spot close to her home/heart. If you would like to find out more about the Wedge visit http://www.acwcs.org.uk/ . Ness finds this ‘mulling’ time invaluable as it lets ideas settle and distill.  

Come rain or shine one particular mutt always makes sure that she gets her quota of regular thinking time.