A 2023 Review (Madeleine memories)

Memories Are Made Of This

The year 2023 had a quite gloomy start for the art scene. The coldest Winter for several years, combined with a 'cost of living crisis', and ACE funding slashed for many UK arts organisations, left the arts community feeling quite bruised.

Promotional image for the madeleine zine, with a list of contributors (including myself)

My initial sense of artistic salvation came via Mastodon, the Fediverse micro blogging service that I joined last year (see previous post). On this site, I discovered a lively arts and writing community. The latter led me to re-start reading a book that had been lying idle on my shelves, called The Artists Way. Whilst this book isn't really about contemporary art, it is all about turning on the creativity tap and restarting the flow of creative output. When I found a few writers talking about it online, I decided to give the process another go. This led me to try out the 'morning pages' exercises, to get my creativity restarted. 

My aim was to create more artwork but I soon spotted a writing opportunity that was just up my street. It was to write a short piece for a one-off zine on the topic of memories and comics, which was also fundraising for dementia support. I loved my experience of comics fandom many years ago, when I was actively part of it, and the fundraising aspect tied in with my experience of having become a carer for a parent with dementia.

There's more I could write about that but, to keep my piece simple, I started at the point where two UK fandom subcultures first overlapped in my life. That ended up being about 900 words about the way the science fiction and comics communities were interlinked and how that was important to my memories of the comics boom of the 90's. As a bonus, I found myself listed with several comics creators I admire, including Paul B. Rainey - a Milton Keynes comics artist who took a trajectory to fame in 2023, after his dystopian domestic drama proved a hit with reviewers. 

The zine project, called 'madeleine' (a reference to Proust's madeleine memory), was a project led and designed by Simon Russell, an artist/designer posting on Mastodon and Instagram. As well as rounding up 28 writers*, Simon created a successful funding campaign on Kickstarter, which found 108 backers. With Simon in charge of the editing and design, eventually the zine project turned into a small, smart-looking book. After deducting printing and postage costs, Simon was able to donate £411.19 to Alzheimer's Research UK. 

My personal 2023 domestic drama was an experience of recovering from burnout. More about that in the next post. 

Click here for more about the Kickstarter madeleine zine project.

* Madeleine was made by Brad Brooks: Nick Bryan: Dan Butcher: Dan Charnley: Lee Christien: Ben Clark; Eamonn Clarke; David Cranna; Oliver East; Hannah Eaton; Shari Emerson; Tony Esmond; Martin Feekins; Sam Hardacre; Alan Henderson; Nic Ho Chee; Paul Hudson; ILYA; Guy Lawley; Iestyn Pettigrew; Alan Purdie; Paul B. Rainey; Suzanna Raymond; Simon Russell; Jon Sapsed; Dez Skinn; Giovanni Spinella; Myfanwy Tristram.
* The book has been edited, designed and illustrated by Simon Russell

The Woolly Elephant in the Room

Migration

Mastodon 2022 logo design 
By Eugen Rochko & other Mastodon contributors
 https://blog.joinmastodon.org/, AGPL,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120470930

November 2022 is turning out to be period of rapid change and a questioning of power structures. Whilst a lot of the US was focused on political campaigns, there was also a test of boundaries on social media as the Twitter platform reacted to the new owner's radical and mercurial attempts to reshape it. What he couldn't control was whether the users approved and continued to use the site. 

Like many, I felt that Twitter was nearing a point where it may collapse, after many important staff were laid off or resigned. That led to many questioning whether it was worth hanging on what started to be dubbed 'the hellsite'. As a result, many looked to other alternatives and one new option started to get a lot of traction - the Mastodon federated server site, or 'fediverse', of networked online communities. 

What Next?

With so much up in the air, what does this mean for artists, museums and galleries, online collaborations and so on, that used Twitter as a key publicity and campaign tool?

Ultimately, I suggest that it means a period of upheaval and uncertainty but I see a new, positive community spirit emerging on Mastodon. Questions remain on how artists and galleries will network on that platform, as it has no clear focal point yet, whilst still keeping their other accounts alive.

Even as and when Twitter burns down, many useful links have been formed on that site and no-one should leave it until too late to note their key contacts, just in case their favourite faces aren't on Instagram or the like. If you're unsure how to make the transition, there are lots of guides about by now and tools like Debirdify, Fedifinder or Twitodon produce a spreadsheet for you, which you upload to Mastodon to follow everyone on it automatically.

We adapted to the rise of Meta (Facebook/Instagram), YouTube and TikTok without too much complaint since 2004/2010, so I think that where there's a will there's a way and I hope for great things.

You can find me with my new woolly friend at ohai.social/@srfirehorseart

The srfirehorseart profile on Mastodon.

March 2021

 A Brave New World

Installation view of the 'Garfield Weston' gallery,
 MK Calling 2020, with the vitrine my art was displayed in (right)
Picture credit: MK Gallery. 

Contemporary Drama

MK Calling 2020 is the longest-running exhibition I've been in so far. This group exhibition, at MK Gallery, opened in February 2020, temporarily closed for lockdown late in March and finally re-opened with an extension until November 2020. In all that time, I managed just two visits in person, as I've being at home every since the first lockdown. 

Of course, like many other people, I was hoping the COVID-19 pandemic would be over quickly and wondering when, or if, we would get back to 'normal' life. Initially I was optimistic that I'd catch up with my reading, make art, maybe start designing an online arts course. The reality was that my productivity ground to a halt. Instead of breaking new ground online, my broadband struggled as everyone around me logged on at home. Eventually my creative outlook re-emerged to focus on drawing nearer to home, as I've done in the past.

Installation view during MK Calling 2020,
including the vitrine with my art display
Picture credit: MK Gallery. 

Creating New Pathways

However, I was heartened to see lots of other people launch online art clubs and events, making the most of people's extra spare time as they worked from home and spent less time travelling. The availability of events, using Zoom and other online resources, has hopefully squashed a lot of arguments against flexible access, where travelling distance, time and costs have meant that some events have been inaccessible to many. The ability to screen and record events for sharing online, engage with communities via social media, run live interactive events on various platforms and even set up 'stalls' and promote work in international online events, mean that a lot of invisible access barriers have been flattened in the last year. If the arts want to support diversity, then this is one step closer to equal access for all.

In 2021, the availability of vaccinations and the natural optimism of Spring, is bringing hope to everyone. Whilst there is a temptation to simply return fixed locations to share art from, I'm hoping that some of the more distance-learning methods of sharing the arts will be here to stay. Here's to a more fluid and flexible access path to arts and crafts in the future.

Artists are always innovating and a more accessible approach to participatory arts and associated funding could be the start of a more connected era in the arts. If our brave new world has learnt some useful tricks from this pandemic, maybe some long-lasting benefit will have come out of it after all.

Installation view of my artwork 
 in the vitrine display of MK Calling 2020.
Picture credit: MK Galley / S. Raymond

Sketching for MK Lit Fest

Sketch of the MK Lit Fest launch event for the MinK zine.

Live Event Sketching 

In September I was very pleased to take on an assignment for our local literary festival (now in its 2nd year). The MK Lit Fest organisers had seen an artist in residence at another literary event and approached me due to seeing my own sketches of last year's MK Lit Fest event on Instagram.

Sketching at an event is a fun an interesting mix of observational drawing and listening to the speakers. There are many ways to go about this but the one I use is to sketch 'live' on location, adding notes while I work or after the talk. I also take colour notes as I like to add watercolour washes to my sketches.

Another way to work might be to use the sketches as the basis of a more finished looking piece, possibly stringing together a theme or bullet points from the presentations. At this event we went with the immediacy of the loose sketching style which I use for urban sketching. My first sketches took in the launch event, including contributors to the MinK zine, followed by the first star guest. My notes are a mixture of comments from the speakers and background information which I researched when I got home.

VG Lee reading at MK Lit Fest

Sharing on Social Media

When the pictures of my drawings went up on social media, we also tagged in the various writers and local arts organisations. My literary festival sketches seem to have gone down particularly well with the writers from the Polari Literary Salon, based in London, who were delighted to find out that they'd been sketched whilst they were on stage. Other sketchers may have gone for a more flamboyant approach and could have made sketching more of a performance piece but my style is to sit quietly in a corner and to do candid observational sketching.

The organisers told me that posts on Facebook seemed to encourage more clicks and posts on Twitter seemed to generate more discussion. Overall the experience seems to have been a great success for both myself and the organisers, so I'd consider doing this again for another event.

Live Sketching Tips

For anyone looking for tips on practising this style of reportage, I'd recommend investing in a couple of sketchbooks, some pens or brushes that you feel comfortable drawing quickly with, a portable set of pan watercolours, watercolour pencils or gouache colours. Find a comfortable place to stand or sit while you people-watch, if you perch quietly in one place then people and animals tend to feel more comfortable than if you fidget or announce your presence. If you're uncomfortable with drawing people then start practising by drawing the environment and take some life drawing classes to improve the way you draw figures.

Also look at examples of urban sketching on websites. There are local sketch groups in Bedford and Northampton if you want to embrace the social side of sketching and a Facebook group for sketchers like myself in Milton Keynes.

To see more of  my MK Lit Fest sketches, please take a look at my Instagram account @srfirehorseart.

Note: an earlier version of this article appeared on LinkedIn.

Tarting About

A post shared by Suzanna Raymond | (@srfirehorseart) on Oct 13, 2016 at 9:49am PDT

T'Art Zine

The T'Art show for International Women's Day 2017 has opened at Bones & Pearl Studios, in London. It's a group exhibition celebrating International Women’s Day with participatory zine making!

Following the Sweet 'Art group on Instagram led to me spotting an opportunity to contribute to the T'Art zine that forms part of this year's event. The page I submitted is the same one that has appeared in Girl Frenzy to Crone Frenzy but it will hopefully get a new audience at this event.

The T'Art show runs 7th - 9th March, with an opening event in the evening on the 8th March. See more about what they do at http://www.wearesweetart.com/

The CAS PostIt Exchange

Following up a link I saw on Facebook, I'm pleased to say I have been selected up to take part in the Chapel Arts Studios Post It Exchange. The CAS project, based in Andover, is about putting together artists to collaborate on items they post to each other. The results will be shared on Instagram with the #CASpostitexchange tag. My Instagram name is @srfirehorseart.

The project has just launched in pilot and they're still open to including more artists. More info on the project is on their website:  http://www.chapelartsstudios.co.uk/events/event/pilot-cas-postit/

Seventy Percent Admin

As has been observed elsewhere, an artist's life is only somewhat about creating wonderful things, the bulk of it is everything else. That means working to pay the bills, filing, submitting your tax return, DBS updates, insurance, networking and so on. After all that you may be able to squeeze the creativity into the last 30% of your time.

Likewise with my own life. So I've just updated my CV and artist's statement and have applied to another MK Calling exhibition at MK Gallery, this time with some of my urban sketches. Wish me luck!

Back to Sketching

A photo posted by Suzanna Raymond | Artist | (@srfirehorseart) on Aug 10, 2016 at 2:42pm PDT

A Return to the Drawing Board

My plans for 2016 were many and varied but tackling problems this year has turned out to like wrestling a many-tentacled octopus - as fast as you tackle one arm another appears. As such I have been short of time and energy, so I had to focus more on opportunities as they presented themselves rather than chasing more ambitious plans. Learning to be more focused and efficient with my time could be a good thing in the long run.

So, here's what has actually happened with my work in 2016:

I've spent a lot more time on Instagram - it's a quick way for visual artists to share their work on social media, if you don't need to edit your images much first. Although the site lends itself better to high-impact images rather than conceptual projects, if you can tick both boxes you're onto a winner for promoting your work. Whilst people can and do comment on pictures, if you want a longer discussion you may be better off on Facebook.

Instagram has inspired me to return to sketching and, as my interest is in the urban landscape, this has meant urban sketching. Urban sketching is quite a big thing it seems, with international groups (chapters), so I'm enjoying dipping my toe into this new world.

One of my urban sketches became the basis of a page of comics artwork for the GirlFrenzy to CroneFrenzy zine, which was published online and the artwork was printed for an exhibition with Rachael House's event at the Supernormal arts festival in Oxfordshire. Girl Frenzy editor Erica Smith created the event's online zine https://issuu.com/ericawordsmith/docs/gftocfissuu

The same page of artwork is now heading off to show in an open call exhibition at Winchester Gallery, Winchester School of Art as part of the Small Press : Independent Comics and Self Publishing event 24th - 28th October 2016.

My foray back into comics also led to a conversation with Milton Keynes Gallery about running another comics-based event. The last one, the MKomix event, was linked to their show of Pushwagner's comic book inspired work in 2012. The gallery agreed and the Thursday Scratch Nights MK Zine, Comic and Indie Publishers Meet up is happening on Thursday 13th October from 7pm.

Something Old Something New - 2016

A photo posted by Suzanna Raymond (@srfirehorseart) on Oct 9, 2015 at 10:00am PDT

Welcome to 2016 and congratulations on getting through January if you've just done your tax return (more on that in another post)!

As luck would have it, my art year started with a photography competition that was easy to enter. I just had to point the organisers to an image (see above) I'd shared on social media last year. Once the photo made it to the shortlist, all the finalists then went to a public vote, which you can still help me with ...

Please help me out by voting (until 5th February) for 'Car Park Drama' at the MKsmart photo competition public vote page. Many thanks!

It was interesting for me to note that my image, created with a smartphone camera and app, joined a shortlist of pictures taken on better equipment. The size of my image means that any prints would be relatively small but the fact that my picture made a shortlist proves to me that it's worth making the most of timing and a good viewpoint, regardless of what camera you use. It would more professional to use better quality camera kit but I find that a smartphone allows for more freedom when taking quick shots. It lets me get away with taking a lot of shots that might have never happened if I'd had to keep a D-SLR slung around my neck, or in the boot of my car. As smartphone cameras improve, I expect to see a lot more photography entries like mine in the future.

Part of my preference for using a smartphone for urban photography is that few people question anyone stopping to take a shot with a phone in a shopping centre or busy public space, as it is currently such a common activity. Also my cameraphone is always on hand, whereas a D-SLR might require more than one trip if I needed to plan the shot. Some locations that put restrictions on photography may require asking for permission to take a picture with an SLR or a decent pocket camera but smartphones don't seem to attract the same scrutiny, unless there's an over-zealous security guard around.

I'd be interested to know if you value image quality and print size over capturing the moment. What do you think is more important for your favourite images?

---

Winners of the online vote will be announced at the exhibition and networking event at Gallery 200 in Milton Keynes College. Click here to book your place at the event on Friday 5th February.

Season's Greetings 2015!

Merry Christmas Fair! View from a #tatemodern balcony. #urban #urbanlife #citylife #lookdownlondon #urbanexploration #cityscapes #urbanlandscape #architecture #london #londonlife #londonist #tatemodernmuseum #igerslondon #ig_london

A photo posted by Suzanna Raymond (@srfirehorseart) on Dec 24, 2015 at 2:02pm PST

Here's hoping you're having a Merry Christmas, or at least good day or two to relax a bit and take stock of how your year has gone. If, like me, you're taking a day to do nothing much than eat, browse the internet and sleep, then good on you.

Last weekend I visited London and had a chance to drop into a one-day arts event in South London and The World Goes Pop exhibition (until 24th Jan 2016) at the Tate Modern. The latter did say a lot about how much exposure and recognition artists get when they are on the periphery of an art movement because of gender or geography. To put it another way, if you aren't in the spotlight or closely connected to the key players, at the time when the art you're making is fashionable, it appears that you may have to wait for revised editions of art history before you get the support you deserve.

This year I have had fun experimenting with using my camera-phone to photograph urban and social landscapes, such as 'new town' developments and arts events, and sharing these on Instagram. In this spirit I'm posting up one of my snaps (from a Tate Modern balcony) to send you festive greetings.

All the best!

Friezeing Out The Emerging Artist

Friezeing your butt off?

London Art Fairs 2015

As I've been a bit busy recently, I almost missed the fact that we'd crept up to Frieze week again. Yes, it's that time in October when the whizzes at Frieze lure wealthy investors art buyers into Regent's Park in order to part them from their money in exchange for some cultural assets. Frieze London obviously have a sense of humour as there was even a talk asking Can Artists Afford to Live in London?,which is available as a free mp3 for those too poor to attend in person. If you got a free ticket or are an emerging artist working at the fair then well done to you!

If you read my last post you may be aware of the existence of The Cultivist, a new venture who will whisk impatient people with money past the boring queues and straight over to a curator and a glass of champagne, and quite right too. Also, I'm sure that with the proper advice, these same lucky folk can go to some lectures on how to spend money on art and skip the hard part of trying to understand why anyone likes it, after all if it's worth a lot of money it must be worth having, right? No need to spend time thinking about what an emerging artist is developing if you can just pick up something by a recently dead famous artist. Chin, chin!

If you happen to be one of those aforementioned poor emerging artists, you can commiserate with your fellow artists flogging their work, and those curators who taking a break from Frieze, by heading over to The Other Art Fair / Moniker where there are somewhat more affordable artworks and snacks. If that's not your style there are sure to be a couple of other art fairs on in the same block at the Old Truman Brewery.

If you're looking for actual creativity, rather than just shopping, then head over to Sluice, which is back after a year's break from London, This is the one of the art fairs that I've enjoyed the most, as you actually get to talk to other artists and small galleries. Busy curators presumably head over there on Sunday after Frieze shuts its doors, so no one need miss the fun.

And finally, this Twitter exchange, with fab Leeds-based artist Emily Speed, summed it all up for me ...

When curators suggest a meeting at Frieze and you're like, NO DUDE, it's £36 and I'd be paying for my own ticket.

— Emily Speed (@speedina) October 15, 2015

@SRfirehorseart @sluice__ aye, Can I do a studio visit? Sure, my studio is here... reply - oh, well let me know when you're in town next...

— Emily Speed (@speedina) October 16, 2015

Happy 2015 to all you lovely London art fair explorers! :)