Another year, another Open Studios event.  This image seems to be the current favourite, I could have sold it so many times over, but it is not for sale - being part of the body of work I am working on in order to try and get an exhibition when there is enough.

I dont terribly enjoy these occasions, but the advantages are that pal’s come and visit and it is also interesting to hear different people’s comments.  The odd person, (not the person is odd), will like something I didnt think anyone would take to, which is also interesting.

Sometimes you can tell who is an artist themselves.  Some people just look in the door - they cant see me, I am behind it at my desk - and go away.  Some people come in and look round and go out again. Some people come in and say hello to my hello and really look at the work and comment.  Artists often dont let on they are an artist, until you wheedle it out of them!

You can get quite down when not many people come in, but you take it on the chin and find something to do, and then eventually people will come in, and you realise it is much nicer to have people coming in who are actually interested, than the ones who arent anyway. 

Like any art, you put your ‘soul’ on display.  I think I manage to put my ‘soul’ in a safe place to cope. I guess we all must do that in our own ways.  

The next thing is going to be on 30th when I look up on the SSA website to see if any of the works I submitted have been selected.  I dont have them on display this weekend, so they will be very new if they - or any of them - are.   Again ‘soul’ in box, so it doesn’t matter.

I realised that I ought to have some business cards yesterday when people asked me for one, so I made a few - yesterday’s batch didnt really work, I over worked them I think. so I made more last night at home, plain, but people are taking them!  Eek that is scary too.  I really am going to have to make more ‘Hebridean series’ works and find an exhibition when there is a good enough body of it.  Encouragingly (is that a word?) people seem to like the two ‘works in progress’ - unfinished Hebridean works I have on display as well.  

There has been one whispered (I heard!) comment on one of the ink pieces “I could do that!” - !!  I thought - yes of course you could, you could do any of this work if you wanted to.  Has art only got to be doing things that no one else can do?  There would be no art then. Or has it only got to be somehow ‘cleaver’? How boring is that. I also thought to myself - it looks like something a child could do - but do they understand how the materials I used work? Do they realise that it is slightly more complicated!!