Thursday 25 October 2018

a little help from my friends....

My dear friends! I woke up this morning to an inbox full of messages of caring and support! Thank you, I love that so many of you took time to share my pain and then send lovely words expressing your admiration for my art and encouraging me to keep going. I have tears pouring down my face at the moment. There are so many of you whom I know are "out there" but I haven't heard from for perhaps years....thankyou for letting me know you understand and care about my despondency.

Do not worry - I'm not clinically depressed or anything terrible like that! - just going through a spell when I feel the world is either indifferent or negative to my art. Because so many of you are creatives yourselves, I imagine many are nodding sagely and have experienced being in this place yourselves - which seems to me like just treading water with one nostril above it and feeling like the life raft is too full to bother picking me up....!

Honestly, I'm just too emotionally exhausted after taking that blow in the guts after being rejected by the Hunt and Gather Markets (they took 2 hours to assess and reject my emailed application) to go into the 10 year travail of how I've tried to get into a good Newcastle based monthly market. Except to make these brief comments that over 10 years the 6 applications I made to the Olive Tree Market, the other quality curated event, have also been rejected on the nebulous basis that I "don't fit". This can only be because my "product" is the wrong look, as on every other basis of being hand made and artist designed I exceed the criteria. Somebody once intimated that my stall set-up looked a bit messy and uncoordinated....but sheeeesh! everything I make is one-of-a-kind! I don't manufacture 25 beige skirts,18 brown jackets and 20 white shirts that hang on rails with their hems matching in beautiful minimalist perfection....

Dear friends, I will be fine, and I've truly had much worse disappointments!...and in reality, its hard to stay in the shit for more than 48 hours in a row, unless you really work on keeping yourself in the toilet bowl....heh. But the lovely heartfelt support and reach out so many of you have given is helping me understand I can put this minor set back behind me quickly and keep moving forward doing the work I love and that gives my life purpose and meaning.

Meantime - has anyone got any suggestions for an urban based gallery/shop/market in the Newcastle/Maitland area that would be happy to take some of my "product" on commission....?






Wednesday 24 October 2018

shredded

Hi again peeps....now that I've had my big sob, sob breast beating, rejected hurt child who nobody will play with spazz out....all to no avail of course except to make myself feel even more shitty and decrepit.....a bit of a round medley up of some current makes.

Y'kno,  there is a new cafe opening in town in 3 weeks time and I think I'll pack up the studio, toss all this shite below in the rubbish bin and apply for a real job waitressing. Fuck you, dear world....especially that woman who came into the studio a few weeks ago, quacked a shrill shriek of laughter and backed out the door squawking, "nah, nah, nah, nah...." May you rot in your Target tracksuit.














I'm unravelling

Sometimes I get so despondent. I need to sell more stuff but all the "quality markets" within a few hours drive are controlled by teams of "event managers" and "product marketers". The markets in my local area that I might have attended have been cancelled due to the drought and I'm trying to get into some alternative venues pre-Xmas....
Obviously this kind of unleashing isn't going to get me anywhere....


Hi again Hunt and Gather team
Thanks for processing my application for a market stall yesterday super fast (2 hours!). I was, of course, incredibly disappointed that you didn’t find my art a good fit for Hunt and Gather. As I spent a couple of hours preparing my application I hope you won’t mind spending a few minutes to help me with advice about some questions it raised….?
-          Does this mean I shouldn’t apply for any other Hunt and Gather markets in the future, such as the Christmas one? I’m unsure if yesterdays assessment was a blanket rejection or just for the specific November market.

-          Can you outline what your preferred aesthetics for a product are? I live in very small rural town (pop. 900) 3 hours drive from Newcastle so I’m very out of touch with the current trendy look. However as every item I make is one-of-a-kind, and if it’s OK to make a second application, perhaps I could present a range of clothes that’s a better fit for your vision of the style of the market.
In concluding here’s a reflection, sorry it’s a bit long and probably too ranty….it is hard to make a living as an artist. In the bush town where I live I depend on travellers from the New England Highway stopping and calling into my open studio and making an impulse buy. This leads to a rather peripatetic income. The friend who recommended I apply to you was the director of the Michael Reid Art Gallery here in Murrurundi until a couple of months ago (Reids other galleries are in Double Bay and Berlin. I would have gone to his December market but it was cancelled due to the drought in this area) and she understands the struggle I have trying to retain “integrity” with my art practice and not let it devolve into formulaic production of commodity. But at the same time, because the clothes I make are utilitarian – intended to be worn – they don’t qualify as gallery “high art”.  So my situation is very frustrating to be caught in this netherworld of not quite art and not quite the suitable product. My husband is 72 and should be retired instead of supporting the child bride in her prima donna endeavours…. I need a more reliable stream of income to support myself into the future so the poor bugger can be freed to tend his roses and snapdragons. The 2 markets in Newcastle who comfortably adopt the term “curated” from the art world seem to have more interest in presenting a marshmallow version of consistency and pastel. It really irks me that you pompously apply the term “curated”, hoping to garner some of the splendiferous glow of being a bit art educated, when in reality you are fostering a kind of commodity uniformity which promotes blandness rather than truly supporting the unique vision of genuine artisans.
Well, heh, there you go….I have perfectly illustrated here why I have no style at all and as a person so lacking in humility I'd be a terrible fit for Hunt and Gather. So I might as well roll my integrity ridden art practise into a great big poop cigar and swallow it.
     All the best, I return to my studio to labour uselessly
Pearl Red Moon