Down day

Today, me and Jane went over to westport to take down our pieces in the show 'Invited' in the Hastings garage, as part of the Westport Arts Festival...
Of course, as always, i had big notions, and set my alarm for half 6, thinking i would do all my bits in the morning and leisurely walk over to Janes for 9o'clock....but my bed just would not let me go...so i hit snooze until about 10 to 8...oops...and so i didn't get to Janes until 20 past 9...but that turned out to be time enough...

Taking down art work, isn't always the same. For my end of year show in GMIT...it took fecking ages to hang the thing...blood, sweat and literally TEARS were spilled into it, and not just mine...everyone helped everyone, a real group effort...
But i think, because i was there for the week, minding it, meeting the public, taking enquiries etc...i was so delighted to take it all down and stick it into the back of the car...im surprised i didn't just throw it all out of that top story window and let it fall to the ground...and it took about a minute to take down...a week to put up...funny that...
But for Hope there was a TOTALLY different feeling to it for me. I walked over and looked into the window box, and saw all these note...one of which, my favorite, im using as my header...
I got SO many more then I was expecting...and as i read them...well...this has never actually happened to me before, but i got really emotional. my own work, usually, doesn't move me. At all...
But, just the act of making a mark, whatever mark that it, whether it is a drawing, a foot print, a line of handwriting, a tattoo...we leave traces of ourselves everywhere we go...pieces of ourselves...artifacts for others to discover and learn something about us, in them.
I think it is so important for us, as humans, to do that. we want to be understood...we want people to understand who we are, and how we see the world, and what it means to us, what we feel, what we love and dislike...we want and want...we yearn for this...cave paintings...stone carvings...we have been leaving traces since the beginning of us...
That must mean something.

So, like with everything, you get the people who take you seriously, and the ones that don't...the ones that want to be taken seriously and the ones that don't...but even that in itself is quite interesting...why do some people feel the need to take the piss...is it a safety mechanism...?
So ill put up a selection over on http://shelkybean.blogspot.com for all to see...

Then, when that was finished, me and jane went for lunch, in the hotel, because none of the cafes are open on a monday in westport...i guess people don't eat on a monday...which we both thought very odd indeed...I got cream of vegetable soup, which was really nice, and jane got cod gougeons in a breadcrumb/coconut batter thing...sounds odd, but it actually l*o*v*e*l*y...defo worth looking into making...you would never think to have coconut with fish, but it definitely works a treat...then off to this lovely bookstore, beside the gallery that jimmy lawlor is in...cant remember the name, but there is a lovely man who owns it, and his wonderfully welcoming and gorgeous Old English Sheepdog, Rebel...who i spent most of my time with, on the floor :)

Then, home jeeves, home...back to her house, which i love spending time in, who wouldn't? the light coming in her windows always blows me away...especially when the sun is setting and it filters through the leaves on the trees outside...it plays on the glass in their kitchen like nobodies business...We are going to have a sewing day wednesday, which im really looking forward to! i really want to do something productive, actually productive, instead of just drawing, because im enjoying it! :)

Then, while the sun was going down, i walked home, Hope in hand...met monica and lil one their way over to Ballure, so i walked with them until my house, about a mile, of chin wagging galore! keeping it country and having the craic ;)

The light was so surreal today...like summer, in winter...cant even begin to describe it, but it was beautiful, and needed after the last couple of days, with that blanket of grey over us...its nice to know that there is a sky, and a sun, and a moon and stars above that cloud :)