The Future beckons........

Having finished uni and moved back home, the original plan was to work (probably at the pub I've been doing part time since I was 16) apply for an MA and maybe travel a little.

However, things have changed. I had written to a sculpture garden in the next village, asking if they had anything I could do (to get a bit of artistic experience) - even cleaning would have been fine! So they called me, and I trotted along to have a chat.

Turns out, the assistant curator is leaving mid July, and I had applied just at the right time. They (well the owner of the garden) wants ME to train up and become the new assistant curator!!!!!! I've been there for two weeks, and its so much fun. There's a lot of emailing etc - to customers and artists, and other admin, but I also get to take all the photos that go on the website and any promo material!!

www.hannahpescharsculpture.com

Its a really beautiful place - all landscaped but done to fit in with the english countryside. The house is a lovely black and white cottage right in the middle of the garden, with a line of connecting ponds and streams home to masses of ducks. They have some pretty wellknown sculptors there - Peter Randall-Page, Almuth Tebenhoff to name a couple, and my old tutor's husband has work there too!!!

I still can't quite believe it. To have gotten such a great job, especially just after leaving uni. It still feels like part of my education, so its a total bonus getting paid for it!!!

That's it.....

And that's it.



All over.



*Blimey*


So everything was due a week and a half ago....which was immense. Totally. A week of NOTHING followed.

Friday 15th May was the night we had all been working toward for the past three years......

It

was

PACKED.

Like seriously. Freakin awesome.

It was so so so so so so so much fun watching people looking at my work. I wanted to set up a chair in the corner and just watch everyone's reactions. There was the people who noticed straight away, and slowly walked down the whole wall pointing at every single detail....the people (one bloke in particular) who didn't notice straight away n someone pointed it out to them-this one guy laughed so hard he went bright red!! There was the sneaky giggles, the sniggers, the outright laughter, shock and so so so much discussion.

My pieces achieved EVERYTHING they set out to do, in such an amazingly successful way!!!
Yes, I was in a crap mood and just wanted to go home, but that's more to do with the fact that my last ever week of uni was the biggest anti-climax on the entire planet.

Yet Another Step Closer.......

Today was a maaaaaaajor leap in finishing.......the uber lovely 'rents came down and helped me hang my work :) and it looks BUFF. Actually blubbed when the first one went up.....

I actually like them again (kinda....i think the 2 Laura Ashley ones are still a bit shite)

But here is the grand occasion.....

Just gotta paint the floor, paint over the mirror plates, lintbrush my pieces and put up the postcard/business card holder. And finish the proffesional pack (oops!)

*smugness*

The End Draws Closer.......

Oh my gosh.

Its nearly here.

So near infact, that the studio has been stripped out and we've been filling, sanding and painting our exhibition spaces all week.

I have to admit, I was pretty lucky with my wall - it was already there, and wasn't in too crappier shape.....saying that, I had a bucket load of red wax to get off the wall, and over 200 holes to fill in. But, having worked like a mini machine for the past couple of days I'm almost done!!! One more coat of paint tomorrow, then on Saturday M&D are hopefully coming down to help me hang my pieces!!!! Then I've just got the floor to do :)

People are doing my HEAD in.......trying to out-do everyone else on how much they've got to do and how much harder it is and more stressed they are. SHUT UP!!!! IF YOU'D BEEN ORGANISED IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU WOULD BE FINE!!! ITS YOUR OWN BLOODY FAULT SO SHUT UP!!!!!!!!! Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh if people weren't being twats it would make life so much less stressful! *sigh*

I don't care. Deadline is 9 days away, end of Sememster and thus end of uni is 18 days away. And then its holiday time!!! Woooo *we're going to ibiza* (not for clubbing.....)

lalalalalalaaaaaaaaaaaaa

This might just be it..........

Big, enormous, major news.....

*I'VE FINISHED!!!!*

I actually finished my last piece today.

Hasn't actually sunk in yet.
So here it is. The last one (still doesn't seem real!) It's using the Laura Ashley fabric again, this time it has a VIOLENT theme.......


None are terribly serious (to a certain extent....), especially my Spartan warrior......

Just need to bubblewrap this one too, and I'll be sorted. Well, not really - still have to finish off my 5 sketchbooks, do the proffesional pack, do the exhibition statement and prepare my show space....but to be honest, its not really that bad.

*WWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOO*

Ok, now its sunk in :-D

Website....

www.vikkileedham.synthasite.com

Check it out.

Edging Ever Closer......

Yes, it has been a while. But I've finished my fourth piece.
Appologies for the clutter in the photo, space is getting very tight in the studio. This is another narrow piece - 59x186cm (or however big the other one is..I may have just made that up completely!)

This is my Artist Piece - I have chosen a handful of artists who have interested me at some point or other, who's style of work fitted in with the design on the fabric.

I'll give you a shiney nickel if you can tell me who all the artists are :) (sorry buddies, if I've told you already then it doesn't count!)


OK, so first I would need to get some shiney nickels.........ho hum!!

With basically 3 weeks left (************!!!), I've got one piece left to do. This one will be another large piece, using Laura Ashley fabric again (god, the hastle I went through...you would not belieeeeve how cursed I am in the world of delivery!!) and the content is changing again...this one's going to be the violent piece; with cherubs shooting people and buildings up in flames. I'm doing it the same style as the other two large ones - the stitch merging with the original design so that the audience has to LOOK.

On another note, my business cards now look *uber* amazing....come to the degree show and get one :-D

And I'm looking forward to spending some time at home...I need my mum!! She came down to visit today, which was awesome...and she really liked all my work *woo*

And keep an eye out for another blog/website.....

Three Down.....

Well, after a burst of energy at the end of last week, I've finished my third panel. This one is half size (well, once stretched its smaller than half - its the same width as a wallpaper strip).

So here it is. Its a little different from the previous - this one is slightly more noticable as changed......
......I gave allllll the little people PVC gimp masks......and alllll the ladies red seedbead nipples......and little chains holding some of them together :)
....well, you get the picture.

Aaaannndd, having taken the three panels down to the foyer, I realised that the layout I had planned looked horrific - placing the panels close together looked sooo confusing and mind meltingly overly patterned.....so now I'm gonna do FIVE panels - three large and two small.

Ta daaaaaa.......

36 feet.........

Soooo today the plan for the exhibition went up. Happily, I've got the space I asked for......scarily my wall is almost half the length of the studio.....we measured it and its 36 feet long!!! Aaaahhhhh. Intimidating much!

BUT....after an initial panic and wobbly, I sat down and planned my exhibition. I now know how many pannels I'm going to have, what size they are and (apart from one) what the content will be. Freaking awesome!!

I'm going to have;
3 large panels - the two I've already done, plus one more which I've planned (I think)
4 half width panels - two of which will be painted wallpaper (one is the violent one, one is artists/art works in colour), and two which are fabric (one is appliqued and I'm not 100% sure about the other......)

Yes. Its much better now. Although I still don't have my fabric, but its coming soon (hopefully one lot might even be here tomorrow) and the lovely chap in Falcon Fabrics said they're getting more of the toile I need very soon. Excellent.

Anyway, here's some more samples I've been messing about with whilst waiting for fabric to magically appear.

This one is various artworks......


This is an Allen Jones piece......I think it looks a bit shit really, it doesn't flow and blend with the rest of the design....


Kent Henricksen....I've altered the colours to blend more with the original


Maria e Pineres....


And the Chapman Brothers....this one had to be in colour.

Adding weeeeeeny seed beads as cheeky nipples!!



This one is kinda tacky.....I stitched a bit of colour on and added seed beads in places.....
So there you go.

More samples to follow, and (in the not too distant future I hope) finished pieces......

*eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*

Pretty much unrelated to my lovely practical work...but *eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep* I have to do my presentation tomorrow............

Its ok

Its going to be fine

I'm now ridiculously bored of reading my presentation over and over again, so I'm taking that as a good sign. We (Me, Amy, James and Nikki) practiced this evening...was very helpful and reassuring to hear other peoples! Is it bad that I'm feeling smug that I finished mine so early and have practiced lots...unlike certain other people..........

Still blumming nervous though....not about what I'm talking about (because, to be honest I don't really care...which is slightly disturbing) but because I don't particularily want to stand up infront of 30 people and talk for 20 minutes!!! Not my idea of fun.

But it will all be fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

*cough cough splutter*

Soooooooo.....

I feel like I've been working really hard but I don't seem to have a lot to show for it this week. Saying that, I've nearly finished my seminar presentation, and today I finished another experiment. This one is a scaled up section from the toile, done in stitch. I did it quite quicky (comparitively) so that close up the stitching doesn't really describe the form - but from a distance the viewer is like "ooooohhhhhh its a face dude...." (dunno why a surfer would be looking at it...) I stretched this one - I think part of the reason why I got a lowish mark last semester was because I didn't finish my samples off in any particular way, just shoved wonky scraps of fabric up.

So here it is.





Its 40x40 cm, black thread on off-white fabric.










Close-up


















Side view - stitch going round the side of the frame....kinda accidental but me likes :)















New piece next to Laura Ashley piece - I really like the juxtaposition of size :D








And, as well as doing this bad boy, I've been drawing on my wallpaper again - got a war zone going on on one strip, with cherubs shooting each other and buildings in flames,
and I've also been doing one as a homage to lots of the artists who have influenced me; so I've drawn clown faces on some of the characters (Chapman Bro's) replaced various figures with various sculptures (pieces by Allen Jones, Sarah Lucas and Susan Collis) and I've chucked some Kent Henricksen in there too :) I Like Very Much.



Irritatingly, I have a sexy ol'cough going on, and a cold. But, unlike certain hyperondriacs I know, its not going to stop me!!


And people are paying me for hoodies, which is very good.