The year grows older although it still seems young, and I find that events start catching up with me fast. Exhibitions that seemed so far off are now almost upon me.
A short while ago it felt that I had lots of time to plan and organise but that has now changed.
Lots of important events are going to happen for us very soon.
'Little things' like, moving from our gallery.
But "much" more of that next time, for the moment I want to focus on something else.
For a long time it has been in my thoughts to hold a collaborative exhibition,
in fact I would like and plan to curate a series of them.
Each year we will still hold our "themed" group exhibition, because these are always really
enjoyable and are usually our most successful shows, but I have been giving thoughts to something slightly different and it has now taken a firm hold in my mind.
Collaborations.
There are many individual artist/makers that I admire, all working in different styles or media and it is ever on my mind trying to think of reasons or a theme to have them show together.
Recently it occurred to me that perhaps some of them might work differently but that they
think alike, or share the same vision.
So, I decided [at last] that on a frequent basis I would like to show artists working in
totally different styles, but whose art I thought would fit together and become a single entity.
I'm not sure I have explained myself very well there, but I will continue.
I had spoken with a young potter [Adam Frew] about my thoughts and he told me that he loved the idea and would love to collaborate with "xxxx" who works with totally different methods
and in a very different style.
He instantly understood what I wanted to do and I would never have thought of the combination he suggested, I was being too tame I needed to think further.
I will definitely re-visit his vision.
I was sure that the general idea might hit a stumbling block somewhere along the line as I felt sure that some established artists would resist working with others they didn't feel were equal to them, in respect of fame and public image.
But maybe I am totally wrong, time will tell as I intend to pursue the idea over a longer term.
I had to start somewhere and in my thoughts for a long time had been two ceramic sculptors,
there styles are totally different but I knew that they were friends and my feelings were that as a collaborative team they would be really good.
'Elaine Peto' the sculptor was the first person I contacted.
I asked "would she consider " doing a collaborative exhibition with Emma Rodgers?
"Wow, we've talked about doing that together for a long time. Can I call her and tell her"?
So much for 'my' original idea's
Emma Rodgers called me the next day to tell me she would definitely do it and was looking forward to working with Elaine, and asked.
" What should we make? It has got to be something different for us both".
I replied that "I have been thing about 'Brothers Grimm' for a long while..................."
That was it.
They both "took it by the horns" and for the past few months we have all been talking about
"Sister's Grimm".
They even agreed that could be the name of the exhibition, fortunately I changed my mind
when it came to having the invitations printed.
So, 'Sister's Grimm', or 'Grimm's Fairy Tales' as it became, is set to open in a week.
How time passes.
I really can't stress just how important and unusual this exhibition will be.
Two established artists producing a body of work unlike anything they have ever created.
There will be individual sculptures by them both, but more importantly pieces that they have created jointly and which truly will never be seen again.
It will be a collectors dream.
What is also good is that they have both enjoyed working outside their own individual comfort zone.
Emma called me a couple of days ago,
[she had just arrived back home from a sell out show in Paris].
"I'm so excited about this John. You know what I'm like? I'm not at all precious about my work
but these are the first pieces that I really want to keep for myself".
How wonderful for me, literally a dream come true.
Emma, perhaps the U.K's most famous ceramic sculptor telling me something like that.
I just can't wait to display everything.
But wait I will have to do, just for a few more days, as Elaine is still working on some pieces that complete the sculptures that I now have from Emma.
I have decided to wait until Elaine arrives before I open anything, then for the first time I will be able to see the results of "their" great creativity and my little dream.
As I have nothing to show you [because I am being good and not peeking] the only pictures
available are the invitations.
Consider yourself invited.
