We had a number of PR articles written about us, here's one.
(Like all media releases I have ever known of, they got something wrong of course: We were there for a whole summer, not just the week. Oh Well.)
We didn't really have enough work of our own to show so we invited friends to put a piece or two in (sadly, very few did, perhaps they were too pleased to do nothing over the summer after two year's study) and rather nervously decided that we would create a "Working Art Studio" and hope people might enjoy wandering in and seeing us work, rather than have the main intention being to have art for sale.
This was clearly a new concept, and at the beginning many visitors would linger at the doorway, unwilling to enter. So we stuck up every piece of art we had ever done and put a price on each. That was much better, as people knew what to expect from an 'art shop', and we usually had between 10 - 30 visitors a day. We had a sandwich board outside, and strict opening hours.
It was such a fun summer, and although I rarely got any consistent work done, we met a great many people. Some came off the cruise ships that come into port, and lots of locals, people who just wanted to talk about art in general, or their own or spouse's or friend's art-making. It was rare that there wasn't someone in our "WAS", sitting on the settee drinking tea and chewing the arti-fat.
Godwits - I've only just found out that they are able to fly 10,000 miles without stopping by shutting down one side of the brain alternately. I wish I could do that at will.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's an amazing facility. I think it's more amazing that they fly for eight days without stopping their wings flapping, eating, or drinking. That's like doing the whole tour de France without a single break or anything to eat or drink.
DeleteThey must be on performance enhancing drugs.
DeleteI remember this but you never mentioned that Ronaldo the great Portuguese footballer had come to Tauranga to support your art event. Your humility will get the better of you one day Kate!
ReplyDeleteHa YP, it's nice I can still impress you. Actually it's an egg. Imagine the bird.
DeleteEr... fourth picture down! That's Ronaldo! What came first - the Ronaldo or the egg?
DeleteOh, I thought you were mistaking the giant egg for a soccer ball. That's the famous Jamie Harkins, the sand artist, not some ol' footie player. Jamie has been invited to make sand art on the desert sands of Arabia. So there.
DeleteI like the egg.... what's it made from?
ReplyDeleteCro - As far as I can recall, the egg base is made a large number of pieces of polystyrene packing glued together and then carved into an egg shape with an electric bread knife.
DeleteThe outside greeny look is an even larger number of motherboards, processors and PCI boards from old computers, cut into bits and then glued to the polystyrene.
I can't say that, as a work of art, I'd want the egg in my house but it's certainly impressive. Gave me a bit of a pang thinking how recently I'd been standing outside the shop but how long ago it feels.
ReplyDelete