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Probably the best words an artist can hear!
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Probably the best words an artist can hear!
“We are very pleased to inform you that your application for the ‘Apply Within’ exhibition has been successful.”
My three works on paper will be shown as part of the 2018 Syn Festival in the Filmhouse during the Edinburgh Greek Film Festival.
The exhibition:
A decade ago the global financial crisis left a prominent mark in Greece by inheriting a debt crisis that torments the country to this day. Many lost their jobs and thousands have left the country in search for a better future. The exhibition reflects on a basic right: the right to work, to be financially independent. It focuses on all those who left their home countries to build a new life in the United Kingdom and explores the numerous challenges faced in the new environment in pursuit of a more stable life.
My Response:
The 3 pieces are to be hung in sequence: Gold Is The Loaf-Kneader, Gold Are The Keepers Of The Loaf and Wage Is Rent. They are an oblique response to ‘Apply Within’ and represent an initial idealised vision of work with a final cynical piece that sees work as a grim reality for many in western economies.
The loaf-kneader is the salt of the earth, the provider of a staple in life. The keepers of the loaf are the guardians and dispensers of this basic and both are thus ‘gold’.
Their work is golden and valuable.
By the 3rd piece, work is toil and exhaustion the result of working to secure another staple (a roof over ones head). The 3rd work also shows a Memento Mori on a TV screen, a reminder (through a medium that has, and still has a hold over millions) to live a life in balance, not to live to work. Finally, the 3rd work also has a voice from the Victorian past expressing melancholia, the precursor to depression and the inevitable result of work that is not ‘golden’. We often seek the first 2 but more often find the 3rd.
Apply Within, 24th November - 11th December 2018, Edinburgh Filmhouse, 88 Lothian Rd, EH3 9BZ
Many thanks Davide and Syn Festival :)
5 Years . . .
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I have 3 paintings in the current show 5 Years at The Velvet Easel gallery in Portobello, Edinburgh. The opening was last Saturday and it was good to see the current show and the new look that Roz has created in the space; very chic, very sophisticated but retaining the warmth and intimacy. I love the new muted Farrow & Ball palette and the new fixtures and fittings.
“The Velvet Easel is a contemporary art gallery which exhibits an eclectic range of modern art by local, Scottish and international artists. Established in November 2013, The Velvet Easel aims to present a programme of exhibitions throughout the year, including solo-shows and group exhibitions by emerging as well as established artists from all artistic backgrounds. A broad range of mediums is represented including painting, sculpture, pottery, ceramics and jewellery.”
Thank you Roz for 5 years of showing my work, it is good to be a small part of The Velvet Easel.
My three paintings in 5 Years are:
Flowers On Red Silk
Acrylic & Oil Paintstick on Board
100 x 100 cm | 27 June 2018
I
F L OWE RS
YOU
Oil Paint Stick on Board
4x 40 x 40 cm | 23 September 2018
Crown Silence
Acrylic, Oil Paintstick & Chinagraph Pencil on Plywood Panel
30 x 30 cm | 26 March 2018
It all goes into the artistic mix
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A few things that have recently nourished my eyes, ears and soul! It all goes into the artistic mix. Be omnivorous!
WORDS
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances - Neil Gaiman
Cy Twombly Fifty Days At Iliam - Basualdo
The Waste Land (Facsimile & Transcript of original drafts) – T. S. Eliot
The Greatest Album Covers of All Time - Barry Miles, Grant Scott & Johnny Morgan
MUSIC
Negative Capability - Marianne Faithfull
David Bowie In Bertolt Brecht's Baal – David Bowie
Nordub - Sly & Robbie + Nils Petter Molvaer
Nocturnes & Impromtus – Chopin (again and again!)
Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims -Jutta Hipp
Flowers Of Romance - Public Image Ltd
Thursday Afternoon – Brian Eno
Infectious Diseases - Michigan & Smiley
FILM/TV
The Cement Garden – Andrew Birkin
House of Cards (Season Four)
Nightwatching & Rembrandt's J'Accuse – Peter Greenaway
Frida – Julie Taymor
Anomalisa - Charlie Kaufman
The Party - Sally Potter
Séraphine - Martin Provost
LIKES
Golden Hare Books, Edinburgh
These autumnal days
Leith Theatre
Patriothall Studios, Edinburgh
www.instagram.com/thisispattismith/?hl=en
Velvet Easel, Portobello Edinburgh
PROSPECTS / QUOTATIONS
The prospect of travlling to Tallinn next month
The prospect of seeing The Last Days of Mankind - Featuring The Tiger Lillies
“Relax. Nothing is under control.” Adi Da
“Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?” – Frida Kahlo
ART
Georg Baselitz, A Focus on the 1980s - Galerie Thaddaeus RopacGerard
Pin-Ups | Toulouse-Lautrec and the Art of Celebrity - Scottish National Gallery
Cy Twombly, Fifty Days at Iliam: The Fire That Consumes All Before It