Bright Edges

I wanted to record in a few words how the Bright Edges exhibition went a week or so ago in Clifton, Bristol.

 

I've realised over the last year that I enjoy an 'event' orientated schedule... Planning, devising themes, working out how to display, presenting a finished, whole collection that represents a few months of work. I think it's the way I am wired. I like a year planner! And it's a way of recording, as in a journal, what's going on in life.

 

This year I will have been part of nine different events, as well as the important work of supplying galleries. Maybe that has been too many, but I have enjoyed each one, and each one has been really important, pushing me to work, sometimes when I have just wanted watch the television or go shopping! When you have to make a living from your work you also have to push through those feelings! It's been good.

 

I feel that each event has proved something to me... That there's always more to learn and discover. And that stirs up excitement about the next exhibition or event. I have lots of sleepless nights, trying to work out how much work I need, will I have time, how shall I display those little miniatures?! But it usually works out and all is well.

 

But it's only worthwhile because of the connection that builds up with the lovely folks who buy the work. Once it's in their hands the work is off on a new journey. It's no longer mine, it's part of another persons story... I love that. Or maybe it's just the reaction from a viewer, how it prompts a memory or feeling. If there were no feedback, I would have run out of inspiration and energy long ago.

 

Anyway, Bright Edges was a short week, in my home city, an opportunity to meet new friends and old, play shop, see my work well lit! Loved it but was glad to pack up and get back to the studio, where I can leave it messy at the end of the day!

 

The next big event in the year planner is the North Bristol Arts Trail, 23/24 November. My studio will be open, tidy and warm. And you are very welcome.

 

 

 

Long hot summer...

Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus'.... Or Zebra Grass to you and me. I have some just outside my studio window. It caught my eye today because of its pink tinged flowers. Apparently they only turn pink if we have had a long hot summer...

It's been a very sunny day. But there's no doubt that autumn is here. It's an in between time. There's lots of reminders in the garden that summer is not long gone. It's a shame that we seem to rush through Autumn very speedily to get to Christmas... In past times we slowed up enough to appreciate harvest and to celebrate it.

'In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of care and toil...'

Today it's been easy to linger in the moment...despite being confronted with Christmas decorations at the shops! I'm going to try and stay in this lovely season for as long as its here.

'Everyone must take time to sit

And watch the leaves turn.'

Elizabeth Lawrence

 

Supporting 'Cycling to Sofia'

Here's an opportunity you can't miss! A chance to give a little and support a great cause, plus possibly win a glass painting worth £300.
Two good friends of mine, Richard and Mark, are about to embark on a great adventure, cycling 1700 miles from Bristol to Sofia in Bulgaria, to raise money to equip a newly built medical centre on behalf of the Bulgarian Partners Trust. They are planning to take 23 days and their route will take them via London, Strasbourg, Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade. Their friend Geoff is driving the support camper van, scouting ahead and preparing meals to keep their energy up! The van will then be donated to the centre after the trip.
Bulgaria is one of the poorest countries in the EU with one in four households living under the poverty line, with no access to basic health care. The Centre will provide warm meals on a daily basis to help fight hunger and improve the health of the local community.
By donating, you can help make a change. It's that simple. And of course you may win my glass painting too!
Some details... The painting, called The Wave, is 27 x 27 cm and is mounted on a white board.
How to donate, follow the link to
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/janereevesglass
For every £5 you donate I will put your name in the hat to win the picture. (Donate £10 and I will enter your name twice etc...)
Please make sure you leave your name when you donate and check Facebook (Jane Reeves Fused Glass) on the 18 October when I will pick a winner!

For more information and to keep up to date with how they are getting on, you can follow their blog
www.cyclingtosofia.wordpress.com
Thank you so much! I'm excited!

Lucca

'When a man leaves home, he leaves behind some scrap of his heart…it’s the same with a place a man is going to. Only then he sends a scrap of his heart ahead.'

Frederick Beuchner

Well, I'm not entirely sure if that's true... But it does sometimes feel that way. I'm not particularly sentimental, but Italy, well, kind of tugs on the heart.

The warm colours. The sounds, the tastes.

The beauty at every turn, beauty meant, beauty by accident.

I think I was 16 when I went first with my parents. We visited Florence. That was that really. I'm with Frederick.

Here's a taster of four days sunny September days.

 

A weekend of brightness

 

It was incredibly hard today to tear myself away from an absolutely stunning Cornish coast. I spent lovely time on four beaches....

Lamorna Cove

St Agnes Bay

Treyarnon Bay

Trebarwith Strand

Each one different. I don't normally talk to myself (!) but today I couldn't help exclaim and laugh out loud at the beauty of it all.

The air seemed particularly clean and bright.

I can't wait to start working with these pictures. In October I have an exhibition called 'Bright Edges', a response in part to the last few days...

 

Inspiration and Integrity

Whilst away on holiday I've been reflecting a bit on what it means as a working artist to have integrity.

It's said that a stick of rock is a good picture of what integrity looks like. The words or picture inside it runs true all the way through it. My thinking is that if we are going public with our work we need to keep a check on where our inspiration is coming from, how we are processing it, if what we are creating still reflects clearly that source. Then we need to push forward looking for new and better ways of working, firstly from within ourselves and then more widely from within the field we work in. Does what we do and how we do it have integrity?

When we are being creative for our own pleasure and enjoyment, where that inspiration comes from is less important than if we are making the work public or for sale. The filter our work passes through as we create it is what gives it it's integrity. What has played a part in our journey, the time and effort put in over the years, the inspiration we have sought, working out what matters to us... It all acts as a filter through which what we are creating passes. And I think you can tell when you peer closely at a piece of art whether it has a richness to it that tells of a deeper history than if it is just an idea that has simply been taken and emulated from another artist.

To be inspired by other artists is fantastically important. Inspiration is often a springboard to great things. But if the intention is to make that work public the creative process then has to pass through 'who we are' to mark it out as our own and to give it that heritage of substance and integrity born out of a journey.

Facebook. Blog. Twitter... For me, fortunate enough to make a living through selling my glass, these virtual but real ways of being 'out there' are still unfolding their secrets! I think that they are useful ways of being known about. I know that I have enjoyed discovering the communities that thrive in them. They are like bee hives, buzzing with happenings. And it totally depends on which hive you enter as to what community you get drawn into! One of the greatest things they offer is genuine encouragement... Like oxygen to the soul.

But they can be risky too... I am aware that in such a public open space inspiring others can actually lead to undisguised simulation. I guess that is not surprising, but it is hard to swallow. I have had many conversations with artists who have experienced this. In the end, they bite the bullet and move on. So back to my original thought, does what I do and how I do it have integrity? My aim is to keep on asking myself that question. After all, without a heritage of substance and integrity, an artists work will become weak and lose its heart. In the end, integrity must win. Surely?

And so... Here are some pictures of work I've made over the years...from way back when I was 17 to last week! Kind of reminding myself of my own journey.

And I'm wondering what you are thinking about all this 'integrity' talk?