Sunday 2 November 2014

Scolawi News 2-11-14

Well the exhibition is up, and its time to take stock. The exhibition will be on show at the FifeSpace Gallery in Rothes Hall, Glenrothes until 19th December. http://www.onfife.com/exhibitions/i-love-scolawi
 

Thank you everyone who's gone to see it, and especially those who've got in touch to tell me how much they like it and how professional it looks. It's always good to hear that your work is appreciated. I'm going to photograph the exhibition properly, but in the mean time, here are some pictures from the opening.
 
 
Annie with her picture


Watching the film of the workshops
 
I'm still fundraising for I Love Scolawi, and am now selling my work to contribute (I'll talk about this more in the next email and attach copies of all my pictures in case you're interested). I only need to raise another £1,450 to pay off all the costs I've incurred over the course of the project, which is excellent news. Thank you so much if you've donated to the project, and if you've been meaning to, but haven't got round to it yet, there is a paypal donate button on the top right side of my blog.
 
The wonderful Amanda Graham has organised a quiz evening in the nearby village of Kettle with proceeds to be split between I Love Scolawi and the local play park (for those people who aren't local, Kettle is home of The Singing Kettle which you might have heard of if you've had young children in the last 20 years). Please come along if you can, it should be a good night.
 
 
I keep running out of words for what an amazing experience this project has been for me. I've met lots of wonderful people, and been touched by how enthusiastic everyone has been about what I've doing. This is the biggest project I've ever undertaken, and it's been very exciting for me, and a huge learning curve with a few big lows but lots and lots of highs. Here are a few of the things I've learnt this year:
 

ALWAYS run community art projects through a non-profit organisation


If I had run this project through an organisation I don't think I would have had any problems funding it and I would have even been paid for my time. individuals are unable to apply for nearly all art funding, but there is money out there for art projects if organisations know where to look. I had no trouble raising funds so that the Explorer Scouts could learn filming, buy equipment and create a video for me.
 
Self-fundraising is hard and time consuming. It has made I Love Scolawi much more stressful   than it could have been, and the work I produced for the project has suffered as a result. I only had time to etch ten of my own pictures, which feels a bit sparse - especially on the long wall they are hung on. I definitely have a few more pictures swimming around in my head still that I want to etch.
 

Don't give up


I don't think there was ever a point that I would have given up on I Love Scolawi. I had space booked in one of the biggest galleries in Fife, and they believed in me AND in the project. I did give up on the idea of going back out to Malawi a second time to exhibit the show. My husband and I  talked about it, and we knew that our finances couldn't justify another trip. Then I received a grant from the Hope Scott Trust that I had applied for (not expecting to get it) which covered car hire on the exhibition trip.
 
It's very hard to say no to a cheque for £720, but we knew that the larger expenses would massively outweigh this grant. Then someone donated our air fares and the second trip was possible again.
 
I truly believe that I Love Scolawi would have only been half the project it is without the second trip out to Malawi. It felt really special, showing the exhibition to the people who had created pictures for it, and seeing how much it meant to them to see their work included in the exhibition.
 

People are Brilliant


This point goes hand in hand with the previous one. Fundraising for this project has made me realise how much people care about projects like mine, and that if people believe in you and  your project, they will help you make it happen.
 
I've mentioned before about how alone and scared I felt when I found out I didn't get the government funding I'd applied for. But as soon as I posted about it on Facebook, friends told me that the money could be raised and that they would help me. I've been especially touched by the people who have helped me fundraise who I didn't know previously. People who heard about my project in the local press and got in touch in order to help me. Fundraising I Love Scolawi has truly been a group effort, and if you have contributed financially, or in any way, then I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. The project wouldn't have happened without you. So far we have raised nearly £6200!
 

Be more flexible when teaching


When I started teaching the workshops in May, I realised quickly that even though I didn't want to influence people's pictures, I was getting strangely anxious if the participants weren't doing what I was expecting them to do. Some children were even etching onto upside-down photos! I had to make a conscious decision to force myself appreciate that though the base photos were mine, the etched pictures were theirs, and I had given them permission to do whatever they wanted with them.
 
As an artist, I am a complete control freak. But as a teacher, I need to give people skills, and let them use that knowledge in the way they want to. Easier said than done, but I'll keep working on it.

 

Wednesday 8 October 2014

Scolawi News - Exhibition trip to Malawi

Monday 22nd September


We arrived in Blantyre yesterday, very tired and not expecting to be quizzed on the referendum immediately. I hadn’t realised that it would be such big news across the world. Though when you think about it, Malawi is a former British colony so having gained independence themselves, you can understand why it is of such interest to the people here.

Today we’re having a rest day, getting ourselves organised, shopping, and generally taking it easy after the exhaustion of the journey. We are also reminding ourselves of the dance steps of some Scottish dances we plan to teach people while we’re here. There is only so much time that the I Love Scolawi participants can spend looking at the pictures, and we thought the remaining time could be spend doing something fun and Scottish. Bring on the Gay Gordon’s!

Tomorrow we meet up with our friend Mary, and we will show the exhibition off to people for the first time. Mary works for WOFAD (Women for fair development), a project to support women who have been affected by HIV. The women participated in my project, and it will be great to meet everyone again.

Tuesday 24th September – exhibition preview



We had decided previously that we wanted to have a bit of a party atmosphere when we showed the exhibition to the participant groups in Malawi. With this in mind we originally set a budget of £40 per preview, but because I’ve had to cut budgets across the board, this has unfortunately been reduced to £20 per preview. For WOFAD, we were taken by Mary to Blantyre’s market to buy provisions for a large, meat filled meal for the women, which they prefer to snacks, and which won’t affect any medicines they are taking.

My children found the market place quite scary, and remembering how I felt for the first few days in Malawi last time, I’m not too surprised. Knowing what to expect from a place is very comforting, and the market is very busy, with a lot of the stall holders calling out to us to buy from them. There are men to get out of the way from because they are carrying heavy, 2 metre wide loads of potatoes across their necks, there was a child begging, a lorry load of security dogs barking, and flies everywhere. It was a world away from the very western supermarket in Blantryre that we’d bought provisions from yesterday. The market is very ‘not-British’ and was a bit of a shock to the kids.

We received a wonderful welcome from the women at WOFAD, and everyone was really excited to be given back the etched pictures they had created for the project. We put the exhibition posters up on the window bars outside, and everyone rushed out to find their own picture amongst everyone else’s. Lucia was really happy to see that her picture had been enlarged as one of the best 40. Just thinking about her picture always lifts my spirits, and is one of my absolute favourites.


Lucia with her original picture

Looking to find their own pictures

The women worked together to cook the meal on an open fire, which, as an outsider was very interesting to watch. The rice was cooked in a huge pot, and the meat and veg were cooked separately, because the children and I are vegetarian. While the meal was cooking we taught some of the women The Gay Gordons. There wasn’t much space, but we managed a couple of sets before the heat was too much and we had to stop. Scottish dancing is very different to Malawian dancing, and much more strictly regimented, but I think the ladies appreciated the beauty, style, and energy of it while they were laughing about how strange it looked.

We then transferred to Malawian dancing, which is also full of energy, and were given a very good display, which Tabi (my daughter) and I were invited to join in at one point. We didn’t really know what we were doing, but we really enjoyed being part of the group, and clapping and shaking our hips with everyone else.

After the delicious meal, we left the women to meet up with the children from the Amapatsa Care Foundation. Amapatsa is a charity which was set up by our friend Mary to help some of the vulnerable children in Blantyre. One of the ways the charity helps is by paying the school fees of those who can’t pay, and finding uniforms for them too. Education in Malawi used to be free, but now the schools ask for 600 Kwatcha (less than £1) from each child at the beginning of the school year. Children who have lost one or both of their parents to HIV (or other causes) find this a huge amount to pay in one go, so Amapatsa pay their fees to get them into education, and keep them off the streets.

Mary had organised a hall for us to meet in, but it was about a mile from where the children live, so we had to transport everyone (about 40 children plus 6 adults) via one of the small buses that run in Malawi and our hired 4x4. I have never seen so many people fit into such small spaces before. The buses here are the size of a VW campervan.

Just like with the WOFAD women, the children loved looking through the posters to find their own pictures, as well as finding themselves in the group photos I took at the end of each workshop of everyone with their etched photos.



They gave us a fantastic display of dancing, and a play which we really enjoyed. One of the best memories of the trip so far was the enjoyment on the children’s faces as they spin round during the Scottish dancing. In the Gay Gordon’s there are four different sections, and their excitement grew and grew through the first three sections before being able to spin round during the fourth. Just thinking about it again makes me smile.


Lake of Stars


We travelled up to the venue at the Sunbird Nkopola Lodge Hotel on Thursday 25th September. the day before the festival kicked off. The trip is about 125 miles and took about four hours. The road from Blantyre to Zomba (about a 1/3 of the way) is brand new and only took 3/4 hour, but after that the road got slower, and at one stage was pitted with potholes for many miles.

There are always lots of people walking or cycling at the edge of the roads in Malawi, which is strange to western eyes. My husband, Bill had noticed that Malawians use their horns a lot when driving, and on this long journey he realised that the heat meant that cyclists and pedestrians don't hear cars coming up behind them, so if a car or lorry is coming the other way you beep the people to let them know you're there, and they get off the road for you. He was soon beeping the horn the same as everyone else.

When we arrived at Nkopola Lodge we were amazed by the beauty of the setting and it felt we had arrived at paradise.


Nkopola Lodge, Malawi

My daughter, Tabi was stunned almost into silence, and told us that this was what she had ever wanted from a holiday, and that she wished she were there with her friends rather than her family so that she could enjoy it properly!

Nkopola Lodge is a really expensive hotel, so we weren't actually staying there. We camped the nights in the grounds of another hotel about a five minute drive away, and spent our days at the lodge, starting off with a cup of tea after breakfast sitting at one of the tables shown in the picture, and ending with a meal from one of the many food stalls. There wasn't a lot of choice for vegetarians on a budget, but I can thoroughly recommend the red bean stew and chips that I had for three nights in a row for 1000 kwacha a pop (there are about 670 kwacha to £1 ).

One strange thing we noticed when we were putting up the exhibition was that below the equator the sun travels through the northern part of the sky. As a photographer, I'm always very aware of where the sun is, and I notice the light and shadows constantly. This meant I knew instantly where the best place to hang the posters would be so that they avoided the direct sunlight, but it was Bill who noticed that I had placed them on a South facing fence, which would be a complete no no in Britain. Sometimes it's the small things that make you feel a long way from home.


My exhibition at Lake of Stars


Chikwawa Primary School



On Wednesday 1st October we headed down the hills to Chikwawa at the bottom of the Rift Valley (called the Shire Valley in Malawi - pronounced sheer-ee). It was wonderful to see my friend Monica and all the children again, and to see how much they appreciated us coming back to show them the exhibition.




It's always a lot hotter in the valley than in Blantyre, which is about 1000 metres above the valley floor, but this was a particularly hot day, even for there. We checked what the temperature was in Chikwawa on that day and it was 38 degrees! Teaching Scottish country dances in that heat was very hot work, but the children had such a great time learning them that it was all worthwhile.



Unfortunately, my son Arthur felt unwell that morning, and he soon became very overcome with the heat. He was burning hot and faint for most of the day, and we struggled to keep him cool and give him enough water to replace what he was losing. The next day was cloudy and cool though, and this gave him a chance to recover. By Friday he was feeling totally back to normal again, thank goodness.

We were unable to show the exhibition to the Chimwemwe Children's Centre, which was a real shame, but we met up with our friend Mac who runs the centre, and we showed him the posters, and played the video of footage taken at their workshop which Bill had edited together. We gave a copy of the video to Mac so that he could show the children.

Blantyre Arts Festival


The festival site is a culture centre that was build by the French, and abandoned when the cashgate scandal broke (millions of pounds worth of aid went straight into government official's pockets). The building is architecturally amazing, and if full of all these shell-like empty rooms, still painted but stripped of anything of value.




The festival was much more geared up towards promoting visual artists than the Lake of Stars, which seemed much more music orientated, and I had a constant stream of people coming into my room to see, and talk about the project which was lovely. I was only able to attend on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd, which was a shame because the weekend was the main part of the festival, and I think it would have been busier then. But my children had already had two weeks off school, and they needed to get back to their studies. The posters and information sheets stayed up for the whole festival.



I gave a lot of thought about what to do with the posters from the exhibition once the festival was over, because it would be a shame just to bring them home with me. My friend, Mary from the WOFAD project helped me decide, by asking if the women could keep some of the posters to remember the project by. I thought this was an excellent idea, and have shared the 8 posters out between WOFAD, Chimwemwe Children's Centre, and Chikwawa Primary School. I have another set of the posters showing everyone's work, and the enlarged pictures will be shown individually in Scotland rather than on posters.

I had the opportunity to speak with a lot of the Malawian artists at the festival, and was asked many times if there were any opportunities for Malawian artists to sell their work in Scotland, and how Scottish and Malawian artists and photographers could work together. It gave me the idea of setting up an organisation  to help with this, which I plan to give a lot of thought to this idea once my exhibition is up next week. I'm already getting quite excited about the prospect of collaborating with artists from Malawi, and it makes the prospect of returning to Malawi one day a lot stronger.

I can't imagine never going back.
 



 

 
 

Sunday 14 September 2014

Scolawi News 14-9-14

Once again I'm getting ready to travel out to Malawi and my life is full of 'to do' and 'to take' lists. This time we're taking our children with us so they can experience a completely different culture to ours and realise how privileged their upbringing has been in Scotland.
 
We leave for Malawi next Saturday to exhibit the I Love Scolawi project. I'll be exhibiting at the Lake of Stars music and art festival 26th-28th Sept www.lakeofstars.org and at the Blantryre arts festival 2nd-5rd Oct www.blantyreartsfestival.org
 
Unfortunately I will only be at the Blantyre arts festival for the first two days because I need to get home and get the Scottish exhibition ready, which will run from the 20th October. The exhibition will be left up for the entire four days of the festival. Thomas Chibambo, the director of the festival has also asked me to run a photography workshop during the festival which I'm quite excited about. There are further plans for a collaboration between Thomas and the BAF and the Fotospace Gallery in Glenrothes. While I'm in Malawi I hope to make these plans more concrete.
 
I'm also taking the exhibition to the participating groups who helped create pictures for I Love Scolawi. It will be wonderful to see everyone again, and I can't wait to show participants how their contribution fits into the whole.
 
In the last few weeks I have been feeling quite panicky about getting the community exhibition ready in time, while at the same time creating some work myself. I'm happy to announce that I woke up this morning feeling refreshed and not panicked for the first time in ages! I have completed the 10 pictures I set myself to create, I've photoshopped three composite A0 posters of everyone's work  along with five A0 posters featuring my forty favourite pictures for the Malawian exhibition. Everything that needs printing has been uploaded and sent to the printers, and I should get them delivered back by midweek latest. It's quite a relief, I can tell you!
 
One of three A0 posters showing everyone's artwork
 
 
There's still quite a bit to do: organise the workshop I'm running, mount the printed work, write some blurb to go with the exhibition, update my resume etc. But it feels like the stressy part is over with and I just have to get myself organised.
 
Fundraising news
 
The bingo tea last weekend as a great success, and we raised £264. Big thanks go to Betty for organising the event. I didn't win anything, but I think I've only won at bingo a couple of times :(
 
Cafe Alfresco in Glenrothes have been using their charity box to collect money for I Love Scolawi for the last few months and have raised £260. This seems an incredible amount raised from spare change! Big thanks go to Laura and Claude for organising this.
 
Also worth mentioning I think, is that Laura and Claude looked through my pictures when they popped over the other day and Laura  told me it was my best work to date (bless her!), and that I wasn't allowed to say that I couldn't draw. I can't remember my exact words last email, but I don't think I can't draw, I just think that I'm adequate at drawing - I need to practice the shapes I'm drawing over and over to get them right, whereas I think that good drawers can draw the shapes first time.
 
Thank you to everyone who has donated to me over the last couple of weeks. The total we have raised in nearly £5,700. Well done everyone! There is a Paypal donate button on my blog (top right) if you feel like donating to raise this above £6000.
 
Lastly,
I've had an email from my friend Mary, in Malawi  who has asked if I can bring any old or broken mobile phones over with me to be used for parts. If you have any old phones knocking around the house that you haven't got round to throwing out yet, please consider passing them on to me to take out with me.

Scolawi News 2-9-14

Its less than three weeks till I travel back out to Malawi to exhibit the show, and I'm getting really really excited, but also really really panicked by all the work that still has to be done. Still, what would be the point if projects didn't come down to the wire!
 
Since the middle of July I've managed to create one picture a week. I'm really pleased with how they look  and here's a sneak peek of them before the exhibition opens.
 
 
 
I hope you like them. I still have two more to create before I go, and maybe another two (if I can manage) before the Scottish exhibition.
 
These pictures are A4 and don't seem much for a summer's worth of work, but they take me a long time to design and etch because etching takes longer than drawing, and I'm still pretty new to drawing. I started going to art classes about nine years ago, not having drawn since I was 17. I'm now getting more and more ambitious with my designs, and my latest picture (ceilidh dancers - middle right) called for me to draw people in 3D looking like they were dancing AND having faces! - I've been putting this picture off all summer...
 
It took me a few goes to get the figures looking in proportion (the family thought my first attempts were hilarious), and it took me even longer to get the faces and hands looking acceptable, but I got there, and I'm so proud of the result. It may not be perfect, but compared to how it would have looked 6 months ago I think it looks amazing, and huge thanks go to my art teacher Lorraine for helping me so much. Without her classes I would never have started etching in the first place, and this project would never have happened.
 
Last week I taught workshops to the scouts and the cubs, which went really well. The explorers filmed the scout one for the film they are producing. I'm teaching one last workshop this week to the guides, and then  I choose my 20 favourite Scottish pictures to enlarge. This was a really hard task with the Malawian pictures, but I came up with a technique which I'll use again. It's really exciting to see everyone's work laid out on my kitchen table when I'm choosing, and remembering the workshops, and all the people I've met. I'm looking forward to doing it all again.
 
Fundraising
 
This Friday (Sept 5th) My friend Bettie has organised a Bingo Tea to raise funds for I Love Scolawi. It will be held in Dunshalt Village Hall and starts at 7pm for 7:30. It should be a good night, with lots of great prizes up for grabs. If you're not really into bingo you can always come along for the cakes - Bettie always puts on a really good spread at her Bingo Teas!
If you're local then please come along, have a great night out, and help support I Love Scolawi.
 
Thank you to everyone who's pledged to my crowdfunding campaign. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/553280159/i-love-scolawi
 
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to spend the time advised to promote the page (2-3 hours a day!) and it's not going to reach it's target. The pledges are only taken from your bank accounts if the target is reached, so none of your money will be transfered. This funding route was always going to be hard to pull off because I've  fundraised so much previously, and I'm not surprised it hasn't raised it's target. But I'm really please to have tried it, and I used it to get I Love Scolawi mentioned in the papers again which is great. In fact, I was talking to my hairdresser about the project the day after there was a piece in The Courier, when the lady next to me asked if I was the 'etching' lady that she'd read about the previous day, and how interesting she had thought the project was. I was so proud!
 
Without the crowdfunding source I've had to scale back the exhibition slightly, but I hope it won't be noticeable. I will no longer be making a book of the project for the participating groups, There will be less A0 posters, and some of the frames/hangers for the Malawian exhibition will be reused for the Scottish one.
 
So far I have raised nearly £5,000 which is completely overwhelming amount, and I'd like to thank everyone who has donated towards the project (some people multiple times, so you get multiple thank yous!). A huge special thank you goes to Violet, Bettie, Laura and Claude, and Amanda who have wanted to see this project succeed so much, that they have planned events, or raised money in other ways for the project. Thank you, I couldn't have managed without you.
 
If you haven't already donated but really want to, please use the PayPal donate button on the top right hand side of my blog. 

Sunday 10 August 2014

Scolawi News 10th August 2014

It's been another busy few weeks for me and once again I'm starting to panic again about time. I'm sure everything will turn out fine in the end just like before my last trip out to Malawi, but for now...
 
I've been etching new pictures as much as I can, and have finished two that I'm immensely proud of. They are based around the symbolism and legends behind the Scottish and Malawian flags. This week I've been working on a picture featuring tartan that didn't work so well and which will need to be re thought-out and redone. This is annoying, but has reminded me that cutting corners doesn't save time in the long run, and that I need to plan everything on paper first.
 
The etching workshop I taught in Auchtermuchty last weekend went really well, and I was delighted with the pictures people created. I really don't know how I'm going to choose the best ones to enlarge for the exhibition. 19 people braved the rain to come along and learn etching.
 
Everyone standing outside in the drizzle showing off their pictures.
 

A couple of weeks ago I gave a talk about I Love Scolawi to the Howe of Fife Rotary. They seemed very interested in the project, and delighted that I had taught an etching workshop to the Chimwemwe Children's Centre for street kids while I was in Malawi. Their rotary have raised lots of money for the centre so they could build their own place with space for training and temporary accommodation.
 
Plans are moving on apace for my second trip out to Malawi to exhibit the show. The plane tickets have been bought and I've confirmed my spot at the Lake of Stars festival and at the Blantyre Arts Festival I will also be exhibiting the show to all of the project's participant organisations while I am out there. It will be wonderful to go back and see everyone again because when I was in Malawi last time, I didn't think I would be going back and the goodbyes felt very final.
 
Fundraising
 
I have spent some time last week putting together a crowdfunding campaign for the workshop and exhibition costs. Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people via the Internet, with rewards offered for your contribution.
 
My campaign isn't live just yet, but I hope it will be by the end of this week, and I will send out a quick email to let you know when it's all go. I realise that there are lots of you who have already contributed generously to this project, but there are other ways to help with the campaign like emailing your contacts to spread the word, or sharing my posts on Facebook and twitter so other people hear about the project.
 
Lastly, it was suggested to me that I hold an informal fundraising 'slideshow' evening to show off the photographs I took and talk about the stories behind them.
There will be a £5 entrance with a glass of wine beforehand and tea/coffee and cakes afterwards.
 
Does this sound like something you'd like to come to? Could you let me know if you're interested so I can decide whether or not to run it. I've tentatively booked Dunshalt Village Hall for the evening of Saturday 30th August.

Monday 28 July 2014

Scolawi News 28th July 2014

I hope you are enjoying the amazing weather we're having. I've realised that I haven't sent out a newsletter since June, and so much has happened since then. There's lots of amazing fundraising news, but I'll talk about the other stuff first.
 
I'm holding an open etching workshop for I love Scolawi that anyone can attend on Saturday 2nd August at the Auchtermuchty Community Centre at 1pm. Please get in touch if you'd like to come along to have a go at etching and create a picture for the final exhibition in Fifespace Gallery, Glenrothes in Ocotber. There will be a slight charge to cover the cost of hall rental. 

 
 
With only three months to go till the Glenrothes exhibition I'm once more starting to panic about time, and have started creating my own pictures for the show. I'd like to have at least 12 pictures, so that's one a week, and I've got a 2 week trip to Malawi during that time too (Yikes). I've just finished my second which took me 4 1/2 days so I really need to get cracking, or make them simpler.
 
Because of this workload, I'm struggling to find time for other aspects of the project, especially marketing and promotion. It was suggested to me this morning, that I need a volunteer helper who would find the experience useful for adding to their CV. possibly a student who's doing a marketing or business course. Do you know anyone local who would find the experience useful and would like to help? Please email me any details, or feel free to pass my details on to someone you think might be interested.
 
Fundraising news
 
Our total raised has now reached over £3,200! This is an incredible amount that goes a massive way towards to £8,000 needed for the whole project (£3,000 for the workshop trip to Malawi, £2,000 for the workshop and exhibition costs, and £3,000 for the exhibition trip to Malawi).
 
I'd like to give a huge thank you to Violet for organising the Muchty Hafla for I Love Scolawi. The evening raised £644, and was a wonderful evening. A big thank you must also be given to all the people who helped Violet run the show, and to everyone who came along. As I've mentioned before, I had never been to a hafla before, and I didn't know what to expect. I had a great time, and am looking forward to going to my next one in September. It was amazing to see a group of women being happy in their own bodies whatever their size and shape, and being comfortable enough to show them off. I've attached some photos of the evening.
 



 
 
I'd also like to give a huge thank you to Cafe Alfresco, in Glenrothes who are generously giving I Love Scolawi their collection tin takings over the summer. In three weeks they have already raised over £100!
 
After my almost forgotten application in May, I have received £720 from the Hope Scott Trust (who help artists exhibit abroad) to go towards the exhibition trip out to Malawi. Upon hearing this news a donor (who wishes to remain anonymous) offered to cover the rest of the second trip out to Malawi, because they wanted to see the project properly completed. A huge, MEGA thank you goes out to them, as I was unable to justify going into lots of debt for the second trip, and would have had to send the Hope Scott money back without their incredible donation. Thank you, cos I still can't believe that I'm going back to Malawi.
 
The art raffle winners have been drawn from a hat and they are ...  drum roll please  ....
 
Top prize (hand etched photograph): Jim Mailer
 
Other winners: Sandra Williamson, Kate Balsillie, Liz Grubb, Alison Watson, Carolyn Porter, Gill Musk, Ina Robertson, Bettie Suttie, Sarah Jones, A C Nicol, Stewart Thompson, Janice McKay, Amanda Graham, Mike Middleton, A Findlay, Susie Speller.
 
Congratulations to all the winners, and commiserations to those who didn't - but thank you for buying tickets.

Monday 30 June 2014

Favourites And Fundraising

I’ve had an exciting day last week choosing my favourite 20 etched pictures to make larger for the exhibition from the 162 pictures created in the Malawian workshops. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be because there were so many great pictures created.

My criteria was to enlarge only one version of each base photo (there were 30 original base photos, so 10 wouldn’t be represented), and I wanted to include pictures from each workshop I’d taught.

After a few false starts, I came up with a system that worked. I chose my favourite 2 pictures from each base photo, and lined them up according to which workshop they had been created at. I then placed my absolute favourites at the front of the line, and chose the rest according to which was my favourite from the various themes (eg. football, houses. animals).

The system worked well and I’m really pleased with the diversity and artistic merit of the photographs I chose. I only made one change to the group afterwards, because while I was scanning the pictures in, I saw a picture that lifted my spirits so much I had to include it. It’s not the best executed or the most original idea, but there is an energy about it, and it always makes me smile when I see it.




 
One of the workshops I’m teaching in Scotland is available to anyone during the Auchtermuchty Festival on the 2nd August 1pm at the community centre. I’d be delighted if you could come along and etch your own picture for the project. The workshops take about 2½ hours and I’m afraid there will have to be a very small charge to cover the cost of hiring the hall. Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll add your name to the list.

Fundraising

So far we have raised over £1,700 for I Love Scolawi! Wow. Well done everybody!

This is a fantastic amount and I’d like to thank each and every one of you for your support in buying raffle tickets, coming to fundraising events, and your generous donations.

Here are a few of the fundraising events still to come:

Muchty Hafla – 12th July, Auchtermuchty Church Hall

Violet Shears has very kindly organised a hafla for next weekend.
 
 
 
Hafla means party; and this is a gathering of women dancing together for fun. I’ve never been to one, and am really looking forward to finding out more about it. A friend told me that she went to the last hafla that Violet organised with no idea what to expect, and she had a fantastic time, so it should be a great night out.

There will be dancing, drumming, singing and there will be various stalls as well. If you’d like to have an unusual night out doing something completely different then let me know and I can reserve tickets for you.

Collection tin in Café Alfresco, Glenrothes

I’d like to give a huge shout out to Café Alfresco, (situated just outside Rothes Hall in Glenrothes), who have offered to raise funds through their collection tin for I love Scolawi. Thank you so much Alan and Claude, I really appreciate it.

Art Raffle

There are only a few days left before the art raffle is drawn. Among the many fantastic prizes up for grabs is the original hand etched photograph I created to promote I Love Scolawi; and original artwork by many of our local artists including Victoria Scrivener Anderson and Lorraine McKendrick.

You’ve got to be in it to win it, so if you haven’t bought your tickets yet then please use Paypal’s donate button on the right hand side of my blog to buy some asap! All donating artists will be receive five free tickets as a thank you.

Artist’s quiz
 
You might remember that I ran a ‘guess the artist’ quiz recently to raise funds. The quiz was won by Annie Gibson who got an amazing 50/50 right. Well done Annie! She told me last week that she plans to use the prize money towards buying some art or craft. This is an idea I thoroughly approve of, and I hope you find something that lifts your spirits whenever you see it Annie.

The answers to the artist’s quiz can be viewed at http://ilovescolwai.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/quiz-answers_30.html
Other planned fundraising events are:
  • a Bingo Tea in early September that my friend Betty has very kindly offered to organise
  • an informal slideshow evening in august displaying the photographs I took in Malawi, and talking about my experiences there
  • a stall at the St Serf’s Market during the Auchtermuchty Festival
  • a crowd funding campaign to cover the workshop and exhibition costs

So, still lots to do, and lots to look forward to. At some point I’ve got to take some time out to etch some pictures myself which I’m really looking forward to.

Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to my 'name the artist' quiz. How many did you get right?

1.      Guernica
Pablo Picasso
2.      Blue Nude
Henri Matisse
3.      The Angel Of The North
Antony Gormley
4.      Water Lilies
Claude Monet
5.      Vitruvian Man
Leonardo Da Vinci
6.      American Gothic
Grant Wood
7.      Christ Of St John Of The Cross
Salvador Dali
8.      Campbell’s Soup Cans
Andy Warhol
9.      The Dance Class
Edgar Degas
10.  The Laughing Cavalier
Frans Hals
11.  Bal Du Moulin De Le Galette
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
12.  No. 5, 1948
Jackson Pollock
13.  The Kiss
Gustav Klimt
14.  The Great Wave Off Kanagawa
Katsushika Hokusai
15.  Still Life with Apples
Paul Cezanne
16.  Black Iris
Georgia O’Keeffe
17.  The Fighting Temeraire
Joseph Turner
18.  Flower Thrower
Banksy
19.  Ambassadors
Hans Holbein The Younger
20.  Self Portrait With Thorn Necklace And Hummingbird
Frida Kahlo
21.  The Son Of Man
Rene Magritte
22.  Wreck Of The Medusa
Theodore Géricault
23.  The Garden Of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch
24.  My Bed
Tracey Emin
25.  The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living
Damien Hirst
26.  The Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo
27.  Le Meninas
Diego Velazquez
28.  The Lady Of Shalott
John William Waterhouse
29.  At The Moulin Rouge
Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec
30.  The Scream
Edvard Munch
31.  Sunflower seeds
Ai Weiwei
32.  The Fountain
Marcel Duchamp
33.  The Chinese Girl / The Green Lady
Vladimir Tretchikoff
34.  Balloon Dog
Jeff Koons
35.  Cardsharps
Caravaggio
36.  A Sunny Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat
37.  Mr And Mrs Andrews
Thomas Gainsborough
38.  A Bar At The Folies-Bergère
Edouard Manet
39.  Nighthawks
Edward Hopper
40.  The Singing Butler
Jack Vettriano
41.  Starry Night
Vincent Van Gogh
42.  The Girl With The Pearl Earring
Johannes Vermeer
43.  The Orbit Tower
Anish Kapoor
44.  Whaam!
Roy Lichtenstein
45.  The Night Watch
Rembrandt
46.  Giovanni Arnolfini And His Wife
Jan Van Eyck
47.  Study After Valázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X
Francis Bacon
48.  I and The Village
Marc Chagall
49.  The Birth Of Venus
Botticelli
50.  The Hay Wain
John Constable