Week 8 MFA CSAD

Week 8
I am working from home mostly now. Instead of the exciting playground I had fantasied about, Health and safety prevents me from utilizing all the facilities. I’m not complaining, it was naïve of me to think otherwise. If I attended inductions into each space I could probably make use of all the different spaces but I have what I need at home and my own exclusive technician on hand to bounce ideas off and help me find solutions to problems whom I have spent 20 years training (my husband). So when André said I was coming to the end of my time in the studio, although it was a shock (I don’t remember having the conversation about the details of my part time status) it’s certainly not a problem.
 
I got into the studio Wednesday afternoon and did some reading, wrote last weeks blog as I hadn’t got round to it until then. Meg was in and is getting on well with her washing machine. Laura has said they may be able to make it shake which would be awesome. Rosie has moved in by me taking the space Daniel saved but never occupied. She came and went, she is using colour and showed me the prints she did during the print induction that she and Paskaline went to. I’m loving this development in her work it is adding a freer dimension to it. Sean popped his head in and asked if we were ok, we are.
 
Thursday is gallery day. I am early. I have parked above Umbrella which is our last stop and walk across town to find Ten gallery which is way out of town. I find a café for a coffee and find M.A.D.E. at the same time. The exhibition at Ten is ceramics, lolly pops, black balloons and giant pills, black totem like objects and small bowls all with this velvety finish and those that aren’t black are brightly coloured. The owner represents 20 Artists and talks about being in a long term relationship with her artists. André makes it clear it is a plutonic relationship as he is represented by her. She had recognised a lack of representation for successful contemporary Welsh artists in Cardiff and started with a couple of pop up galleries in the city centre collecting artists as she went. It was an interesting story. She now owns the space and has two small children. Like I say she represents André but she also represents David Nash. 

​Next is M.A.D.E. I chat with André on the walk down there and he talks about how Kat from ten as helped him. It’s all about making contacts. M.A.D.E. is a very different space. There is a group sat at a table as we walk in having a meeting of some kind. There is work all around, shelves to the ceiling and card racks and a café style bar. However behind all that is the gallery a little smaller than ten but not much. Here we have photographs of bins and it is at this point that André makes a comment about me not being around for much longer. The fact that the photographer had killed himself has everyone a little shell shocked and that covers my reaction to the news that my time in the studio was nearly up. I am part time after all. Rosie seems as upset about this as I am but like I have said at the beginning of this blog it is fine and André predicted that I will come back into the studio in 2024 with loads more work than anyone else. So I won’t be exhibiting with this group in June/July but I am now and I will pop in and see them all regularly while I do Context n Methodology next term. Anyway, back to the bins. They are a really interesting selection of images and it is really interesting which ones have sold. Of course selling is important to the gallery owners, that is how they survive but this space seems more community oriented that ten which has a much more commercial feel. Ellie must have work in an upcoming exhibition because the owner recognises her. 
Next is g39 which of course I know and have visited on a number of occasions including having “UnEarthed” in the made in Roath open exhibition. We entre by the back door, Sam who meets us is familiar and the space looks very different from the last time I was there. Gone are the blue walls of the Principle Boy exhibition, the space has bee white washed ready for the DAC exhibition which opens next weekend. I wonder if I will know any of the contributing Artists, has Lou got anything in it? I will have to try and get down for it. We are shown round the studio spaces and sam explains that they are coming to the end of a five years project and are going through some changes in the staff structure. So I will have to keep an eye on how things develop there.
We have lunch in the restaurant that I have been looking for where I’d had dahl n rice on a different occasion then finally on to ‘Umbrella’.
Paisley is really nice. Rosie and I catch the others up on the space and Paisley tells us they will do a bar for the opening. We all show her what we are doing for the show and we set up a new WhatsApp group that includes her. We arrange to meet again on Tuesday to start installing the work then go our separate ways. 

​Lots to think about. I go to the studio and collect most of my stuff. I needed the ball so I could finish the stand but I figure I may as well take all the other stuff I have there while I’m at it. I leave my mark, the fabric spiral and the test pieces that are on the wall and the inspiration pictures.
The time has passed so quickly but I am happy that I am achieveing what I wanted to achieve. Still another month of this term and the assessments to go.
At home I focus on getting my work ready for installation. So many problems to solve but I get there and I am hopefully that it will work on Tuesday. I just hope they don’t want to move anything once I’ve built it in the space, lol!
Once I am done with that I focus on the preparation for the Stiwdio/gallery/shop opening. The ceramicist I met loved the space and has moved in. I have made screens up to print bags and tarted making frames for the snowballs I want to make for the window. So much to do but I do like to be busy.