Arts Portfolio

Ok, just a quick post to tell you about a cool little feature on Voodoochilli.net its called the Vote Room. In the Vote Room people can discover new artwork they may have never seen before. There are thousands of images on Voodoochilli.net and sometimes some of them don’t get the recognition they deserve. Now you can choose images that haven’t had a vote yet, the highest rated images or a purely random selection of images.

If you haven’t seen it yet, give it a try.

I went along to Foyles the bookshop in London on Friday in support for fellow writer, Beth Junor at her book signing for ‘Scarcely Ever Out of My Thoughts’. A collection of letters edited by Beth written by Valda Trevlyn Grieve to Christopher Murray Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid born 1892-1978). Valda married Hugh and in 1932 gave birth to a son, James Michael Grieve. Hugh, like many Scottish writers and poets was political in his views and had a strong belief in socialism. In 1928 he was the founder member of the National Party of Scotland (SNP). Interestingly, later in his life he was to change those views and move more toward Communism, standing as a communist party candidate against the then Prime Minister, Sir Alex Douglas-Home. http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/arts/writingscotland/writers/hugh_macdiarmid/

Valda’s letters convey the self-sacrifice she gave in support of Hugh, in an effort to get him to reach his full potential. Their relationship was based on affection and respect for one another, where they did not compete, as Valda was a spirited lady with views of her own. She was born in Bude, Cornwall in 1906 and was a staunch Cornish Nationalist throughout her life, coming from a poor family, that had a clear sense of loyalty, and who looked after one another in frugal conditions. She returned to Cornwall in order to look after ailing aunts when it became necessary for her to do so. Hugh sacrificed himself for his principles and it was these principles Valda valued. The book gives an interesting insight into the domesticity of their lives together. Valda died at the age of 82 in 1989.

Had a great night at BAFTA where I met with the stars for the screening of the film Daddy’s girl. Jaime Winstone, daughter of the actor Ray Winstone (who incidentally was there in support of his daughter), plays Nina and I have to say, it was gripping stuff, parts of which I admit to closing my eyes to, due to the realism. The suspense and twists make it a seat-gripping film, not for the faint-hearted. http://www.daddys-girl.co.uk….Janet

Since the new design of Voodoochilli.net we no longer have a place for the old e-zine, VoodooNews. I thought this might be a nice place to archive it for anyone still interested in giving it a read. Click on the links below to download.

Issue 9 September 2006
Issue 9 is our first quarterly newsletter and therefore has a lot more in it! 25 pages pack full of news, information and all kinds of fun and interesting stuff, this issue is definitely worth a read.

* Art Winstanley’s article, "Blockbusters" gives advice on how to get beyond a creative block.
* We have showcased all of the past news image of the months since July.
* Harry O’Connor’s "My Top 10 Websites" gives a personal insight into various sites around the world.
* Poetry slam has 4 poems from voodoochilli members

Plus all of the usual features

Voodoochilli Art Newsletter Issue 8
IT’S ABOUT TIME!
In our first anniversary issue, VoodooNews, Issue 8 watches the clock.

"Tempus Fugit" weighs how and why we measure the passage of time against how we spend it.

"Where will we be in 12 months’ time" demonstrates how, in the hands of a skilled webmaster, time based statistics can draw from the past to actualise the present and project the future of our internet community.

We’re introducing a feature series of cartoons called "Instant Calmer", "fester aka" is our featured artist of the month and "artman’s alphabet" if out to the letter H.

"Who’s new looks at the artwork of 4 of our newer member and see "community news" for an opportunity to join the VoodooNews Publishing Team.

Continue Reading »

After posting my article, it seems that being hit by lightning seemed to get some of you excited. I didn’t go into detail in the article so here’s my story.

That day, 18th August 2002, a bright, bright, sunny day, I’d helped a friend put concrete floors in his house and came home feeling totally shattered. I was alone at the time, my husband being in Vienna and my son was in the UK. I decided to get straight in the bath and have a good soak. I got into my pyjamas and went to the kitchen to put yesterday’s leftover dinner in the microwave. Whilst it was heating, I went into the living room to say make a fuss of the cat. I was leaning against the corner of the wall, cat over my shoulder, when there was the most incredible explosion. I found myself hurled 10 meters to the other side of the room. As I lay there motionless for several seconds, I began to smell an acrid smell and adrenaline kicked in. I leapt to my feet, grabbed the house phone and my mobile, shut the door behind me, into the hallway which was full of smoke and left the house. I ran, bare feet, still in my pyjamas, 300 meters down my gravel drive and shouted for my neighbour across the road, all the time trying desperately to phone the fire brigade. My neighbour appeared very quickly and ran back with me. He opened the front door to have a look, saw the smoke and told me that we must stay outside. Not that I could hear anything, the explosion had made me totally deaf. I was frantic at this point, not only was I deaf but my two budgies were in there and my cat was missing. Continue Reading »

Ok, a bit of a weird title. You might even say it’s pretentious or trying to be “arty”. Well I guess this is an “arty” site so I can probably get away with it, but the reality is this subject is something I have thought about and written about previously. Before I studied illustration I did a year of an animation degree in Newport, Wales. It probably wasn’t the best course for me, I had a great time but I didn’t work that hard and I don’t think the tutors liked me. I believe this because of the way they talked to me and the fact that I would sometimes get lower marks than other people even on joint projects where we did the work together.

One project in particular was a short film about four types of music. Another student and I thought up four genres of music between us, one of the genres I choose was hip-hop/rap, something I was really into at the time. I think the final film was quite good, but they questioned the fact that the hip-hop piece was about gangsters, guns and violence. I responded that this was what the music was about, but I was told it wasn’t and that not only was I typecasting but I was being racist. This is quite simply not true, I am not a racist and I am deeply apposed to racism in all of its forms.

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A gathering of Authors congregated to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday at the Great Hall, King’s College, London, yesterday. It was well attended with Authors of all genres, novelists, poets, writer’s of business manuals and crime. A good evening was had by all as we voiced our opinions, listened to a reading by the Poet Laureate, drank endless amounts of champagne and generally got to know one another, so much so that I have been invited to fellow authors book signings.

Well having written of my life in several volumes, I would have considered this nigh on impossible but after attending a workshop with BBC Southern Radio last week, I have changed my mind. It was a long arduous day and condensing anything from your life to 250 words meant picking one solitary event that meant something to you and spoke a thousand words.
My subject was violence in the home, and how that can have a profound effect on children involved, leaving everyone with haunting memories. Amazing that so few words can portray so much……………………………in peace, Janet

I started painting 6 years ago. I’d had this romantic notion of being a painter but now the time had come, I didn’t actually have a clue what I was going to paint!

I was given a book, one of those huge hard backed ones full of beautiful glossy photographs of African women. They were decorated with fabulous jewellery. I decided to try and paint one of these women. I was really fascinated by the tiniest beads and the repetition of the strands. It seemed that by repeating the same object several times, they somehow took on a different meaning.

I had a big problem painting from photographs. Not only were these copyrighted but it felt like I was cheating. My parents had discouraged me from becoming an artist because I’d spent most of my childhood copying pictures. They felt that this was not showing true talent or skill. I don’t really agree with this, it’s a different art form, but for me, I wanted to be original. I also wanted to have a message, not just paint for the sake of painting. Continue Reading »

Its 7.58 am on a Saturday. Normally I like to have a lie in on a Saturday to get some rest for the week ahead. But today, like yesterday I am up before 7 as I am waiting for a delivery. I hate waiting for things, but above all I really hate waiting for deliveries. You see the postal service around here is crazy! They just pop round when they feel like it, and you can guarantee they will try to deliver your parcel the moment you walk away from the front door as you need to go to the toilet or get a drink. It’s as if they know.

Ok, I am in full on moan mode. Its something I have to do now and then to let off some steam (many members from the Voodoochilli forum will know this). But there is a reason I am moaning here and writing it down. When I studied illustration often we were set specific projects to illustrate, for example they might have said we had to do a 3 piece triptych based on communicating an idea taken from a topical piece of news. These sorts of projects were relatively easy to get your head around and were reserved mostly for the first and second years of study. The third year however was based on self directed study, meaning that we would have to find our own subjects and inspiration to work on. I happened to be interested in outsider art and mental illness and it made great material to work with, and nearly everyone picked subjects that somehow related to their own interests. We essentially illustrated ourselves. Continue Reading »