23. So We're 'Drawing' to a Close

allo! Well this week, as you can see below, I received my business and post cards! Plus a free, shiny, metal holder… Which was all very exciting! Here’s a picture without my stoopid face in it of those:

I’ll need to get holders for them. We also had the deadline for our degree show requirements early this week so I got mine sent off. Pete got back to me to let me know that I’d been allotted a glass display case for my work. This was really nice, but not the way which I’d envisioned displaying my work, so we had a little chat about it and I showed both him and Jonny this terrific little illustration:

…It was really positive, and I’ve now been moved in to what used to be a changing room in the empty shop outlet where we’re having our degree show this year. Perfect for a little instillation! We have also discussed having a concertina partition wall down the centre of our London degree show, so we even talked about having the back wall of my instillation on a moveable board, which could then be attached to said partition, making it easier to re-create for the London exhibition. You may notice (but probably not) there are a couple of changes from the doodle I put up in my last post- I’ve changed my mind about the plinths for a start, I’m going to go to the tip and get my hands on a grubby old cabinet instead so it looks more authentic. I’ve also got some brown carpet tiles and on Wednesday I took my lovely granddad down to a DIY shop to help me pick some 1950’s-esque wallpaper to go on the walls of my instillation. I found a really great one that is orange and brown with vertical geometric patterns on it:

Pretty cool, huh? I scanned this in on Thursday because I thought it might look good to use it as the background for the images of Firm Turd’s house. I also picked up a few other samples while I was in the shop, and although I decided they weren’t fitting for ‘Turd’s bachelor pad, that I could use them as swatches for his and his wife’s old house. I also burnt the one from his house to represent the effect I will convey in the show. Here they are:

I’m also on the hunt for a suitable Jerry Lee Lewis record to go in a Viynl frame, however at this rate I may be printing an image from the Internet and sticking it to card, as they’re fairly rare and expensive! Here’s a couple of possibilities for that…  Well, actually just one- as the other one is on E-Bay and I can't save the picture. This is the more modern looking of the two so perhaps less suitable:

Anyway back to Wednesday evening… It was Jen and Jens fundraiser at Lennons. DJ Derek was in his rightful place on the decks and it was a fab night. I even made some little fluffy, pink cakes with Tom and Jerry effergies on them! They raised £215! (The whole night, not my childrens cakes...) Which brings our total up to around £1400 and with another 3 fundraisers (including art stalls) and another 3 separate art stalls to go, we should be able to make it!! We discussed all this in a London show meeting on Friday, after a meeting during which we were given some timetables detailing the new few vital weeks. We figured that we’ll need another £840 for the rest of the gallery hire, all that we need for the Southampton show is really the bar, which could be around £300. We will also need that again for the London show, plus more on top for everything else London show related, which is basically all that’s left to cover!

Putting the FUN in FUNDraising! Ho ho (...is that joke old yet???)

I think out main problem is really knowing what to do next! We made a chart of things that needed doing, upon which people could volunteer themselves. We now have people assigned to sorting out transport, posters, etc, etc. Some questions that need answering were highlighted and I’ve been in touch with the gallery owners today addressing those. I will also be making a rota for staffing the gallery, and speaking to Ben about making the partition wall. Also, and I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before or not, but the organizers of the awesome Ejector Seat Arts Festival (<check the website out. It's swell. Especially if you enjoy dinosaurs like I do.) offered me a stall there when I asked if my third and final fundraiser could also act as their after party (they’re already having one…) but I passed on the names of those interested in that today too as I’ll be busy sound-checking bands for my event. Anyway… bit of a tangent there- after that, we had a meeting about Red Hot Press and also studios for hire in Southampton called ‘A Space.’ Although I’m moving to London in July, it was really great and inspiring to see what a up and coming artistic community Southampton now has to offer. I’ll certainly miss it when I leave! Finally, and as always most importantly… My progress with the F.M.P! As you know, all that’s left for me is colouring in! However, not to be underestimated, as it’s proving a very long job... This is what I’ve done this week:

Endpapers

I’m pleased with them, but I just don’t think this method is a realistic way to continue, especially since reprographics did get back to me to tell me that the latest I can give them my images is Monday the 16^th to get them back for the deadline on Monday 30^th. I also wanted a chance to get a sample run off before I give them in for good in case there are any major issues. I plan to do this Friday, which will allow me the weekend to rectify any mistakes. Even so, I don’t even really have until Friday to complete them, as I need at least a day to finish scanning and rectifying my images from the last book and also prepping both for printing. Luckily, I have the opportunity to change my working style slightly as from the next page onwards, most of the book is a flashback- which gives me the freedom to change the format in any way I like. I think this is not only just a lot more feasible, but will add some diversity to the book. At the moment, I am planning to have all my images completely ready for printing by Friday morning, and probably aim to have them all coloured in by Thursday morning. Basically, I need to be banging 5 of these out a day… So wish me luck! Also, (I guess I lied when I said finally up there) our blogs are due at the end of this week. I have a tutorial with both Jonny and Alexandra tomorrow to find out what needs to accompany it so I’ll also be finding the time this week to tidy all this up. See yah soon, Quim out.