Growing pains (Changeling 2)

While I was gearing up for my exhibition in Wakefield - writing a presentation of my work which I wanted to deliver on opening night, organising the minutiae of stay and travel that need to be in place when you've got M.E. and need lots of help, and getting a bit feverish with it all - I crocheted these underpants as part of my Changeling-series. It felt right to give them this shape: they are like a comfort blanket (the material is very soft, a splendid wool and silk mixture). Working on them in bed calmed me. I started at the top and crocheted my way down, thinking back to the woollen pants my great aunt knitted for me when I was small, in baby blue. They were a bit scratchy and to my relief shrunk in the wash and only fitted one of the dolls I didn't play with much.
The show at the Arthouse is still on, go see!

Dimensions: 21 cm x 74 cm
Materials: JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk

Between a smile and a grin

It has happened - my show at the Arthouse is up and running! The exhibition is tiny but finy and the Arthouse is something else: I've never seen a building where every last detail has been considered carefully to make access and inhabitation as easy as possible. I was given a room for the days leading up to the exhibition and after so I could rest, see my show and present my work in person - exhilarating for this artist who normally sends her work by parcel post.
I can't tell you how much help I had along the way: the art and texts are all mine but without my friend Agnes hiring a car and driving me to Wakefield and back I wouldn't have been able to go, and other friends, Anna, Lindy, Linda, Nicola, helped in all kinds of practical ways. Never mind the belief of so many people in my art and in me...
I loved presenting my work to an interested audience (about 35). It made me feel part of the world again! I wore a sumptuous red velvet jacket which I'd designed and Tessa B. made for me in exchange for one of my pieces. Actually, my 'design' was a two square inch pencil drawing and Tessa enhanced on it - just gorgeous! Of course you'll know what it was inspired by… I certainly did not have the impulse or courage for extravagance before I fell ill, but I really wanted to mark this occasion with my very own visibility cloak.

Go see if you can, the exhibition will run until 21 July 2010
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I have recorded a presentation "Lying low and reaching high:
On practising art and living with M.E.", which will be available for viewing during the exhibition.