Some women

Coco Chanel

Vein of Gold - Panda

Precious panda

You were stripped from me with a nasty gift
a lovely little pram for you to live in
and you must stay at Granny's house till she was too frail

Babe in a pram, I clearly remember placing you with great tenderness
and being told I must leave you there
my heart was wrenched from me as you were wheeled away
my mother's arms about me and my tears

you were taken from me with adult persuasion

I was only two

My parents just had too much baggage

my Panda, you didn't fit their plan

And then we flew to the other side of the world

you weren't recollected with any visit

you didn't belong to me anymore

how should I have remembered from limited snap shots?

The light was bad. It was Christmas

What a slap of shock to find

my first memory was the uncomprehending grief for you

And with my granny gone
I imagine you lost to some second hand establishment

or to the bin, My mother purging our lives again with every move

and don't I recognise myself. 

I forgot and remembered too late

the carry cot, white metal with brown canvas hood

sold for a pittance at an auction among the poor

to raise money for an empty church

Ah,

the vain hope of a fusty attic revealing you safe

pathetic searching through the webs for the precise shape and feel of you

so many lookalikes, 

yet I would know you now and hold you tight

You are so lost! I would have to find you in such a precise way

there can be no fakes, there can be no substitutes

I recall an attempt at a paltry copy when I was still a child
too soft, too new, the colours all wrong, the fur too long

and now the transformation for all must return to the vein of gold

I see myself at five,
climbed in to the soft toy shelf at toys r us
it is late at night and my new sister is arrived
I choose Lisa, my favourite girls name

a Siamese cat, stiff and upright, looking at me sideways
but she has the right colour legs and the right colour eyes
I invest all my love in her
and I notice a compensation of cats echoing through my life

and now I know, my mother tells me
you were taken to the empty church for the children to play with
and my Panda
you were eaten by mice

an echo

I have returned from University
my mother in her laundry room
Lisa has been eaten by a dog and can not be mended
like my cake at my first birthday party

Is there is no protection from these animals?
maybe not, but there is compensation if you seek it

A new Lisa, an older sister where there was none before
a snug fit around a broken heart
miraculously met in Kew
Living Lisa and in some way, Panda, you are returned to me

So tempted till the end, I mention my little red Fiat
and the yellow picture on the back of the door combining black and white
completing us
there was gold in it too but it seemed too scary didn't it

Panda in a pram was just too much.
Mummy and daddy had too much baggage
and somehow I lost my libido like that other Panda
I drive a silver car now and in it my two precious polar bears

Meditations

Dots and lines - http://www.puntoyrayafestival.com/quienes_eng.php - the prime matter

Comic/Zine proposal

Title - ‘Exquisite Cadaver’

Participants

So, things are beginning to come together somewhat

The people who are interested so far are:

• Nick Connor (text only if needed)
• Olivia Croce
• Pat Cullum
• Rory /Choo Cunningham (TBC)
• Sadie Moisin
• George Murphy
• Chloe Uden
• Naomi Zeiwe Palmer

This is an outline of how I see this project progressing at the moment and how I think we should approach and develop the work. It may be unorthodox but at the very least, I think it’s direct and hopefully should make our lives easier.

Theme

Accepting the limitations of our collaboration (all of us living in different places and living different and busy lives) and embracing this fact so as not to create a problem of it, we will base our structure and theme around the drawing game ‘consequences’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_consequences )

Each participant will be pre-allocated a position in the zine and a broad theme (which can be interpreted as loosely or tightly as the artist wishes)

In homage to the surrealists where this game originated, the Zine will be entitled ‘Exquisite Cadaver’. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse (this also has a pleasing yet indirect link to Exeter where of course this project is coming together). There is a film of this title, so I will have to make sure there are no legal problems with us using it as a title for a publication J.

The game was originally designed to entertain and amuse and I hope that this will be at the heart of our approach.

Audience

Content should be aimed at ‘like-minded people’ without excluding younger people by including overly graphic /obscene content and I don't think we need to baby anybody. (I have deliberately used the word ‘overly’….it is up to you to decide what level of ‘somewhat’ or ‘slightly’ you think is appropriate).

How to work

Make work which comes naturally to you

Make work which you enjoy making and don’t work too much about anyone else

Make work which you would like to see if you were to buy and look at/read a comic/zine

Technical & time parameters

1. You will have a week to decide whether or not you would like to participate any further in this project
2. Following your agreement, you will be allocated a position in the zine and a few words which may loosely or tightly inspire your work
3. You will have 4 weeks to work on your idea before submitting a draft by email for feedback (feedback will consist of anything you want it to – in conversation, you will let me know what sort of feedback you want, and I will try to oblige! This will take 2 weeks
4. You will then have a further 4 weeks to develop your work further and re-submit it in hard copy.
5. Alongside the artwork you create, you will be asked to submit a short profile piece and a small image to accompany it
6. The work will then be collated and calibrated so to speak so it can be sent to print.
7. You will receive a hard copy of the final comic/zine two -4 weeks after you have submitted your final copy.

Each artist will create 6 pages of work on A4

The final production will be on A5 (so your work will be shrunk)

You will be able to work in full colour

Sales, marketing and promotion

Zines sell for around £2-8 per publication and currently I am proposing that we sell the work for around £3-4.

I propose that we produce 1000 copies

The publication will be available for sale through facebook, ebay & etsy as well as directly and we will try to find other points of sale

We will have a launch party where the publication will be on sale and your networks will be invited and everyone will asked to be there for a signing

We will have a facebook page.

You will receive an equal portion of any of the profits from the zine. Which may only amount to a hundred pounds or so but could be more. – here is how I have calculated it

£3.50 x 1000 = £3500

Less £750 production costs = £2750

Less £100 promotion costs = £2650

Divided by 6 participants = £442 absolute maximum

All postage costs would be charged on top so shouldn’t affect the return and for sales online I will increase it slightly to cover costs of charges.

So, I think it is completely possible we could sell all 1000, but to err on the safe side, I think we should assume at the moment that we will only be making pennies rather than pounds.

Resources for visual development

http://weeseeworld.com

wee see - collection one from Rolyn Barthelman on Vimeo.

wee see - collection two from Rolyn Barthelman on Vimeo.

Brain limbering or time wasting?

Ethereal places I surf sometimes

http://www.star.me - I find it's all to easy to just ask questions and not to answer them- I think therefore that it's healthy to try practising answering questions sometimes - and without a person to do it for you, it seems that this online 'thing' can help with that!


http://www.zefrank.com/ - all sorts of online toys and participations


http://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon - stuff to think about and stuff to do


http://www.ted.com/

Develop your own creative practice programme

OVERVIEW

This is a brand new series of sessions designed to stimulate and support your creative endeavors & enable you to explore and develop your own creative voice and to participate more fully in Exeter’s community of arts practitioners.

Drawing on advice and techniques from a wide range of artists, facilitators and teachers, the program is designed to have a real and ongoing impact on your creative practice and provide you with a toolkit to help you overcome your artistic dilemmas.

WHO IS THIS FOR?

It is for individuals who want to feel more in charge of their arts practice and people who want to enjoy the company of like-minded people. It is open to people from any art-form, but will be particularly suited to those working in visual or written media.

The group size will be limited to 6-10 people so as everyone is able to participate fully with maximum attention from the facilitator and maximum opportunity to work together.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

We will avoid teaching or the expert-knows-all approach. Instead we walk the talk of the Japanese proverb: none of us is as smart as all of us. Each of the techniques will come alive for you through team learning in which the

knowledge, experience and skills of participants and facilitators alike create a rich and dynamic learning experience for everyone.

Because we recognise that the arts are skills-led rather than an academic subject you will be learning actively. We will typically begin exploring a technique with a brief interactive introduction. This is followed by a practical hands-on exploration individually, in pairs or threes, then we will have an interactive review of the technique and its applications.

You will also work together or on your own to produce a piece or piece of work for display in an event at the Innovation Centre at the end of the program. This will help you to build your support network and help you define what sort of work you want to make based on a real experience.

Each week the session will

• Describe a recommended technique for exploring your personal creative practice and explain the reasoning behind it. This will be followed by practical experimentation and discussion
• Give you space and structure to develop in collaboration or alone a piece or pieces of work for display at the end of the program.

PREPARATION

About 14 days in advance of the course we will send you an email suggesting one or two practical things to do to focus your attention on the course.

You will be encouraged to keep a journal throughout the program and there will be a series of suggested tasks and activities for you to do if you wish between sessions.

WHEN & WHERE

Weekly sessions will be held in the Exeter Phoenix on XXXX from 6-8pm in the xxx room from xxdate – xxdate

The final event will be held for one evening at the Innovation Centre in the University of Exeter. Refreshments will be provided and you will be able to invite your networks along to see the work.

FACILITATORS

Each session will be facilitated by Chloe Uden

Chloe has a masters in cultural management and specialised in different approaches to creativity in the arts and businesses. She worked for Puppetcraft as a puppeteer maker and business assistant, Devon Arts in Schools Initiative (DAISI) supporting artists working in schools and in an innovative sustainable energy company as a finance and operations manager, leading the events & communications team and coaching team members through personal and business development processes. She has produced her own art work for a number of years and curated a number of exhibitions at the Innovation Centre in Exeter.

FEE

Because this is a new course, it is being discounted by 50% for the first 10 weeks Program, the training fee is £100 (normal price £200)

(I will aim to get a contribution towards materials and event from IC or EXAC)

TO TAKE PART

Make a reservation using the attached form and send it along withy your payment to…..You will receive confirmation and receipt from us within xx days of your registration.

CONTACT

chloeuden@yahoo.co.uk

07969 487735