EDitorial ± 22-Aug-2011

I, An Artist

Fill Old Bottles With Banknotes Because there was no Ip-art short story competition this year, I thought I'd enter a similar comp in a local magazine. Closing date whooshed past without me bothering to write my story: v. poor on my part. Then I saw that UCS were calling for entries for a up and coming exhibition called Waterline:

Submissions are invited in all media which depict or incorporate some aspect of water.

Now I can't draw for ToffyPops. Wasn't going to let that stop me. I spent an idle lunchtime scrawling on a piece of discarded A4 printer paper, messing about with words. After a bit, I had a minor eureka moment. Now, which particular media am I most comfortable with?

With completed entries due in to UCS by Wednesday, I gathered together all the blue and white bricks and knocked up a single sample letter late on Monday night. Satisfied enough that it might work, I enlisted the help of Eldest the next evening, Tuesday, and explained my plan. Thankfully she agreed to help. Gotta get this done tonight. And we did, eventually. Couldn't have done it without her.

Took a while next morning (entries due in today) to complete the formalities. Taking some photos of the finished item was straightforward, as was burning them to CD and printing them on a glossy sheet. Much harder was assembling an artist's CV and filling out an "image summary sheet". Medium: Lego. Dimensions: get out tape measure. Description of work and title? That's a challenge. Mid-morning, dropped off envelope to UCS and felt great. Yes, done it. Won't be long before that stamped-addressed envelope comes back with a standard rejection note, but that ain't the point.

Week or so later, had a call on the mobile. Is that Ed? I'm pleased to tell you that your piece has been selected for our exhibition. When can you bring it in?

(Waterline exhibition is currently on at the UCS Waterfront Gallery from 2nd August to 3rd September, free entry, from Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm)