Holidays & happy clients
Recharged and back from my holiday (though it was tricky to switch off from thinking about ArtStop, a hazard of running your own business is that it takes over your life!), I am now in the fortunate position of waiting for new leads generated by recent press coverage to bear fruit!
The press was due to my Eldon Square Bus Station installation in Newcastle. All went to plan as you can see, pictured right, and I’m pleased to report that the client is very happy with the result. The feedback I’ve received has all been positive, which I’m delighted about. Art is a very subjective thing so it’s great to receive such unanimously good comments - very exciting for me as an artist.
We had the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, Gillian Merron, open the bus station, and received coverage from the BBC, ITV, Tyne Tees, a few of the national papers as well as local press like Creative York. I really wanted to take advantage of this project to get my work out there and noticed, and it seems to have worked - it’s still early days, but I’ve had a lot of interesting emails in response to it, so I’m hoping it’ll generate a lot more work of that nature.
I won’t be sitting back though - in the next couple of weeks I’ll be capitalising on all this great coverage by contacting potential clients directly, such as architects, commissioners, arts officers and councils. I’ve got some cracking images from a professional photographer and this is something that’s indispensable in my view. A lot of people can’t visualise something through you just telling them about it; they need to see examples, photos, images… this is the first, and more often than not the only thing your client base may see of your work – most of them won’t see it in the flesh. So photography needs to be of the best quality to do your work justice.
I’ll be armed with these images when I go to see potential clients. This part is great - there’s nothing better than getting out there, meeting people face-to-face, showing you can work together and showing off your product.
As well as all this activity, I’ve a load of projects to be getting on with too. The main one is for a mental health unit in Sussex. First I’m liaising with the patients there, mostly young adults, to get some initial shots to inform the artwork itself. This is a great way to give a client a sense of ownership, by getting the people who’ll enjoy the finished product involved from the start. If they feel a part of its creation, they’ll be even more pleased with the result.
I’m also involved in a charity event for the Teenage Cancer Trust called London Guitar Town, where artists and musicians collaborate on designing guitars to be displayed around the capital, then auctioned off for the charity. In terms of commissions there’s the Cottingley Cornerstone Centre near Bradford, and the Leeds St James hospital commission. I’ve also got an award to make, school workshops to hold, and plenty, plenty more …
So as you can see work is pretty varied at the moment. No two days are the same - one minute I’m in a construction meeting, the next I’m doing a workshop with kids. And of course it’s all working towards the same goal, which is fantastic.
