A big welcome to all the folk who have signed up to my blog, as some of you may have already noticed I’m not very consistent in this regard - it’s been almost a full year since I wrote my last piece.
Just read the last one I posted and so a quick update is required I’d say.
I had applied to the Arts Council of NI for a grant towards getting my own kiln and waiting to hear if my work had been preselected for the Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition. I wasn’t preselected and I didn’t (on that occasion) get the grant. When I heard I had not been successful getting the funding I spiralled into a depression. Unfortunately, I had convinced myself I was definitely going to get it, I had already a clatter of other failed applications for exhibitions and the like, so this was too much for me to shake off.
However, it was the support I received from those around me, friends on social media and phone calls that got me past the black mood I found myself in, I will always be grateful for that.
You have to go forward when you can and I did, the yard has a Perspex roof and a few months ago I received a resilience grant from the Arts Council of NI part of which went towards a kiln. The kiln now resides under the stairs awaiting the first firing which will take place in 2 weeks - I’m very excited! The yard wasn’t suitable in the end, too far from the fuse box, but I’ve been assured by the experts that under the stairs is grand.
I also took part in three group exhibitions in the last few months of 2020 which I thought wasn’t bad going considering we were in a pandemic.
During the latter part of 2020 I applied and got in to Potfest Scotland. I was meant to do Potfest in the Penns in 2020 but due to Covid I couldn’t go. My next blog post will be devoted to my experience of Potfest Scotland – it was fippin’ BRILLIANT!