Anyone who knows me knows I love doing things for charity, whether it’s to help children, babies, animals, baby animals, soldiers, or poor goth girls murdered by chavs. I guess I just think that if someone can live comfortably on £100 a month, they can probably afford to give about 5% to a good cause. Every little helps…
So when I spotted an advert in a Liverpool Gallery asking artists to donate work for a charity auction, I jumped at the chance. Not only would I be helping out a good cause, but I could also get my name around a bit, whilst doing something I enjoy. I decided to make it into part of my first Negotiated Study project for University too, with additional paintings to follow later this semester.
I produced two pieces:
“Violet”, featuring my character Bluey enjoying a bubble-blowing session…
…and “Lil Night Music 2.0”, my homage to one of my favourite paintings, Dorothea Tanning’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”.
It felt quite good to have my name up there...
The pieces were based around the central theme of human form and emotion. It fitted perfectly with the aim of the charity, COMPASS, which arranges counselling for adults in Merseyside. As a regular sufferer of depression, I found this to be a cause rather close to my heart.
The exhibition took place in a little community centre in Liverpool; the walls were decorated with large animal creations by some of the local children, which was adorable. But the artwork to come was immensely good, and I’m only sorry I can’t feature the pieces here (don’t wanna get sued).
But I was chuffed to see such a variety of work; my cartoony-stuff next to large-scale tattoo-style paintings, alternative-model photographs, surreal paintings, masks, portraits, life drawing… there was a lot of great work, the only downside being that a lot of them were priced as though they were up in the Tate. I figured with it being an auction in the middle of a small community, and for charity, that a lot of the artists should have lowered their prices, and I was right, as not many of the pricier pieces were sold, which was an awful shame.
I, being of modest talent (and little of it), put my pieces up for auction starting at £20 each. So I was terrifically pleased that “Violet” sold to a little family and their daughter for £28, which means at least two people must have been bidding for it! I’d really love to know how they’re getting on with my artwork, so if you bought “Violet” please drop me a message.
Unfortunately, “Lil Night Music 2.0” didn’t sell, but I’m not disheartened. I feel the concept was too personal to me, and wouldn’t make sense to anyone who didn’t know the significant details of “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (the sunflower, the flowing hair, the murky colours…)
However, it is still up for sale at £20 (not including p&p). So if you’re interested, please email for enquiries.
I can’t finish the blog without mentioning two people. First of all, Kim Jones, who organised the event and managed to raise money for a great cause. Congrads to her!
And also, Graham Jones, the photographer behind the exhibition (who I really hope doesn’t mind me posting his pictures here!). He was super friendly, and called me “very photogenic” which was flattering… you can see some of his work on his website here.
So all in all, a great day for me, I really enjoyed it, and I’m happy that I sold my first piece to what seemed like a loving little family, and for a cause that will hopefully make a difference to somebody’s life someday.
Here’s to my next exhibit!
FOOTNOTE: Should’ve mentioned this a while ago, but I was lucky to win a drawing competition for Bizarre Magazine. The theme was fantasy body-mod, so I went a bit mad and created this:
The mad Tank Girl-esque chick sports a stretched tongue, triple-pupils, webbed fingers and a cosmetically removed nose. Anyway, it won me a bunch of Bizarre stuff, including bacon-flavoured soda, several weird books about gruesome things, an inflatable baby bottle, a “Gay for Pay” t-shirt and “30 Days of Night” hat that I gave to my boyfriend, couple of magnets and stickers, and a DVD called “Twin Cheeks”. I’ll leave you to figure that one out…
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