Late on Thursday evening the arts project ‘Save The Old Lock Up’ reached it’s £1,775 target via WeDidThis !

The crowd funding pitch ran for a total of 30 days & there were moments when I thought it was pretty much a lost cause…. I’d resigned myself to losing the studio & had started to come up with all sorts of half hatched plans to compensate for the loss…

There were days when there weren’t any pledges/donations at all & the target seemed so far off and then things started to happen!

On the 30th January I was at work & got home at 10.30pm: I work as a relief support worker (supporting adults with learning disabilities) & have done since September: the cash puts petrol in my car & food on my table, plus I enjoy it! Anyway I checked my emails:

I had an email from a local person: they had seen my story in the local press & then decided to view some of my work at a local gallery. This prompted them to decide to pledge/donate some money in return for a commission.

The person is interested in the arts & wants to support my work! On 31st January they donated £750 in total!

This left the target just over £400 short & with just 3 days before the crowd funding ended….

By the 2nd Feb there was just £167 left to raise & by 10.30pm all the money had been raised!

It was a great experience, Incredibly exciting! Especially as the last few pledges came in.

I know lots of people aren’t keen on facebook & twitter: but without them I wouldn’t have a studio & I wouldn’t have the opportunity that I now have to build something in a place that I love!

I haven’t celebrated, yet, I’ve sat at home absolutely exhausted from it all: listening to music by my fire…

I got up today feeling almost energetic this morning I set off for a walk that I haven’t taken in almost 4 months: I haven’t felt the inclination or had the energy. We had heavy snow last night & the Dales looked beautiful (photo above).

So there we are I’ve arrived at the end of the crowd funding & it was a success!

I now have no idea what my future holds: other than I have a studio that I am going to share & develop with others.

The majority of the rest of my life is quite uncertain: I have no known destination, things are slotting into place as they happen: I quite like that & I’m getting used to it, it’s a good feeling to live in the moment when you can…

‘Treasure your doubts. Our souls feed off mysteries.’ Paulo Coelho

It’s been a crazy roller coaster of a week! And one that has left me exhausted much of the time.

Today I’m feeling a little recharged & very excited!

Earlier this week I was contacted by a local person who is interested in the arts & wishes to support my work: they kindly pledged £750  to ‘Save The Old Lock Up’. The person in question has an idea for a commission that they want me to do & I’m really looking forward to getting started on it. This pledge seemed to kick-start the crowd funding again & the target is now in sight: with a WHOPPING £1,628 already pledged! The project just needs £157 pledging between now & 10.30pm tomorrow night!

If the target isn’t reached then the money is lost & the project at the old lock up studio won’t be kick started…

I’m feeling positive & I have a feeling in my bones that it’s going to happen!

To keep track on it: http://www.wedidthis.org.uk/projects/save-old-lock-studio

Anne Kerr

Jeni Smith

Daisy Butler

Jen Aitken

Amanda Collis

Christine Gray

Clay Smith

Edward Whiting

Brigid Wells

Karina Goodman

Mari French

Helen  Klebesadel

Dawn Jackson

Edward Pinks

Jennifer Pinks

Heini Taskula

Sue Jarvis

Daisy Butler (again!)

Becky Pinks

Amanda Collis (again!)

Martin Coe

Ruth Gray

The current total stands at £463! thanks to all you lovely people !!

There’s just under 5 days left: so if you’d like to buy one of the rewards to save the old lock up here’s the link:

http://www.wedidthis.org.uk/projects/save-old-lock-studio

I’m slowly reading a book that I bought when I visited the house at Kettles Yard…

‘Pictures, you know, often look very ugly and queer…

….but so do people and we have all of us found out that an odd looking person is often the most stimulating of companions. To find that out we have to be a little patient at the beginning. It isn’t the outward shape of a person which makes up the interest of that person, nor is it in a picture its visual subject which is its real character.

The subject; a landscape, an interior, a portrait, these are only symbols to convey that special thing that the artist wishes to convey – the nature of his own particular outlook on life….

I am not particularly interested in the dates of artists or in their names or in what school they belong to, but I am interested in the force of life which pushes them into expression, either in a picture, a statue, music or some other from of activity.

And it seems to me that every human being must be interested in this force, for in one form or another, it is the thing from which all our own activity is derived.’

Qoute taken from: Kettles Yard and it’s artists

Brancaster Beach, Norfolk

It was my first walk along the beach in Winter: Brancaster used to be a place that I went to on a hot Summers day: usually with others in tow.

There was a strong wind & it whipped up the top layer of sand: blowing it the length of the beach: it looked beautiful!

On the Friday before I went to Kettles Yard in Cambridge: it was really the house that I was keen to see & spend time in & I did. You can sit in any of the antique chairs throughout the house and take your time reading & looking at the paintings etc.

I sat in several…. and just took my time enjoying it all & taking it in.

I have a thing about stones & pebbles: so did Jim Ede: creator of Kettles Yard & curator at the Tate Gallery.

“I have always been fascinated by pebbles…

…without , I think, ever asking myself just why – in flowers too and in shells. Such things have been for me a sudden contact with the miraculous – as if an angel were to take you by the hand. Words are strange things with which to express feelings and stones are strange expressions of miracles. Both need the intelligence of human insight to endow them with these powers. The poet’s vision is an act of robust rarity – I say robust because it is invulnerable, and rare because it is so seldom articulate. So too is the well-shaped stone  – you may search a wide seashore or the reaches of many rivers and never find one, and then suddenly it lies before you – an ordered unit, shaped of this order from the countless vicissitudes of nature’s course… We find a perfect pebble once in a generation and once in a continent perhaps….’

Jim Ede, Kettles Yard & It’s Artists

I’m adding something a bit different to the crowd funding to ‘Save The Old Lock Up’ !

I’m offering the 1st 30 people to buy one of the £20 rewards an invite to join me for an evening of live music at the studio! Playing their own original tracks will be Gina Dootson (thrillseekers track that Gina featured on is above).

Here’s the link to Gina’s Myspace site where you can listen to more of her tracks: MySpace

Gina & I were neighbours, during our childhood, for about 10 years. So Gina offering to do this is a really great gesture.

Also playing will be Derbyshire singer/song writer Steve Hexter: Steve lives in the same village as myself and I’ve just got to know Steve since last year.

I’m also hoping that my cousin Davey Moss will be able to join us for the evening: Davey’s website

This is what crowd funding is really about: pulling together, sharing resources and  making something happen!

I have just 18 days left to make this happen: If you haven’t already bought one of the rewards can you? Are you able to?

It would really be a grand gesture that I’d be extremely grateful of. I know many of you are from the States & Canada, the site is secure & can be used worldwide: so please help if you can to get this art project off the ground:

Click here & follow the link: rewards on right hand side of screen

Thankyou

I’m going away for a few days, staying on the Norfolk/Cambridgeshire border, at the end of the week & already looking forward to it!

I’ve decided to take a slight detour on the way & stopping off at Cambridge so that I can visit one of my favourite places: Kettles Yard House

Looking forward to ringing the bell & being let into a beautiful space!

Whilst I’m there I’ll also visit the gallery: there’s selected works by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.

Then before I head home I’m planning a trip to Brancaster beach (photo above).

Another of my favourite places: I spent long Summer days lazing on the beach at Brancaster  in my late teens/early twenties….

I’m guessing the winds going to blow my cobwebs away at the weekend though!

A big thankyou to the people who have pledged money & bought rewards from the crowd funding project that I am currently taking part in:

Ruth Gray

Martin Coe

Amanada Collis

Rebecca Pinks

Daisy Butler

Sue Jarvis

Heini Taskula

Jennifer Pinks

Edward Pinks

Dawn Jackson

Helen Klebesadel

Mari French

Many thanks for getting the ball rolling & pledging your money!

If anyone would like to keep the ball rolling and pledge money towards creating a beautiful creative space in the Derbyshire Dales: so a collective of artists & creatives can be formed & developed! Here’s the link: http://wedidthis.org.uk/projects/save-old-lock-studio

It’s all managed by secure online banking by a well-known & reputable online art retailer ‘Cultural Label’.

Rewards start from just £5 & can give you a sense of satisfaction knowing that you’ve been part of helping make something wonderful happen!

If you’re not quite sure here’s a blog from fellow Derbyshire artist: http://rhubarbia.blogspot.com/2012/01/save-old-lock-up-studio-exciting-local.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Rhubarbia+%28Rhubarbia%29

At the end of March the 12 month lease on the studio will end & my redundancy money will be gone…

I’m currently looking for full-time employment !

My hope at the moment is that I along with some fellow creatives, can develop the studio into a not for profit creative space. A place for life drawing, open studio events, workshops and also a meeting place, A creative space that develops the local community…. brings creative people together. I’ve begun to realise that there are so many creative people in the local area, all dispersed & isolated.

As is often the case the only obstacle is money! We just need sometime to get the idea off the ground and the only solution that I could find to this problem was crowdfunding: all it would take to really get the ball rolling is for people to pledge £5: which many already have, the current total is at £125. But that’s quite a way off the target needed to run the lease.

I’ve had quite a lot of interest & people asking how they can help and that they think it’s a great idea…. Is it rude to answer this with ‘pledge £5′ ???

Anyway we shall see what happens, there’s still 27 days left before the crowdfunding finishes.

My friend & fellow artist sent me a link for one of Derren Brown’s show  ’The Experiments’ it was the last one in the series and looked at:

‘The Secret of Luck, the final show of the series, Derren investigates what makes some people lucky and others attract only misfortune.’

Here’s the link: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/derren-brown-the-experiments/4od#3258646

Well worth watching!

The programme’s content struck a chord with me & echoed the words that I had said to someone very recently about opportunities & my current need to be open to and aware of the opportunities that I come into contact with.

We are constantly surrounded by opportunities, some of us have stopped seeing them, wanting them, needing them, acting on them or even fearful of the consequences.

I’ve had to, at this moment in time I have to grasp them with both hands! And it’s meant that my life’s changing, getting richer, fuller and I’m meeting new people. And that in itself is opening up even more opportunities and so it goes on…

Here’s something worth looking at if your interested in the nature of luck and how it’s most probably directly linked to our attitudes and our ability to see and act on opportunities:

http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf

So my art project is now live and it’s all systems go!

Things are going well and the project has received quite a lot of interest so far, and it’s only day one.

The first rewards have been bought by some very generous well wishers:
Ruth Gray, Martin Coe and Amanda Collis. I’m pretty sure that 1-2 others have purchased rewards too: but as yet I haven’t received email notification.

For those of you who are interested in my plans for the studio here’s my pitch:

“Rachael Pinks is an emerging Derbyshire artist who graduated in ‘Arts Therapies’ from Derby University in 2001.

Since 2001, Rachael has painted (part-time) whilst working in care related roles with a large national charity but aspired to having the opportunity and studio space to concentrate on painting full-time. The unique chance to do so came when a management restructure at work gave Rachael the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy in May 2011. At this point, she made a decision to commit to painting full-time for a year, using her redundancy to fund the lease of a studio and support herself for that time. Rachael’s studio; ‘The Old Lock Up’ is based in a small but beautiful and historic Derbyshire Village within the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. The building itself is steeped in local history, being the village jail in the 1700′s (one of the first of it’s kind in the country0, hence it’s name!

Rachael has worked tirelessly over the last 7 months, developing and promoting her work. Since exhibiting at the Wirksworth Festival, in September 2011, her work has been selected for the Derby City Open 2011 at teh Derby Museum & Art Gallery and The Midlands Open at the Tarpey Gallery in Derbyshire. Rachael also has 14 of her paintings on show at 2 galleries within Derbyshire.

Rachael has plans for 2012 and needs your help to make this happen. With just 12 weeks remaining on the lease on her studio, she needs to find the money to extend the lease by 6 months. She has approached several local artists who are similarly keen to form a collective to use and develop ‘The Old Lock Up’ into a thriving, creative hub which has the potential to open a wealth of opportunities for local artists and the local community that would include:

• Regular open studio events throughout the year (Rachael ran the first of these in the lead up to Christmas in 2011)
• Low cost art workshops for all: run by local artists and the mobey raised would be used to extend the lease further.
• Monthly low-cost life drawing sessions for artists, all that attend just pay the cost of hiring the life model & refreshments.
• A meeting place for local artists: once a month coffee & art related discussions.
• A low cost studio space for 3-4 artists
• A low-cost space for local Artists to show their work and hire the studio to have their exhibitions.

‘The Old Lock Up’ has a lot of potential to provide many more creative opportunities for the local community and artisrs within the Derbyshire Dales!!

Rachael has the positivity, commitment, energy and enthusiasm needed to make sure the studio succeeds and is hoping for interest from people with similar passion.”

There are already 1-2 artists/creative people who are potentially interested in the project/sharing the space and we are all sure the studio has the potential to be a real asset to artists/creatives and the local community.

The ‘WeDidThis website: http://www.wedidthis.org.uk/marketplace has 9 arts projects running at present, including mine. Have a look at the other projects pitches.

Here’s the direct link to my project: http://www.wedidthis.org.uk/projects/save-old-lock-studio

‘WeDidThis’ also have a facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/WeDidThis

If your able to support me that would be great! But just as important is the crowdfunding process: if you can share this art project in any way, via the internet, with people who may be interested, benefit or support the project: then that would be equally as great!

Wish me & the project luck!