I hate people who ask for discounts on original art.

So, yeh. Do I look like Camden Market? Your local carboot sale? For sure, I may be a little shabby around the edges, but I do have a certain sense of dignity, people.

Everytime somebody comes into an art exhibition (which I have to pay to have by the way) and they look at my paintings (which are all original pieces of art I have spent hours slaving over to create in the first place) and ask if they can have a discount, a little piece of me dies inside.

It sounds totally lame but when you paint a picture you literally pour everything of yourself into it. Maybe other artists know what I mean?

Anyway, imagine you do this- you create something which contains a little bit of you, an essence of what you are. Then you offer it for sale at a price which is already a steal- but we all have to be realistic, I accept that. And I am trying to build a business here. And after all that malarky, someone moans that £90 is too much and can they have a discount?!

URG. As a young struggling artist with very few beans in my purse, you often feel like you have to go along with it, simply to try and make some sales. And trust me, that money doesn't go into fancy shoes or pints of beers- it goes on canvases and towards paying for the next exhibition hall rent.

So if you want a discount, bugger off to the carboot. Or just stop being so bloody tight!

Victorious at the Fabrika Gallery Competition

So, as sad and tragic as it may seem to you, I was horribly giddy when I was voted as the winning artist at the Fabrika Gallery Open Exhibition. Mainly due to the fact that the last time I won some sort of vaguely arty competition I a) was 6 years old and b) won a £5 book token and c) had made a (admittedly awesome) Christmas mobile of Santa and his reindeers. So yes, winning a two week exhibition in the Nottingham branch of The Art Organisation Gallery was pretty darn cool if I do say so myself.

I admit I could probably have handled the situation with a little more finesse. I looked a little more like a babbling red faced idiot rather than a suave, icy cool arteeest. Typical. When my victory was announced I was so shocked I just giggled like an imbecile (not sexy or mysterious at all), and when some man shouted "Speech!" I replied with "Urrr.....thanks!" How articulate I am in pressured situations.

I went even further when later a gaggle of people were gathered around my winning picture, Lightning Bolt, and some dude asked me what it meant. I replied "It's a girl on a board." Nice. I am sure he went away feeling artistically fulfilled.

Because of course, she isn't just a girl on a board. She is an awesome chick having a ball, doing just what guys do as well. She's effortless, she's sexy, she's brilliant. It's what I try to capture in all my portraits of girls, because essencially, men just aren't as good as us. We are awesome.

So long live Lightning Bolt.

Ru

Art shows and tha'

So this year I have managed to crank up four exhibitions so far....(exclaimations of excitement please!!)
I am currently exhibiting in a joint art show in Fabrika Gallery in Leicester, and in July I will be exhibiting along with other artists from all over the world in the Drawgasmic Show in The Mad Art Gallery, St Louis, USA. Sounds sexy non?! View my page here http://www.drawgasmic.com/artistpage.php?a=1121and click the link below to visit the Drawgasmic site, and if you're a native US of A-er yourself, and St Louis is not too far, go and see the show! (The date is yet to be confirmed, so I expect you to sit waiting avidly for an update. You may have toilet brakes.)


Big love,

Ru