Incognito 2021

I have taken part in the annual fundraiser for the Jack and Jill Children's Foundation for quite a number of years now. I first got involved with the charity when they hosted The Big Egg Hunt Dublin, where artists were given a giant egg to paint. The eggs were then displayed in various locations around Dublin around Easter time and later sold off at auction to raise funds for this very worthy cause. Mine was displayed outside the beautiful Chester Beatty Library and later sold to IBM Legal Services. I have previously blogged about that particular event here, here and here.

Although the following year there was a similar event with painted pigs (in which I did not take part), the subsequent fundraisers took the form of "incognito" events, which were both more straightforward and very successful. The premise was simple: artists were given three cards on which to make artwork, the artist would only sign works on the back, all cards cost the same price regardless of who the artist was, all proceeds would go to Jack and Jill CF. Last year, due to Covid19 the sale of work was completely online, widening the audience over the internet. There were two sale dates (as there was supposed to be an exhibition in Cork as well as Dublin) and both sold out within hours of becoming available. This year the sale is again going to be online and further details can be had here.

I blogged about the 2017 event here and here, and blogged about the 2019 event here. This year is the 5th year that the Incognito fundraiser has taken place, and I am participating again, as I have in all the previous four years.

getting organised...

If you saw last week's blog, here, you will know that I had to deal with the xmas chaos in my studio before I could even think about getting back to work. So this is the pressed cloth hanging in wait for me to begin - without all the boxes in front of it!

Although it may not look like it, I did a complete overhaul/reorganisation of my materials shelves on the back wall, and the large items (rolls of paper, etc) in front of the shelves are more manageable where they are now located.

After completing all the physical tidying, I have been going through work from the past few years making sure things are signed and/or dated.

There was also a lot of work that is "sub-standard" - prints that have too much or too little ink, etc - which needs to be tossed. However, I am not one to waste paper, so I have simply ripped them in half and added them to my collection of "backs", which I use for lists, notes, etc.

chaos!

 Happy new year! Well, in order to get back to work, I first have to deal with the chaos of the past six weeks and get my studio back into working order. Even before I get in to my attic studio, I have to clear the stairs going up to it - the flat surfaces of the stairs have been brilliant repositories for all kinds of detritus to be dealt with "later". "Later" is now!

Before xmas the attic (aka my studio) was used as a space to wrap and store things. The first thing that has to be tackled there is organising the wrapping paper, ribbons, labels, etc. and putting them away in deeper storage on the roof (behind the couch) where they will stay for the next eleven months - when it starts all over again!

The area in front of my workspace it crowded by boxes. These are storage boxes for xmas decorations, boxes of ceramics (work done in the past few years) and boxes containing items from my Signal studio residency that I haven't yet put away.

My supplies area needs to be reorganised before I can smoothly get back to work! It takes some time, but I will do it a bit at a time in order not to be overwhelmed. I have given myself till the end of January to start my new large painting, which has been calling to me. My composition sketch for this painting, Knockeen, can be seen affixed to the wall at the upper right of this photo, where it has languished since last summer. But it will happen soon...