Spider trickery

A few years ago I had a huge fear of spiders, if I saw one I would jump onto a chair, grab the ceiling lights and cling onto the lampshade, keeping my feet as far away from the floor as possible, hoping to high heaven that the lighting wire wouldn't give way causing me to tumble to the floor where the spider could get me and do a merry dance on my face whilst laughing hysterically at my fear.
I came to the conclusion that this was a irrational fear and my actions were a little over the top, so when I found a new house spider sat in my bath looking up at me I decided that I wouldn't throw it out of the window and I would befriend it.
I looked down at the big black fat spider infront of me, ignored his big sharp fangs and chilling smile and told him he could stay and he didn't even need to pay any rent.
The spider stayed in the bath for a day or so, but I soon decided that I smelt and really needed a bath so I had to remove the spider from the bath. I was petrified to go close to him, so I decided I would name him Wilamena, as that's not a scary name at all, especially when it's the name of a man.
I took a glass from the kitchen and placed it over Wilamena and slipped a thin piece of card under it, lifting Wilamena from the bath, and placed him in the glass on the floor whilst I ran a bath.
As I sat in the bath and watched him in the glass I suddenly remembered that you could kill spiders by containing them in a glass for too long as the spider would breathe in all the oxygen leaving behind only methane (apparently) which is highly poisonous in high quantities. The last thing I wanted to do was kill Wilamena as that's no way to treat a new friend. As soon as I was out of the bath and fully clothed I let him go in the bathroom.
I now had a new flatmate and he had a new home.
Wilamena generally lived in the bathroom, he hardly came out. I said hello to him each morning and checked on him at night before I went to bed. We formed a friendship and it actually became quite nice having him around the place. Then one morning, a few weeks later, I went to the bathroom to say hello and he wasn't there.
I searched for him all over the flat, but I never saw Wilamena again.
I was sad that he had gone and missed him alot. I had no inclination that he was thinking of leaving and before he left I never even had chance to thank him for helping with my fear, just by being there.
I still think of him often.

***

Recently my boyfriend and I split up, causing me to have to leave our house. Whilst I was packing I found another great big house spider in the bath, this one was brown. I wasn't fearful of this spider, but I didn't want to pack her up with my belongings and take her to my new flat, so when I needed a shower I used a glass to take her out of the bath, then I put her back when I had finished in the shower.
I had a few days to pack my belongings as my boyfriend had broken his leg and he wouldn't be returning to the house for a few weeks. I decided to leave the glass in the bath with the spider so it would be easier for me to remove her each day, until I finished packing, then I would let her run free.
On the final day I saw something in the bath inside of the glass, so I picked it up and looked at it. The big brown lady house spider, who I didn't name, had laid a ball of eggs inside the glass.
A smile came to my face as I thought about leaving the spider and the spider eggs in the house as I thought it would be a nice leaving present for my boyfriend to find. I imagined him coming home after a few weeks with a house overrun by spiders, so my last act after I had moved my belongings from the house was to take the spider and the glass full of spider eggs out of the bath and leave them on the floor in the bathroom.

I thought nothing more of it, until recently.

My boyfriend and I have started to work things out as love really is the most important thing in the world and if you find it you should work at it and not just throw it away. I am spending a lot of time back at the house now, the same house that I left all of the spider eggs in and low and behold we have found at least six large brown spiders running all over the house in the last few days and no doubt they have been laying more eggs. I have no idea how many spiders hatch from a big spiders egg, but I am sure we will find more over the coming weeks.

I am sure there is a moral to this story, but I have no idea what it is, do you?

Slowly slowly catchy monkey

I recently put on a small local exhibition of 1st edition prints, I usually only sell originals direct to the commissioner (the person who commissions the work, not the guy from Batman) and i've never exhibited or sold prints before, so I wasn't quite sure how it would go, but it was amazing.

I'm really happy. I simply wanted to sell at least one print and get my business cards out to direct people to my website, but in 5 days I sold 60% of the prints, which, to me, is fantastic.

I was a little nervous about speaking to people about my artwork as i'm quite shy about my work and I don't really like being centre of attention, but everyone was really friendly and I was overwhelmed by how interested they all were in what I had to say.

I loved the fact that everyone liked different pieces and it really taught me that art is a personal choice so it's not for me to say what is good and what isn't so good, it really is down to the audience to make that decision. The overall consensus of thought was that people love vibrant colour and colourful pieces of work the best, no matter what the topic is.

I'm really over the moon that it went so well and thank everyone that helped me put it together in such a short space of time. I can't wait until I exhibit again, but next time I think I will only display originals and paint to the price, if you know what I mean. Baiscally people will buy things if they are under £50, so for my next exhibition I will paint original artwork worth £49.95, they will be small pieces, but they will be originals, then as my name gets out more I will slowly work up to larger pieces with larger prices.

I really enjoy painting big pieces of work, but that means I need to charge big prices to compliment the work, people are usually happy to pay the higher price, but I feel they will be happier to pay larger sums of money for my work when they have a better idea of who I am and my artistic CV is more varied.

You need to learn to walk before you can run and take one step at a time...slowly slowly catchy monkey.

If anyone is thinking about exhibiting their work I really think it is a great idea. It really helps you to understand what the audience want, which enables you to have a greater understanding of your artwork - paint for yourself, but always have your audience in mind. It also gives you more confidence to speak about your work. It is a must if you wish to compete in the artistic world.

A new lease of life!

I'm an so incredibly happy today, I learnt something which has changed everything for me in my artistic life. For many years I have thought that I wasn't good enough as an artist to ever succeed as I always see these paintings which are perfect and look like photographs. No matter how hard I tried I was unable to produce a painting that was as good and as lifelike as theirs were. I very nearly gave up on my skill and threw the towel in, but last night I learnt something fantastic!

You know those amazing paintings that look like photographs, well they look like photographs as they ARE photographs! Never has the phrase "if it looks like a duck, and it walks like a duck, then it's a duck" been so true. The 'people' (I wont call them artists as they are not artists) take a photograph, upload it onto their computer, then using a special computer program they alter the image to make it look like a painting, then they print the final picture on canvas and add a few wet strokes of paint to make it look authentic. At first this annoyed me as these people are taking money from my pocket, but now it has made me very happy as the biggest competition I had has disappeared. Don't get me wrong, I knew these computer programs existed, but I just didn't understand why people would use them, and as I am not a grand chess master I don't need to compete against a computer. These people are to art what X-factor is to music. They are artists of sorts though, they are con artists.

With this in mind I am now putting together my new art portfolio to show art dealers and I feel so proud of my achievements and confident inside that I could spontaneously combust. A lot about being a successful artist is about self-promotion, and for love or money I could not self-promote myself before as I didn't believe in my work, but now I have learnt the truth about those other artists I can self-promote until the cows come home, through the night and until they wake up in the morning to start their new day.

Knowledge is power and this new insight I have been given has given me a new lease of life, it is like a big heavy weight as been lifted off of my shoulders.

Thanks mum

Like honey to the bees

I was in the garden the other windy day and I saw this giant bumblebee being blown around the garden bumping into things, like they do. Bumblebees aren't very good at flying and get exhausted very easily, as their body is so big and their wings are so small, so it was not long before he stopped on the wall for a rest.
As it was getting late and the wind was picking up I was a little worried about the Bumblebee being able to get home, so I went inside and got some honey for him to drink.
I've never seen a bumblebees tongue before, not in real life, so it was really weird to see it's tongue coming out of it's mouth to drink the honey. I went inside and grabbed a camera whilst he drank and took a picture of him. I was a little worried that he may die during the night, but he ate his fill of honey, then slept on the wall through the night, and I found him the next morning drinking the rest of the honey, and then off he went back home.

If you ever find an exhausted bee just give it a drink of honey and it will feel better again, we have to look after the bees as they are dying.

We need bees very much. Without bees and pollination we would not have 2/3 of the foods we eat today.