Through the Looking Glass

Well since Christmas life has been busy, I have done stage props for a local dance school and had a crash of confidence and was seriously questioning what I am doing as an artist, and whether I should just give up completely.--Its not come to that.....yet! Although I genuinely believe you wouldn't become an artist without it being something you can't help! You paint away, people expect to pay a pittance for your work and then you get criticised....great career move!
So on a more positive note, I decided January 2009 that I would give it two years, then decide whether its easel or shopping trolleys...so I needed focus.
Here's where my new exhibition came in, it provides focus and dedication...and passion and excitement. So I booked it. The date WAS firm but now its not, as I would like to move it to the 4th of November as it just happens to be the date that Alice Through the Looking Glass begins...what a lovely drop of serendipity, that date falling on a Thursday is. I also began reading the book 3 nights ago before I decided my theme, and the first page has 'Dramatis Personae' on it...I like signs like that...so Through the looking Glass exhibition is born.
My initial thought on Through the Looking Glass' is to do all paintings on 8 x 8in canvases (small intense pieces playing on the chess board theme) I want to incorporate the looking glass too...I am fascinated by this idea of the mirror image, I have found symmetry artists and anamorphic artists, but want to produce artwork that you can view 'as is' but also that the true image is revealed when a mirror is held to it...(all my name plates and write ups next to the images will be mirrored too) and mirrors (and right way around catalogues) will be provided at the exhibition. I use the huge mirror at the top of my landing on EVERY piece to check it, right throughout the painting process as it gives you a new view to iron out mistakes.
So I am thinking along the lines of illustrating, to some degree Through the Looking Glass, but with my own twist on each piece, how I feel about life etc as its uncanny the things contained with in that book, time going backward, that everything is reversed...in the style of my surrealist stuff of the previous exhibition...possibly some printing. Do all of the sketching as I would do normally, but then on transfer to canvas I mirror them to paint...this is in the very early stages, so still thinking.
For now I am researching mirrors, theories, myths etc and reading the book. I will then re read the book and take notes of all the things that come to my mind as I read. The book offers so much scope and I love the idea of bringing a much loved book into the art arena where all the edges of literacy, film making and art get ever more blurred.
This project has me excited, I want to make the space I will be exhibiting in as much part of the experience as I am allowed, so its not just a space for displaying the work. I want to create an exhibition that's totally cohesive, and designed in its entirety from the beginning. I am also hoping that the paintings will create lovely cards, and also due to the size of each canvas they will be more affordable. This size also allows me to paint just about anywhere, not limiting me to just the studio...so come the long summer holidays I can continue working whilst taking care of my son and his inevitable entourage!
November seems a long way off, but I hope to produce more works than I need, to allow for choice and experimentation....a chance for me to grow throughout the project. It should also allow me time to continue with the pin ups, commissioned works, and continue selling my previous work.
So here's to the beginning of winter and exploring the altered reality, my reality, that is Through the Looking Glass. Wish me luck...a new exciting journey ahead....and never a better time to be reminded 'Don't Stop Believing!'