The Artist's Way

Posted by Annalytica


A couple of years ago someone recommended I should read "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron, a book about unblocking creativity. It sounded interesting, so I borrowed it - and then it sat on my shelf unread for an embarrassingly long time.

Then, a few months ago, I found out about a course running in Oxford. Course participants work through the exercises in "The Artist's Way" and meet weekly to discuss their progress. In theory, this was something I could arrange to do without paying for a course - except by this point I had had the book for two years and done nothing, and I thought the structure of weekly classes might be what I needed to motivate myself.

I had several reasons for thinking that unblocking creativity was something I should work on. For one thing, when we started this blog I was overflowing with ideas for posts and seriously considering professional freelance writing. Recently it seems to be getting harder and harder to come up with ideas, which is why you haven't seen much of me on here lately. When rehearsing Lashings acts, I often freeze up, feeling self-conscious and unsure what to do with my body, and needing quite precise directions from other Lashers. Sometimes this direction helps, and other times trying to perform movements recommended by someone else only feels even more awkward. If I were more in touch with myself and my own feelings, and less concerned with consciously thinking all my movements through, perhaps I could express myself and my characters in a more spontaneous and natural way.

Call for Artists: Researching Feminist Futures

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer

The organisers of a conference on feminist futures are seeking an Artist in Residence.

They say:

"This is a Call for Artists for the upcoming symposium Researching Feminist Futures organised by the University of Edinburgh's Graduate School of Social and Political Science.

Researching Feminist Futures will provide a space for creative discussions of feminism in academic practice. It is a two-day symposium scheduled for the 2nd and 3rd September and will be held at the University of Edinburgh.

As part of this two-day event we are seeking ‘Artists in Residence’ to work in the symposium Art Space, transforming a standard university seminar room into an exciting, challenging and stimulating creative space. This might involve: exhibiting your own previous work, documenting or creating art in response to the symposium, facilitating a collaborative, creative space for symposium participants, curating a gallery space of artists who explore feminist or gender-related issues in their work, something else wonderful of your own devising!

If you are interested in being an ‘Artist in Residence’ at Researching Feminist Futures please send a short (no more than 800 words) proposal detailing the nature of your work, your aims for the art space, time/space requirements as well as a short biography researchingfeministfutures@gmail.com.  

The deadline for applications is July 1st 2011.

For further information, please see our blog:  http://researchingfeministfutures.wordpress.com/
And webspace: http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/gender_and_politics/events/conference/researching_feminist_futures/"

Femme? Subversive?

Posted by Sebastienne






While Lashings were in York for the 'Carnival of Feminist Cultural Activism' (there will be a write-up coming, I've just been very busy!), we met lots of shiny people. One of them was Alexa Athelstan, who is doing some awesome work on queer feminities. She's looking for participants who identify as feminine in an alternative, queer, or subversive way, to take part in her research project. There's a questionnaire, an artistic representation, and an interview - that's a chance to make pretty pictures and talk about yourself - so what are you waiting for? Drop her an email at alexaathelstan@hotmail.co.uk.

For info: Oxford Pride seeks artists

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer






Oxford Pride is Oxford's premier GLBTIQ festival which runs for ten days
and hosts a range of events, exhibitions and celebrations.

They are looking for Artists of all disciplines who are interested in
participating in its 2011 programme during June.

All artistic mediums are welcome to submit: painters, sculptors,
drawers, performance artists, video artists and everything in between.

Please submit a brief Artist statement, C.V and up to five jpegs (of no
more than 1MB per image) to: marcus@oxford-pride.org.uk

Deadline: Monday 28th of February 2011