Nae Funding

some great articles on BBC online about Scottish comics, Hi-Ex and some of my work is featured. Hi-Ex 2012is fast approaching, and once again it looks like we can’t get any funding and It’s going to be a very stressful time pulling this together in the next few weeks, all on a voluntary basis, just the two of us while trying to deal with deadlines, jobs, debt, my politicking and the usual shenanigans. Still hopefully the enthusiasm and joy of other people will provide us the usual momentum to get through it with a shred of sanity.  It is really sucky, as we offend guests by not inviting them, but i also feel it is really cheeky inviting guests when we have no funds to pay for them. Plus we have a lot of schools and libraries asking if we can bring guests to do signings or workshops, which is of course one of our aims, we hear all these great stories about young people being inspired, starting drawing or reading or taking an interest… but no funding. Can you sense my frustration?Meanwhile talking of funding, i have been repeatedly submitting an application for the visual artists award which comes from creative Scotland via the highland off shoot, Hi-Arts. The money is to help artists go to residencies, put on exhibitions, and attend international art symposiums. When i went to the symposium in Russia there was no funds available. I have NOT been successful in my application four times now. This time i rather cheekily listed, not only all that I have been invited to, and what and why I am doing it, but also listed the international events, festivals and symposiums that I have been invited to and have been UNABLE to attend due to lack of funding. I would get depressed and assume it is because my art is terrible ( lets face it 99% of creatives are neurotic about this anyway ), but the fact that i keep getting the invitations and positive response from people flies in the face of that. Perhaps my applications are rubbish? despite this paragraph sounding bitter and angry, its not. I’ve been ducking and diving, shifting and adapting as a full time artist/ maker now for 23+ years I’m still here, and I will be here, creating away, long after the funding bodies, the quangos, the fashions, the concept of the week and pet projects are but a footnote in the Highland archive.

here are some angry young women characters of mine.