Back on-line at last!!!

And here I am again. I have been off the blog and all social media for a few months now, which has been rather frustrating. I've been completing a diploma in Small Business Management, which includes a yearly mentorship programme. I was hoping this would give me some direction and structure in my own fledgling business (and it has too. I feel all inspired and organised!!), and one of the requirements of the course was that we not be operating our own businesses as yet, including no website. Seemed a little silly to me, but as I really wanted to do the course, and as I really wanted to get the mentor, I said 'OK.'

Now, however, the course is finished and the mentorship programme is just beginning, and I have felt encouraged about starting up again. So here is my first blog back on the horse.

Firstly, I have kicked off the newly (re)launched business venture by announcing a workshop in my Goosehouse Studio at home. I have printed off a flyer and posted it around the local towns, I have Facebooked it, I have advertised in the local paper, I've emailed everyone I have ever met in my life and now I am telling you. If you are interested, or know someone who may want to join the workshop, send me details in the Comments Box below and I will get back to you.

I recently overcame my long-held paralysing fear of 'me as a successful artist rather than a craftsperson' and entered a mosaic artwork into the local Art Expo. It was a great test to put myself through, because I had to really encourage myself to go beyond the decorative, which I love and value, and into something more interpretive, which is not what I, as a rule, do.

I found the creation of the work hard-going and very-challenging, but ultimately very satisfying. And I felt so damn proud of myself for actually doing it, for fighting through the fear, for forcing myself to a new, intimate place, for sharing this intimate exploration with a whole bunch of people I have never met, that I was quite unreasonably annoyed when I didn't place!!!

Oh well, there is always next year.

But the exercise did serve to highlight what has been an on-going discussion in my head - that of the artist versus the craftsperson. Can a crafty sort of person be considered an artist? And if I happen to only practise the more crafty forms of creating, does that mean my work must perforce be craft, rather than art? Can't it be both? And what is the difference anyway?

Any thoughts?