I was recently asked to give a talk to a local art and history group about my work and against my natural instincts I agreed after a little bit of arm twisting and ego massage. Anyway, the night arrived and I had no idea what to expect or indeed what was expected of me. I turned up with a slack hand full of brochures and no preparation at all. My main concern was that I hoped no one I knew would turn up but that was blown out of the water before I even entered the building as I saw an old manager from Coles Cranes and his wife enter just ahead of me. I no sooner got inside than my shoulder was squeezed and I turned to see an old guy I have known for years, I looked around the room and saw a few more familiar faces and with every one I recognised I could feel the words dry up inside me. After a brief talk was given on the history of Hetton le Hole it was my turn, I was introduced onto the stage and welcomed with a round of applause. The next 20 to 30 minutes that I was talking are just a blurred memory of uhms and errs as I waffled through a jumbled version of the last twelve years. The one bit that does stick in my mind very clearly was about five minutes in when I was just starting to relax and get into some sort of cohesive stride. A lady put up her hand and said excuse me but my father is feeling a little unwell. Is it ok if we just move to the back and up they got. I watched as they moved gingerly across the front of the assembled room and I watched as they rounded the end of the audience and headed toward the rear. I was still watching in silence as the lady turned and gestured for me to carry on speaking. What she nor anyone else in the room had realised was that I wasnt being polite I had actually totally forgotten what I was saying and my physical stillness was masking my mind screaming in blind panic. In the end I had to blurt out does anyone know what I was saying? and fortunately some kind soul prompted me back to life. You cant beat professionalism eh? The rest of my bletherings seemed to go ok and after a quick question and answer session I sat down and and tried to bring my temperature and heart rate down. Once the next speaker had finished and the night was done I was able to have a more relaxed chat with a few people, two asked if I was prepared to talk to their groups so Im hoping I came across better than I thought and one asked me (in all seriousness) if I would go and sign the garden railings I made for him almost twenty years ago. Back on the current work status , I am reworking some drawings for one of the big proposals and am now much happier with the idea as I was struggling to give it a soul before. A gent has been in touch from Rotterdam wanting me to put forward a design for an idea he has regarding a sculpture near the train station there. If it progresses it could be really exciting but as always, time will tell. The piece Relative Treats looks likely to be going on loan to the visitor centre in Dalby Forest near Pickering in the near future, quite close to the lumberjills (Pull Dont Push) sculpture I installed last year. I just need to find the time to get it down there and a new back to get it out of the van. Cheers. Ray.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 19:24:32 +0000
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