Cost Of Living Crisis

 

As an #ExcludedUK artist and carer, the cost of living crisis caused by austerity has been documented in this blog, with my lost wages calculator going up every year.

This year, the energy crisis has now extended to everyone else.

Over the past few years, I've variously had some issues with energy bills, and now, it's Bulb who I'm in a sort of The Sandman / Morpheus-like battle of minds with.

Of course, Bulb have gone bust, so are in no place to demand any money at all.

Once they put my bill up to £261 for a small 3 bedroom terrace house, and some support I was previously getting from City Of Lincoln Council ended in 2021, I cancelled my direct debit.

I'm still recovering financially from my youngest son's destitution in 2019, so this would bankrupt me.

The "debt" is currently -£1882.33

I'm not personally responsible for wholesale energy prices, so it isn't mine to pay.

Anyway, as the Don't Pay campaign is encouraging everyone to get together to take mass action to cancel direct debits to stop them from making ridiculous profits, here's what happens.

I pay Bulb a lower amount every month by request. They send me a link to pay, and I am still paying the bill, and every month I tell them I will reinstate the direct debit when it's at a realistic level.

I have sought help from numerous charities, none of whom have been able to help, and I've told them this.

I've also complained to Lincolnshire County Council for using carer's charities who do not actually provide any charity. The email was blocked.

Unless artists are simply paid wages, and carers are paid #wagesnotclaps, it's not realistic to demand a direct debit for £261 per month.

If my income was high enough to pay that, and if I lived in an actual mansion, then it would be no problem, but the fact is that it isn't.

If they wanted to take me to court, I'd argue this case with legal support.

So this is what you must do.

This is what everyone must do. 

On 1st October, cancel your energy direct debit.

If you're someone who can afford to pay your energy bills, and are in receipt of the £400 government grant, but don't require it, you are very welcome to commission or buy artwork from me.

You can also buy the materials on my Amazon Wishlist - I'm in the process of a series of 3 new paintings based on a trip to Monaco in 1995, so I have 3 large canvases, which were a nightmare to get home on my bike!

Thanks for your support!

I'm currently in the process of transferring my website to a new domain. This domain will include pricing packages and direct sales of work.

It will contain a blog, so this blog will transfer over there. Access to content will depend on income level, and will not be automatically free, to cover the cost of running the website, broadband internet, and other fixed costs. Here's an insight into the pricing strategy:

A tale of two sculpture parks

 

Back in March, I still had respite funds, so I decided to visit Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which sits on the river Dearne, the river from which my family name comes from. My great Grandad Dearnley moved to Lincolnshire from Yorkshire originally.

So technically, YSP is my own sculpture park.

YSP were kind enough to waive any ticket fees, and let me have a free ticket, although this was the first time I've visited YSP by public transport, and it was an adventure! A train delay meant I would have to wait too long to get a bus, so I ended up paying more for taxis :-s

So it wasn't ideal!

I was keen to see Robert Indiana, and his particular use of recycled material seems like a method I could use with no materials budget, but I don't live near an abandoned shipyard... although I do live near a marina...

This piece stood out in particular to my own work as a woman artist... Mansplaining.

More mansplaining here from Damien Hirst! Maybe one day I will be allowed to make sculpture about my own experiences as a teenage mother!

I really wanted to see Rachel Kneebone's work in the chapel

Here I photoshopped The Best Thing in a couple of locations at YSP, to imagine if it was a fully realised sculpture exhibited there.

I noticed that Bretton Hall is being renovated into a hotel; I do not know who these people are who have laid claims to the mansion but I do know that as an illustrator, I made a zine titled Ms Blackbird's Home For Peculiar People, which reimagines the abandoned Johnson Hospital as being the HQ for Ms Blackbird, ymbryne of the Lincoln loop, in a spin off of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children.

 So I emailed Yorkshire Sculpture Park to find out if I could possibly run some wellbeing workshops there once it reopens as a hotel, so I could come and stay at my own sculpture park, and do artist talks etc.

I had a reply from the curators to say that it was all booked up with artists, some gatekeeping info... but they were kind enough to say that if I ever want to visit, I can email them, and I can have a free ticket whenever I want, and they'll keep my info on file for any future opportunities.

It's the very LEAST they could do.

So contrast with Doddington Hall Sculpture Exhibition just outside Lincoln. 

I can get there very easily by bicycle along the Georgie Twigg track, so I emailed Doddington Hall to ask if they could off a free ticket for an #ExcludedUK artist and carer, but got no reply.

I had my first COVID in July, which was absolutely terrible, and self isolated until I was well again, and after weeks of cloudy weather, I decided to go for a ride out to Doddington Hall anyway, because I needed the vitamin D.

A few years ago, I was invited to the private view for the sculpture exhibition, probably when I was running Lincoln Artist's Network, so I have visited it before.

Doddington Hall rely on volunteers, but still request an entry fee to visit the gardens where you can see the work. 

Of course, as an artist, there are no labour laws in the land that mean I should pay to look at art to do my job, so I had a look around to see what I could see without paying to do my job.

At the back of the hall there was this massive car bonnet logo...

    

This kinetic sculpture that resembles a washing line / wind farm

I did not bother to look for the artist info, as I'm not paid enough...

There is a long vista that is visible from the gardens at Doddington Hall, with a pyramid at the bottom, so I decided to go for a walk down to the pyramid.

This view is looking back at the hall from the pyramid

The pyramid is a folly built from materials on the estate, and not a tomb.

However, I did summon the ancient forces of Mumm-Ra, the Ever Living, and it does resemble a mummy's outside toilet!

Inside, there was no mummy, nor a mausoleum, it is an empty tomb... 

However, it would be an excellent location for a video or sound art piece - I wonder what the acoustics are like?

My experience as a sculpture is only as one of Anthony Gormley's plinthers for the Fourth Plinth, but no Anthony Gormley was seen at either location. 

The lovely Rosanne Robertson has some work in the Summer Of Love LGBTQ exhibition at YSP, which happened after I visited, but I've seen work online.

I guess that if there's a private view at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, I may be able to make it, but I would also hope that one day it will be MY private view!!