Orange case (the continuing saga)

This Wednesday there is a court hearing relating to the ever-depressing Orange case. Yes, it's STILL dragging on, no outcome has yet come of it, and Orange are trying to have the case thrown out of court.
Meanwhile, Moorcroft Debt Recovery have sent another threatening letter, even though they should actually be working on my behalf to get the £1,300 approx back that Orange owe me. It has been recommended that next time they do this I report them to Trading Standards.


The last month has seen my bike stolen, the cost of claiming on the insurance was offset slightly by being paid for the errant Orange illustration that was published before. It's good to know that people in the industry can find my blogs and see my work, and are in fact interested in it, however, I do not post work on here or any where online for that work just to be taken and used without my permission. I actually need to earn a living (see previous posts re: Open AIR: Effecting Change).
I've been working on the AOI Secret London brief for the past week or so, but now the sun has come out, I feel less inclined to sit in my shady studio than ever.
I'm now wondering whether it's worth starting anything new with only a week left before the Easter holidays, by which time I won't get a lot done at all.


I had started something for Gingerbread's campaign about CSA charges, so that'll most likely be what I'll work on for now. 

Mother's Day visit to Burghley House

Burghley House in Stamford offered Mother's Day free bubbly, so whilst there, it seemed obligatory to look around the house and admire some of the amazing Italian frescos. 

All the time I studied A-levels at Stamford college, I didn't quite get around to visiting Burghley. 

The stone town of Stamford, Lincolnshire, where I studied A-levels in the early 1990s.

 Burghley House

The Hell Staircase fresco by Antonio Verrio was commissioned by the 5th Earl of Burghley 

Orange case

As I await the outcome for the Orange court case and OFCOM investigation, it seems that Orange aren't the only company intent on trying to destroy my career.


A mobile phone magazine published my illos in an article about the case, without my permission or consent. 
So I invoiced them, and they are refusing to pay up!! Well, they should've thought about whether they could afford to use them before using them without my consent!


Here I'm going to share Sally Renshaw's blog 

My final animation has been uploaded onto BAA Sheep Stings vimeo page for voting!!



BAA Sting - Helen Dearnley from BAA Stings on Vimeo.


It's taken me ages to do, the soundtrack is part of "Sounds Of Daydreaming" from the Apparatjik project.


"Everybody Is One Bar" is now finished, and Apparatjik have compiled every submitted edited track into one compilation with an old fashioned CD release due on Pancake Day :-)


Meanwhile, my trip to Colchester to attend OpenAIR: Effecting Change is documented briefly here

Lincs Free Press article 

On my return via Spalding, I came across this article about Network Rail workmen building a snowman.

Lincs Free Press story

 It seems obvious to me that these are artists in action Effecting Change, so good for them for being paid to create a snow sculpture - a step in the right direction, although more needs to be done to ensure artists are paid to create art, instead of having to do another job to pay the bills, effectively doing two jobs at once, which can't be right!

For two months now I've been working on the Sheep Stings animation. Initial attempts with the crystal growing kit that was given as a gift at Christmas didn't quite work out to my satisfaction, so a second version was made. I've since decided to add to my Norwegian sheep, a Swedish disco sheep, a Danish Lego sheep, and an English pixellated sheep, and together they will form Apparatjik, or Apparasheep, whichever, so I hope that if this is successful it will support my other work with them. 

Swedish sheep

Danish sheep

British sheep

Appara-sheep?

I can't do any more work today, as it's being edited on son's laptop, which he takes to school, so will do final bits tonight to submit tomorrow. It needs shortening slightly, and music / sound effects, so won't take long. 


I was pleased that someone purchased one of my Red Arrows Valentines Cards yesterday :-)


I also spent a day re-editing my old Illustration degree storyboard for the Ray HarryHausen project brief here. I never usually receive enough votes to win anything on here, but still I go for it!


Apparatjik aren't accepting any more submissions for their album now, and I had planned to finish the half-made disco track in Garageband, but unfortunately suffered a really bad headache and gave up. 
I've contributed a few tracks anyway, here's "Don't Sue Warhol's Banana!" and "Signs Of Daydreaming", and Superpositions/The Particle is due to be added to Frequency Festival's website / blog sometime as well.


The Orange case has gone to court, so we're waiting to find out if we're successful in our attempts to stop capitalist greed from completely ruining our livelihoods. An article in a mobile magazine highlights the issue, however, someone has taken images from the Facebook group to use with it, without my prior knowledge or permission, so I've sent the editor an invoice. I later thought that maybe I'd over-priced it a bit, but the extra is for the inconvenience, and because it's dated November last year.

Looking forward to attending Open AIR: Effecting Change in Colchester on Saturday, should be an exciting event!

Christmas pressie creations

I've obviously been off work over Christmas, however, I still made these Borges inspired plant pots for little sister's Christmas pressie:

Text is from "The Garden Of Forking Paths"

Sticking things to pots is my attempt at Grayson Perry - style creations.

This birdhouse was given Gaston Bachelard quotes for little sister's fiance's Christmas pressie. They've just bought a house together, so hoping these make useful but arty additions to the house!

I was pleasantly surprised that Apparatjik uploaded "Don't Eat Brian Sewell's Banana", but what amused me more was that it received 160 listens in 6 days! 

Since then, I have uploaded a track called "Blackbirdmon", which is a version of Gzmo with Olivier Messiaen's Chants d'oiseux as performed and recorded live in Lincoln Cathedral by Charles Matthews for Frequency Festival back in October, and which I edited in Garageband. It's currently on page 2 in the link, but may move as more tracks are uploaded.

I'm working on something new at the moment for them, and plan to continue the animation next week.

Sheep, dreams, animation and sound art

Yesterday I was disappointed to discover I hadn't been successful with the Bend In The River commission. However, feedback was that the curators liked something better. So my career balances on the whims of curators' preferences. Saying that makes it sound even more ephemeral than ever, but having attended the AIR Insights curator's talk at Surface gallery recently, I know what I mean! I will apply again another time, and go and see this work they liked better when it's shown in March.


I have other projects to do, and am making an animation for a competition deadline in February. The set is coming together, but have run out of resources for the time being. So leaving it until after Christmas.

This is for Sheep Stings and Harryhausen animation competitions respectively. I plan to make a simple stop motion animation, referring to basic animations I used to make during my college days instead of doing the work set by tutors!

Meanwhile, I couldn't resist becoming involved in Apparatjik's new project 
An invitation to create sound art or attempt to become some kind of pop/rock star by remixing their album would be better if Magne didn't make it sound as though he wanted "fans" to work for free while they all sit around drinking glogg. But then, they've already put a lot of effort into creating the stems and given them freely for us to play with, Apparatjik is truly a situationist attempt to break the normal paradigms between musicians and "fans", whether that's in an economic or creative sense, either way, it seems something is happening, and it isn't as if we get nothing in return for contributing to their projects. We get free music created by them, and being able to input into the creative process of such high profile musicians, as an artist myself, is a creative exchange with merit. 
I love working with them, but I did point out the irony of asking us to work for free while he (Magne) has been hanging around with Damien Hirst! I don't have the funds to go to Oslo to attend the private views at his gallery that I've been invited to. 


I would LOVE to see Magne's current show at Stolper and Friends. It's called "Echo" and looks really good.


Apparatjik are planning to tour again next year - London is on the list, and London is easier to get to than some of their European venues, so hoping to meet with them and share ideas to work together properly.

And what was I inspired to create?? 
Well, it so happened that my cousin has lived in Denmark for a year now, and seemed to miss English eccentricity to the point of sharing on Facebook a link to the Sewell Sampler, with snippets of Brian Sewell, the art critic recently mocked by Vic Reeves during the Turner Prize.


So I have created this bit of mischief:


Which has made Apparatjik's Don't Eat The Whole Banana rather more fun!


I do plan to create something properly. Have a play with sound art. The animation might need a soundtrack anyway ;-)


God jul and Merry Christmas, see you in 2012!


Update!


Here are all the tracks I made:


Superpositions/The Particle - Hello if you've come here from Frequency blog!
This is Apparatjik's "Superpositions" with added sounds recorded from Alex Posada's The Particle at Frequency Festival, plus a sneaky bit of Philip Jeck ;-)


Dot Comma S.H.I.R.K.A. Dot 
Apparatjik's .,,. (Dot Comma Comma Dot) remixed with classic 1980s Franco-Japanese anime Ulysses31.


Blackbirdmon
Apparatjik's Gzmo with Olivier Messiaen's "Chants d'Oiseaux" played on Lincoln Cathedral organ by Charles Matthews at Frequency Festival, and re-edited.

Don't Sue Warhol's Banana!
Apparatjik's "Don't Eat The Whole Banana" critiqued by art critic Brian Sewell, and then re-edited to relate to an article about Andy Warhol's Banana

Signs Of Daydreaming
Apparatjik's "Signs Of Waking Up" with a few cuts from unreleased A-ha tracks from the CD that came with "The Swing Of Things: 20 Years With A-ha" by Jan Omdahl. Some might recognise the riff from "Go To Sleep", and a reference to Philip K Dick.