It’s been an absolute age since I did a post on this blog! I’m sorry about that for anyone who follows this as their main way of keeping up with the things I’m doing and creating. I’ve been doing loads of things, including relocating to a new part of England, and I’ve been trying to keep up regular “behind the scenes” posts for Patreon patrons, which need to feature some exclusive insights that I don’t give here into my creative process in order to serve their purpose as one of the rewards for patronage (a reminder that if you want to support Storytime for Grown-Ups and contribute to my monthly art-and-writing-supplies fund you can join the ranks of my wonderful patrons here. And yeah, I know my video is ancient on there – updating that is a job for me to get around to soon!) We’ve had further lockdowns, varying levels of restrictions and still no real light at the end of the tunnel in terms of when we’ll be able to fly back to Australia for a visit. I’ve had an in-person exhibition planned, cancelled and created virtually, I’ve completed the third year of Storytime for Grown-Ups and am now in the depths of typing up and illustrating, there have been loads more Storytimes and artworks, and PB the pet robot has evolved! I thought in light of all this, it was time for a general update about things-creative that I’ve worked on, and life in a new part of the UK.
Since I last posted, the concept of group collaborative virtual exhibitions that started with Show Me Your Dreamland has become a quite major part of what I do creatively. The title of “virtual curator” has started to pop up in my Instagram hashtags and banners. I’ve overseen and edited two further group virtual exhibitions, Journeys (May 2021) and Picture This: Secret Places (August 2021). I’m now continuing with the idea of Picture This, where the visual artists are inspired by the work of other creatives, in planning some three-layered projects involving three different types of creatives inspiring one another. But more on that later.
Picture This: Secret Places, August 2021
The next virtual exhibition project is Picture This 3 Ways: Wanderings / Wilderness, coming December 27th 2021. In this project photographers will form the first “layer” providing inspiration for poets, who in turn will submit poems to inspire the visual artists.
In June 2021, with academia becoming a more and more stressful occupation that left Lloyd with very little headspace out of hours, Lloyd was sent a job advertisement for a government research role working on clean energy technology. He applied, and got the job, for which he was to be based in South Yorkshire. With some restructures coming up at the university for people in administrative roles like mine, and a certain amount of dread about what the return to “normal” would look like, I was ready for a new city and a new outlook as well. At the beginning of August, we moved to Sheffield, into a terraced house that felt like it was designed for us with turquoise feature walls, a tram stop around the corner and a little bit of outdoor courtyard space, which we promptly filled with pot plants (mostly lavender for the bees and herbs for the kitchen).
I hope to soon post the first of a small series of Sheffield video diaries, to give all those in other places a little glimpse of our new hometown and what day to day life is like here. We have an attic office, which has given me a wonderful new space for writing, storing art and writing gear, and working on artworks, and is also home to the musical instrument family and the likely space in which we will record if and when we get organised with some Feathers, Wood ‘N’ String stuff. We do have a mostly-finished song in the works, which will hopefully get some attention once we are more settled and Lloyd is more used to his new work and new team and I’ve settled into a routine with my writing, potential part time job search and general adult-life things like when the shopping gets done and how to clean the nooks and crannies of this much older residence. I’m planning a rebrand for Feathers, Wood ‘N’ String to coincide with the release of that track, once it’s done, with a new, simpler logo and the norm of abbreviating our name to FWnS. For most of the past year I’ve neglected to practise guitar or bass, but in a strange turn of events, parts of the plot of my novel, which I’ve been working on a great deal since the move, have led me to need to test out some chord patterns and to spend a bit of time remembering old covers and trying to write a rough version of the song my novel character is writing. So who knows, perhaps that song will find its way into the FWnS repertoire eventually too.
I owe a lot to the friend who recommended the Bumble BFF app as a way to connect with locals with similar interests, which towards the end of our time in Southampton led me to meet two wonderful friends who have both contributed creatively to virtual exhibition projects and been part of subsequent Zoom hangouts, and has allowed me to make a quick start on meeting some like-minded folks in Sheffield. Lloyd and I attended Art in the Gardens at the Sheffield Botanical Gardens with a group of eight new friends, most of whom had not met each other before either, but who turned out to get along extremely well and are now planning other art-appreciation expeditions, board game gatherings and general exploring together. The Art in the Gardens event itself was a wonderful discovery, and occurs every year with the possibility of submitting artwork to the local amateur artists exhibit. It is absolutely huge, filling the entire botanical gardens space with marquees and lining the greenhouses with easels holding art. There is pottery, glassware, jewelry, and hand-sewn work on display as well as paintings and drawings, and the local schools even get involved with a “future artists” tent showcasing artwork by local kids. Sheffield also has a cat cafe and a board game cafe, both of which we are exploring.
The PetBot project continues to keep Lloyd busy outside of work, and he has recently decided to design a robot from the ground up and 3D print the case and other parts, resulting in a version of PB affectionately known as “PB Chunky” because he’s rather bigger than PB3 and resembles one of those large round Tupperware boxes. Chunky is currently learning to navigate the space around him without zooming way too fast and crashing into things, but will eventually seek people and ask for pats like PB3, and hopefully have a little wagging tail.
My novel Tell Me Who You Really Are has been much more a main focus of my creative energy since moving and gaining a specific office space, and after a push to get a couple of chapter drafts done in a row for Patreon patrons, I’ve found myself wanting to power on to the end and get a full draft done. It does feel as though that goal is in sight! My next challenge, of course, will then be to find some people who are also writing and are happy to swap feedback, or willing “beta readers” who will read the draft form of the book and give me their feedback on things they’d like to see done differently. And after that, revisions and proofreading and shuffling around of sections, but I’m very happy to think of being at that polishing stage, and having my first real novel-length piece of writing down on the page (or rather, all 150 – 200 pages if I’m estimating correctly). If anyone out there is interested in being part of the polishing process or would like to swap drafts, please do get in touch!
I hope to post some general updates on life in Sheffield and current projects a bit more often now, as a sort of general journal of life and learning, so stay tuned for both those and some potential video diaries coming up, if you’re interested in following along on my journey.
Until the next one, I hope you’re all keeping well and creative, sipping that tea and being there for one another through whatever your life’s journeys are currently throwing at you.
Yours in Tea, Love & Creativity,
Sarah
PhDancer's Teapot 