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My Blog
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Posted on Friday, February 17, 2012 10:10 AM
I am often asked about how to meet people
who can help you in your creative career.
I have talked about networking before and
getting out meeting people in ‘formal’ situations. However, I am also a firm believer that if
you know what you want, you will be surprised at how often seemingly
inconsequential conversations can lead you to someone who can help you or point
you in the right direction.
This was highlighted to me on two occasions
this week.
Last weekend, I was in a West End shop
buying stationery. The charming sales
assistant commented on my winter coat, a full length scarlet job with gold
buttons, and wondered where I got it. I
confessed that the coat had been purchased from the costume department when I
was working with English National Opera. (It was worn by the divine Susan Bullock in 'The Prince of Homburg'). She asked if I was a singer. (Definitely not, as much as I would love to be!)
Through talking about arts, she told me she wanted to work in films and
was writing and creating short videos. I
told her about my work and I offered to send her some links which might be
useful to her.
Mid-week, I was having coffee with a small
group of people, all of whom I know well.
One mentioned that she wanted to get a feature in a leading
publication. One of the other people
said that she knew the editor of the publication as she house sits for
him. What were the chances?!
However well you may plan where to go and
who to talk to, how many of us would write down, “find a coach/mentor out of
the customers who come into the shop” or “find the house sitter of ...”?
You never know who you are talking to, or
who they know. Get your message out
there and you could be surprised at what turns up. |
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Posted on Friday, February 10, 2012 7:45 PM
I have had several people ask me how the two projects I mentioned in my blog on The Joy of Collaboration were coming along.
With three weeks to go, The Wedding Salon is coming together brilliantly and we are just confirming the final "salonistas"! We have our Facebook page set up, so please do pop over and "like" us! Or follow us on Twitter, where we are @weddingsalonuk.
I am delighted to say that The Tango Club is now open for business and running events and classes. From signing the lease to opening the doors for Tango Tea was two weeks. This was two weeks of painting, floor sanding, ordering kit and creating a beautiful space. This was possible not only because Liz could enrol help, but also because she had had the vision of a dance studio like this for over 15 years. Instead of giving up, Liz just kept her eyes open for the right space so that when it turned up, it was just (well, perhaps not "just"!) a case of moving the layout from inside her head and into the room. Persistence, patience and belief in the vision have paid off and created a great place to dance. Read the day by day story here. And if you have ever had a desire to learn the Argentine Tango, the next Beginner's Course starts 11 March. |
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Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2012 9:41 PM
Following on from last week’s blog about
collaboration, this week I am focussing on another area of working with other
people.
As a freelancer, it is important to have a support
network, somewhere to get advice, develop ideas and meet like minded people,
either virtually or over a cup of coffee.
It is also a chance to get the word out about your work and find out
what opportunities there are in your professional sector.
There are lots of organisations around which
offer some or all of this, but I wanted to give you the heads up on three with
which I am involved or have worked.
They offer different services to their audiences, but each are
accessible , supportive and passionate about the success of creative
practioners.
 If you are in Southwark, this is a
really good place to get support. Southwark Arts Forum
helps artists, arts organisations and creative industries by providing a
wide range of networking, information and advice services such as events,
e-bulletins and one-to-one sessions. One
of their current projects is Art at the Bridge, a unique exhibition showcasing exceptional artworks in Tower Bridge. It has just started and runs until 27 July 2012 at Tower Bridge. Check out their resources for artists
and organisations.
 The Design Trust (which has just relaunched
its new website) helps people to start and grow their own professional
contemporary crafts and design business.
The site has a wealth of information and aims to connect small design
and crafts businesses with the best business advice, training and support, and
‘the market’ (on and off line, trade and consumer) to create a thriving design
and crafts scene, both financially and culturally. Over the next few weeks, it will also start
having podcasts and webinars.
 The Forum of Arts in Chelsea and
Kensington is a forum for visual artists
that delivers talks and information about creative practice. It is FACK’s intention to create a community
for artists and a platform for discussion and debate. They have excellent talks every 2 months and
a strong network of support between their members.
Which networks do you belong to and would recommend to other creative freelancers?
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Posted on Thursday, January 26, 2012 8:28 PM
 Photo: Liz Tomlin
Do you sometimes sit down and wonder how
you are going to get a project off the ground?
All on your own? Well, who said
you have to do it on your own?
Twice this week, I have seen the power of
collaboration in action, once in my leisure life and once in my professional
life.
As I have mentioned before on this blog, I
spend many of my non-working hours dancing the Argentine tango at The Tango Club. The club is in the process of moving to a new
site which will soon be quite wonderful, but in the meantime, it needs a little
tender, loving care. So, in order to get
the place ready for the first milonga, a few of us have been rallying around to
help sand floors, scrape down windowsills and generally turn the place into a
stylish tango loft.
How did this collaboration happen? Liz, our great teacher, told us about the new
site, got us all enrolled in her vision and told us what needed doing. She shared her vision with us and we
responded with actions. (In case you are wondering, I am the one on the far right of the photo scraping paint off windowsills.)
On the professional front, I had a meeting on Thursday with three fabulously creative women and we are working together to produce a
very select Wedding Salon at the Sparrowhawk Pub in Crystal Palace on 4 March. The women, Catherine Shaw of Allbone and Trimit (bespoke
wedding dress design), Sarah Gilfillan of Sartoria Lab (personal stylist for men) and Jackie King of Peonybrides (wedding photographer), are bringing their talents together to
create an intimate salon of local, high
quality suppliers who can offer bespoke services to soon-to-be brides.
How did
this collaboration come about? I have
been working with all three women individually and know they are expert in
their fields and actively promoting themselves in the wedding sector. They have so much in common – great creativity,
great vision, great passion - that it seemed silly not to introduce them. Out of that informal meeting, where they
shared ideas and possibilities, the idea of the Wedding Salon was born. Would they have done it on their own? Perhaps, perhaps not.
But what I can see in working with them is that they are inspiring each
other, sharing the load and getting very excited about the new project.
The Tango Club project already existed and just needed bringing into reality. The Wedding Salon project was created
spontaneously. What they have in common is
a shared passion and, above all, communication.
If there
is a project you want to undertake, or you are open to new ideas and possibilities,
share your vision and enthusiasms and be alert to what comes up. You may suddenly find the support and the collaborators
to make your project come to fruition.
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Posted on Friday, January 20, 2012 10:07 AM
 Lubna Gem Arielle is the epitome
of a portfolio person with fabulously diverse skills ranging from the arts
to law. She is, amongst other things, an artist, writer, deviser,
performer, actor, presenter, law lecturer and intellectual property consultant.
She uses her knowledge, imagination and
experience and shares these with the world
though performance and writing, whether this is telling Butterfly stories to 5
year olds or delivering law lectures to MA students.
Lubna’s latest endeavour
is producing and launching a series of workshops on contracts, copyright and
collaborations which will be running in mid-February / March. These will be of great interest to creative
people needing legal guidance and people interested should contact Lubna directly.
In your professional life, what is the
single best thing about what you do? That what I do is
consistent with who I am. This
means a great deal to me, especially as I compromised for many years in my
first career as a City solicitor.
I've gradually segued from having a “job” to a rich and varied “livelihood” which includes facilitating combined arts
workshops for children, writing, presenting and producing educational programmes
and leading workshops on contracts and copyright for small businesses. The questions that drive me are – “will this
bring me joy” and “how does it contribute to others?” For me, there has to be a
good balance between the two.
Do you have a creative hero / heroine
and if so, why? Lots - countless artists, writers, dancers, speakers, performers and teachers whose work, imagination, commitment, creative
energy, insights and lives are a constant and treasured source of inspiration.
I have a creative hero / heroine for every occasion!
Something that has come up a lot recently, both
on a personal note and in conversations with people who want to change career
in mid-life, is the issues and judgements around age and aging. It's taken me a long time to make the changes
I wanted to see – making a forwards and backwards journey along a diagonal
line. On that front, Louise Hay is a
wonderful role model. She has enriched
the lives of so many with her work as a teacher, author and publisher in
the healing arts – and only started her
“real work” in her forties and set up her publishing company in her
sixties and is committed to continual learning, even at eighty-five. That's certainly encouragement to me that it
is never too late to make a change.
What piece of advice do you wish
you had been given at the beginning of your career? Live the life you want and not the life someone
else has drawn for you.
It took me a long time to find the courage to
follow my heart and my own dreams. The expectation of my parents and sitting
behind that, their culture and upbringing, was for me to become a doctor or
lawyer. I read law at university, qualified as a solicitor and spent two years
advising on commercial property deals at a City law firm. My suit felt like a
strait-jacket and I knew the real price of my Prada shoes; one day I just reached
breaking point because my spirit was dying. I handed in my notice and embarked
on a long journey, which at times has felt like a sailing of the seven seas.
If you hit a creative block, what is
your top tip for getting through it? Work with it!
I'm aware that
my sudden need to clean and tidy
is a reflection of the mental clutter inside. Many things, anything - fear,
self-judgement /not good-enough, overwhelm, avoidance, fatigue to name a
few. It is a bit bewildering when I
suddenly find myself with a bottle of Viakal in my hand robotically thinking
“ah - but these bath-taps must sparkle - now.”
I've learned to harness this
willingness to scrub - my home certainly appreciates it! And I use the rhythms
of cleaning as a gentle meditation to clear and ease my mind too.
At non-cleaning, lack-lustre times I'm aware that
my “blocks” are usually the
story/article/drawing/lecture needing time to simmer for a while. Which is fine by me – I also take time to
breathe and refresh – go for a walk,
catch up with some chores or meet a friend for coffee.
And finally, for fun, if you were a
shoe, what type of shoe would you be and why? A pair of schiaparelli pink party shoes
hand-stitched by elves from soft leather I leave on the kitchen table (as in
the Elves and the Shoemaker), because
the elves made such wonderful shoes.
The wisdom
of this story resonates with me. It
always springs to mind when I think about letting new projects grow gently and
gradually – a practical business lesson!
I love the magic of the story - through not giving up, a transformation
begins at what seems to be the darkest hour.
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