Rose & Linda.

Today was the tenth anniversary of the Art Cafe opening in Hinckley, and the 24th anniversary of the Art Studio, Hinckley's art shop which I've written about before, and which was the first place to sell the cards I made as a second year degree student when I came home from Polytechnic from time to time.

This is significant because Hinckley's not exactly got a reputation for long-lasting businesses. it certainly did, until a couple of decades ago, but those businesses - such as the china shop, the sportswear shop that sold the (British-made) school uniforms, the toy shop and the high-end hi-fi place - have long been replaced by charity shops, coffee shops and...well, empty shops.

I'll just contextualise this 24 years in business a little bit. Our main street, which was once a quite delightful buzzy thoroughfare lined with trees, opticians, flowers, books, solicitors offices with beautiful etched glass, travel agents, clothes shops and plentiful parking was turned into a corpsy murk of a place, with the outrageous and deeply unpopular decision to pedestrianise. This decision effectively cut off the air supply to the little independent shops and ensuring their gradual metamorphosis into the destination for the 8am drinkers, the 4am kebab buyers and the grimly predictable procession of hopeful new shop / sad closed shop that everyone but the councillors predicted. The cobbler's, there since the 70s, is a testament to the fact though that some things will always be required - good shoes will always need repairing, despite the Bargain Shoes shop selling plastic horrors for the same price as the posh coffeechino mocha-ry of a drink sold a few doors down.

This all sounds rather negative. But it's important to put Rose and Linda's success against a truthful backdrop. The top end of town, where their lovely cafe, gallery and art shop sits, has been subjected to similar harrowing decision-making, but it hasn't had its soul torn out. The little knitting shop is still there, there's a tattoo shop next door to the hairdresser who has been there for 35 years, and the new Polish food shop only adds to the flavour of the area. Hinckley's oldest record shop, also opened 35 years ago, is still going strong and is just round the corner. Rose, joined by Linda a few years later, opened her art shop in 1989 to my immense relief (prior to that it meant a train ride to Leicester for supplies) and through recessions, the freezing cold of winter and baking hot of summer, her top-floor shop supplied everything the local artist could want.

These two ladies have flexed and adapted to every change in the town, adding to their offering steadily with workshops, jewellery (Rose's original trade is jewellery), events, coffee, sandwiches, exhibitions and rented studios. I had one of them, for a few years while I was working on two businesses simultaneously and needed 'separation'. It had a ghost (no, it actually did). Which alone made the rent worth it!

We went in today to offer our congrats and to have a chat. It turned out to be a much longer one than we thought; I'd never really thought about our businesses and some frank discussion were had as to the realities and challenges of being in your own business, comparing notes a little, but overall, celebrating quietly the fact that we're all still here, businesses, limbs, sense of humour and souls intact, and that, really, is something to be very happy about indeed.

http://www.ten2gallery.co.uk


Cafe reviews.

'Identity'

I've decided to re-post this blog, because on Friday I received a call out of the blue from one of the artists involved in this show, Jack, who told me that my short but positive review of his painting had kept him going (and painting) through one of the hardest times of his life. And that call was followed up by a little envelope containing £20 for my run for Mind on Sunday. I don't mind admitting a tiny tear was shed as a result - albeit with a big smile at how bloody amazing humans can be.

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I went to a private view last night, one which, unusually, was held in my home town. A ten minute walk was refreshing ('private view' usually means a car or train trip to London or further afield) and the little gallery, Ten Two, where I used to have a studio a few years ago, was filled with people and the smell of warm bready things and coffee. (I should mention the gallery has its own cafe, very cosy with very large sandwiches.)

The work was 'Identity', the NHS Open Art Show 2009, which is touring. It's art by people who have suffered or still are suffering from health difficulties, with an apparent emphasis on mental health problems, whether currently in treatment or not. Some people had never made art before, some were postgraduate creatives, but the art was linked by an urge to communicate, express, explore, or deal with something personal and important.

Take 'Painting Mum' by Jan Welch. This is the one that had me standing in the corner in my unsubtle canary yellow rain mac trying not to show the reddening eyeballs. (I apologise that the iPhotos here are further affected by the glass reflections) Terribly moving in its simplicity, Jan had painted her Mum in a simple and realistic way, through three 'screens' of colour - pink for the positive outlook she retained throughout her life, grey for the Alzheimer's which eventually claimed her memory (but not her spirit) and yellow for the fear she felt 'most of the time'. In addition to this, the artist had painted over the photographs of the woman's three children, because the Alzheimer's eventually meant she forgot who they were.


Jack Shotbolt's 'Threadbare' is an ordered but frantic weaving of thick paint, a deep mesh of luminous colours and powerful strokes. This is a close-up. Of it, Jack says: 'In recent times I have repeatedly found myself in turbulent circumstances beyond my control that have rocked my world. The only constant has been my need to make sense of all this change by making paintings'.

This one I didn't record the artist for - sorry - but the position of the figure says it all. And the light. And the face...

This one I wanted to buy - but it was sadly the only one marked 'NFS': 'Covered ID' by Lou Woods (ID as in identity, or 'id' as in Freud?)

These delicate bowls called 'Change' and 'Gone' were made by Maggi Gamble after her mastectomy; tiny and fragile, they really needed no further explanation:

There were many others worthy of mention. Mat Brandford's 'The Gift And The Curse' was his first ever piece of artwork - a brave move then, to show such a thing in public - after 20 years of struggling to know 'which face to wear in which circumstances and with which people'. He had a past which included 'bullets' and a 'Teflon-coated' career in crime, and his brutally honest drawing shows his continuing struggle between the two 'faces'. I wish there was somewhere else online you could see all these - as there were plenty more I'd like to have mentioned.

This wasn't artwork shown for its awards, slickness, or clever concepts. To be presented with such raw and honest expressions was humbling and a little moving, and made me happy for the artists (to have such an outlet) and sad that they had cause to work in this way, though the resulting work was often beautiful. Some actually saw their mental / health problems as a gift, and chose to celebrate the different-ness it gives them. But mostly, it made me appreciate how lucky I am never to have been affected by such issues, and aware that one is always only ever a hair's breadth away from them.

http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/inkymole

'Identity' at the Ten Two Gallery

I went to a private view last night, one which, unusually, was held in my home town. A ten minute walk was refreshing ('private view' usually means a car or train trip to London or further afield) and the little gallery, Ten Two, where I used to have a studio a few years ago, was filled with people and the smell of warm bready things and coffee. (I should mention the gallery has its own cafe, very cosy with very large sandwiches.)

The work was 'Identity', the NHS Open Art Show 2009, which is touring. It's art by people who have suffered or still are suffering from health difficulties, with an apparent emphasis on mental health problems, whether currently in treatment or not. Some people had never made art before, some were postgraduate creatives, but the art was linked by an urge to communicate, express, explore, or deal with something personal and important.

Take 'Painting Mum' by Jan Welch. This is the one that had me standing in the corner in my unsubtle canary yellow rain mac trying not to show the reddening eyeballs. (I apologise that the iPhotos here are further affected by the glass reflections) Terribly moving in its simplicity, Jan had painted her Mum in a simple and realistic way, through three 'screens' of colour - pink for the positive outlook she retained throughout her life, grey for the Alzheimer's which eventually claimed her memory (but not her spirit) and yellow for the fear she felt 'most of the time'. In addition to this, the artist had painted over the photographs of the woman's three children, because the Alzheimer's eventually meant she forgot who they were.


Jack Shotbolt's 'Threadbare' is an ordered but frantic weaving of thick paint, a deep mesh of luminous colours and powerful strokes. This is a close-up. Of it, Jack says: 'In recent times I have repeatedly found myself in turbulent circumstances beyond my control that have rocked my world. The only constant has been my need to make sense of all this change by making paintings'.

This one I didn't record the artist for - sorry - but the position of the figure says it all. And the light. And the face...

This one I wanted to buy - but it was sadly the only one marked 'NFS': 'Covered ID' by Lou Woods (ID as in identity, or 'id' as in Freud?)

These delicate bowls called 'Change' and 'Gone' were made by Maggi Gamble after her mastectomy; tiny and fragile, they really needed no further explanation:

There were many others worthy of mention. Mat Brandford's 'The Gift And The Curse' was his first ever piece of artwork - a brave move then, to show such a thing in public - after 20 years of struggling to know 'which face to wear in which circumstances and with which people'. He had a past which included 'bullets' and a 'Teflon-coated' career in crime, and his brutally honest drawing shows his continuing struggle between the two 'faces'. I wish there was somewhere else online you could see all these - as there were plenty more I'd like to have mentioned.



This wasn't artwork shown for its awards, slickness, or clever concepts. To be presented with such raw and honest expressions was humbling and a little moving, and made me happy for the artists (to have such an outlet) and sad that they had cause to work in this way, though the resulting work was often beautiful. Some actually saw their mental / health problems as a gift, and chose to celebrate the different-ness it gives them. But mostly, it made me appreciate how lucky I am never to have been affected by such issues, and aware that one is always only ever a hair's breadth away from them.