me.. an artist..??..

*Warning: Long post below...sorry...

My friend Carly, who is currently doing honours in printmaking, asked me a while ago if I would like to apply to collaborate with her for an exhibition in Bendigo. I said yeah sure and didn't really think much of it. Well that is til about 2 weeks ago when she emailed through the proposal for me to check, and added that she had left it til last minute (which I was exactly the same at uni) so it needed to be in TODAY. I also needed to add my artist CV (i did one at uni like 4 -5 years ago and thats it!) and a few of my works. Long story short.. and a weeks or so of waiting... we finally found out that we had been chosen.
The overall project is called 'Test Match' and will be run in Allan's Walk - Artist Run Space during November. Basically, there were four spots and we were chosen for one. Why 'Test Match'?, well it involves two artist, one being based in bendigo/central vic..Carly.. and inviting another artist.. being me.. to collaborate on works during a seven day period. We get $1000 as our fee, plus promotional material, a writer and photographer to document the 7 days. Its quite exciting and nerve racking all at the same time. Its all explained a lot better on the Allans Walk Website. Thought I'd also share the pics that I submitted with our proposals.









So what will we be doing? The vague idea revolves around rural woman and their domestic environment. The photos above are a perfect example. We will also explore being an artist in a rural community, and the divide between fine art and domestic art (like quilting, knitting, scrap booking, various craft etc). Firstly, we will start up a blog dedicated to the project, once we have a name. The blog will be used to up-load our works, being photos and prints which document our daily lives and environment, then use each others works to create new works. All of which will explore two rural woman's domestic spaces, which are both quite different. Me being a housewife, who works, has a child and hasn't really explored art since finishing uni, until recently starting my blog/on-line galleries. And Carly living in a share house, doing her honours at uni, working, and being involved in the art community and continually developing her career through various exhibitions. These collaborations will be pushed further during the Test Match, resulting in an installation piece.

Its quite exciting and I'm looking forward to it all, although the fact I haven't done anything like this since uni, makes me rather nervous. So stayed tuned for a link to our blog.