waffle on TOT1 opening

a very old post, but i wanted to add it as it meant something at the time

last week felt very busy  ....

tuesday was the opening of ToT, i didn't manage to get round the exhibition properly as i kept chatting to people and hadn't really registered that by the time i arrived i only had just over an hour before the talks started - it seemed pretty well attended to me but i haven't been to an opening before

the talks were interesting, but i felt that the JS one didn't really focus enough on the textile aspects and their contribution to our understanding of 18th C life, for me too much of it was about the establishment and administration of the foundling hospital - since most of those attending were interested in textile and mixed media art i would guess that they might also have preferred a shift in focus too, but who am i to say?

...... on friday i went back to the archive for an afternoon of stewarding - i had meant to get there before lunch time but i was slow getting going - it was fairly quiet so i managed to take a good look around and really see everyone else's work properly - knowing something about the development of each piece makes a considerable difference to how i see them - the short statements beside them are just the right length to give browsers an insight, but they mostly only touch the surface - i begin to understand why some artists statements seem incomprehensible, it's not easy to compress months of work into a few words

...... saturday found me in the kitchen a lot, preparing indian vegetarian dishes for friends in the evening - i thought i had it all sorted out and would be done in 30 minutes but i kept thinking of more that i wanted to do! it seemed like far too much when i served it up but the leftovers didn't amount to much

...... then it was on to preparation for a trip in the caravan, but i kept finding other things to do - i really don't enjoy packing, i am always convinced i will forget the most important things ...... but when we get home i haven't needed most of what i took - but i must be getting into the swing of it as i seemed to have got it all done in remarkably little time with minimal effort - i'll review that on our return when i know whether or not i survived with what seems like almost nothing!

it doesn't seem like a busy week when i write it down but it felt like it at the time and it's more than i could have done 10 years ago