Forest BB

at the recent blender meeting there was discussion on replacing the mural on the cafe wall- the one with the winged flower eye guys.

abigail emailed me saying she would like to do something there but i thought it might be good to treat the wallspace the same way we do the gallery, i.e. have a look at a proposal first before giving the go ahead -just to assure that we are going to have something which is liked/have some input on what fills the space. i should be getting some images soon so will post them when i do.

are there any other potential candidates we can also consider?

The one in the main cafe? That was just done several months ago - how fast do we want to be changing that one?

change is our friend.

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Maybe it could work? But it will be a kaleidoscopic blend of mysterious shadows and rainbow hued-dreams seen through compassionate tears.

a giant piece of Magda's artwork would look amazing on the mural wall

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It's like God's vagina!

yeah in the past we felt that as that space is so big and dominant we need to discuss it at a vawg meeting. but we can have a special one just for that. its worth putting someposters up advertising that we want submissions for it?

we have only just changed it a few months ago. but i think me and john did a poor, slow job of it (infact i still feeel its unfinished). if something amazing comes up i say we repaint it. i am also into spending some days proper finishing it.

thought i'd bump this because i meant to mention it at the last meeting but forgot to.

if we come to a decision before the front of house day we could prime the space.

I was thinking about this- what about changing the way we use the space- using it to display work rather than painting a mural straight on the wall.

this doesn't necessarily mean using the space as another gallery wall- i mean using it to show made to measure works or site specific installations or the like (they'd have to be predominantly 2d though.) e.g. having some artwork on cardboard like the cardboard cathedral stuff, it could be attached to the wall and i'm sure would look really cool.

the advantages of this approach would be that it would cut down on the hassle of preparing the wall to be painted on again and hence would make it easier to change something if we happened to get something we weren't that keen on. If change is indeed our friend with egard to that space then it might bew useful to make change easier. (i'm just thinking because if we are to change the current obne it will probs require at least 2 coats)

the disadvantage is finding the right kind of work and people to do it, but curating it might be fun.

does anyone have any thoughts? abigail didn't send me any images as of yet.

our options so far are:

leaving it the way it is

bill to do more work on current mural

find someone new to do a new mural

prepping the space to display work rather than paint directly onto it and then finding some work to put on.

I think the key point you have made is , how we are going to get work on it , there is no point painting over it , if its going to remain blank for ages . we need to discuss the possibility of it more ,

It seems to me that there is a desire for getting work into the cafe itself and this is certainty an option . unfortunately at the moment a lot of our proposals are for the white space .Which to me is disappointing as they are many more opportunity to exhibite at the forest .
I think a revamp of the submission page may help things , with links to the gallery of past shows a bit like the booklet , show what has happen rather then say .

The more wall space we have for exhibitions i guess the less we have to refuse , only really to deciding where to put it .
alot of the stuff we get i would hang regardless of wheare i like it or not , It just decisions have to made as we only have so much space and dont want to be booked out for ever ,The white space seems to me to inform the decisions of what kind of stuff happens there , whereas other spaces may more suited to other stuff


i think once we do the clean up we will have a better idea of what is to be done ,

Definitely no painty over without an accepted submission. But, I think it's probably time for the change.

Ask the Cardboard Cathedral peoples for a submission!

My nonVA 2p.

yep, definitely, i'm with you on that.



i think alice is going to do this.




I know i mentioned putting work elsewhere in the cafe because it would allow us to seperate more white space identified work from work that might be more suited to a cafe wall atmosphere, but i hadn't intended to use the cafe space which is currently muralated just as another gallery wall.

personally i don't think that space in the cafe is that suited to showing alot of the work we get in the proposals. It is quite high, and hanging avarage size paintings or photos etc. would make them look a bit lost.

I was more thinking along the lines of approaching artists to consider the space, more site specific i guess, making big things, or lots of little things, a bit more installation style but still 2d.the key being that the work there is more temporary and easier to change, though we wouldn't want to change it to often, maybe every six months or something.



yeah that could help, we could make it clear that the space is up for grabs...

my vote is:

Get Bill to finish the mural that is there... I have been waiting to see what develops!

but simultaneously...

and advertise for new submissions! .. for all the Mural space in the Cafe, including the stairs and the corridors downstairs. (Annelli, who has the artwork in the corridor from the infoseed to the cave, has been told her time is at an end and there are others interested)

Change and dynamism is what the Cafe is all about... let them know you want them to paint... they will paint!

If the cardboard cathedral wish to work something then they win out for me.
It would work perfect on those walls.

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Pep Up The Turmoil

I have only seen two murals in my time at the Forest and I loved the whole process of the mural changing. When the wall was completely white before the new mural was created there was a real sense of expectation to see what would appear.

I know some Graffiti artists who love free blank canvases to work on. Their work is amazing and they can do any design you want. Obviously it would be nice to have people who use the forest to do something but I'm kinda bored of seeing a half completed mural. I'd do something but I cant paint for shit.

Can we not do a design competetion and the winners mural goes up? i think that the space is so big and could be such a showcase for artists that we should get it sorted asap. at the moment its just nothing and its a waste of a space that thousands of artists would kill for.

sorry for the aggressive nature of my blurb, I'm ill and having to deal with post graduate students who are so ridicualously thick that they should not be allowed to study. p.s. if you are a student and planning on phoning the student awards agency today, i suggest that you don't bother because if you get through to me i will not help you at all, and will probably be incredibly rude to you.

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It's like God's vagina!

funny post andy:

regardless: i like the notion of more site specific which, i guess, is why people like the idea of the mural, i think because, ultinately it is site specific. However, point taken regarding making it easier. certainly the CC would be amazing to have on the space.

We've done murals for years and have loads of muralable wall space. i vote to try something new for some time.

why not?

i oppose death.
r

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

I too, opose death!

different is good!
how about projecting work on to the wall? that means we can change the images to suit the right mood, and also means that everyone can be a mural artist for a day!...may not be to environmentally friendly to have a projector on all day though.

Hey Ryan...you collected your "street dweller" money today? I had to fight a guy called Kev to get my 10p, had to resort to stealing his Special Brew off him until he handed over the cash. He'll learn! remember £20,000 devided by £36.50 is 547.94 street dwellers at 10p a week. Stay on top of the situation and we'll be able to start our Disco Shop dream. Now to find some Ho's to pimp!

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It's like God's vagina!

hi i posted a topic on other bb .... umm i would like to paint some walls in forest i can paint draw and do other things:) there you have bit of me just down under this message lol. peter

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hi we are planning to put that kind of thing through a proposal stage so if you could either post some more images here or by email to the gallery and say a bit about what you plan to do...

Cardboard Cathedral are unsure if they want to leave it with us and interested in a mural but not sure they have the time. They will let me know before the weekend.

cardboard cathedral sent an email to the TK address stipulating they would like it if we could store the cardboard for a while somewhere safe, i suppose this means not the walls- thoughts?

also they have reciepts they want to hand in. did they get their money at the closing party? if not is it cool for them to just come in and deposit the reciepts with whoever is on, or does a VA have to be there?

i they are asking fro more than the 50 squid we agreed. this is becase they spend money on booze. i don't know if i want to keep funding arty piss ups at vollies expense. but they did a great show.

how much are their reciepts for? i have asked them a few times how much an to send stuff to us.

i think it is ok for them to come and pick money up with the reciepts if it is a amount we have previously agreed.

and also no we can't store their stuff here unless it canbe seen. if not its just using up our valuable space. i made it clear to them that they could store it here if it went up somewhere soon and they said they were too tired to do it today. so they would store it and come back.

ok well is sent this to them:

"hi lindsay

it's stephen here, my turn on the emails this month.

just to totally clarify the situation, are these receipts are for spending which exceeded the originally agreed budget of £50, as stipulated in the artist's info?

or are they the receipts for the original £50.98 you quoted in the original mail?

of course we will refund you the printing costs made to your account.

thanks for your response w/regards your work and the possibility of a mural, please keep us posted as to your availability for this project, we would be glad to see your work on the walls in future.

unfortunately we cannot offer any storage space for artist's work after the end of their exhibitions. As i'm sure you can imagine, in a thriving environment like the forest, space is at a premium, especially whilst the current phase of re-organisation occurs. so with this in mind, if you could make arrangements to collect your work as soon as possible and notify us as to your plans, that would be great.

all the best

stephen"

cool , nice to have clarification on this , this i would assume would be the same for artist in future , unless we agree otherwise . i think it would be good to make tis clear to the artists in the future that the space is run by volunteers and ultimately any stuff left has to cleared by us and if this is abused it ultimately cost us money for skips and shit to get rid of it , or it has be carried to tip . the gallery must be left as you found it , this is also with regards to your rubbish . if you have lots of cardboard left then take it down to the recycle bin etc

all sounds good

looks like its just the £50 its jusat they didn't have areciept for te van hire..

from their email they were planning to come in last night to pick the stuff up- di dthis go ahaead?

the cardboard was still there last night ,

ok cool.

we owe them the £50 pound budget plus £5.40 we used for printing stuff from their account.

it would be nice if we could meet them at some point to process the reciepts and grant them access to the balconies/help them shift the cathedral. i could meet them on sunday or monday, can anyone else do any sooner?

stuck some posters up and about to advertise the space today

steve could you post the poster here , i was thinking would could do a5 flyer for the cafe on selected days .

maybe one option of promotion is book marks ! ,a lots of people read in cafe

i also get the feeling the poster needs to be bigger on the mural wall .

lets blow it up!

ok here it is

that's a funny poster. that dude is very creative looking. i wish he was real so he could paint our walls!
r

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com