Well now I realised I hadn’t written for my blog for some time but didn’t realise just how long.
One thing you can be certain of is it’s not due to me doing nothing, in fact never been busier as an artist and person.
About the time of my last writing I had decided it was time to form a charity to create an arts centre in North Tyneside. I found four like minded folks and we started the process of forming a CIO ( Charitable Incorporated Organisation). If only it was as simple as it is to say. We had to create a constitution, sign us all up as trustees and then getting over the hard core hurdles of getting a bank account and being rubber stamped by the Charities Commission. Yet here we are in November and the bank account has just been granted. The process has taken the best part of a tree in paperwork thanks to all those money laundering buggers who have made business banking such a mine field to navigate now.
The Government website which is the only way to register a charity now, is well as one might expect less than perfect and often times out at the lest useful time. I have given up counting how many hours have been spent and wasted only to find out we couldn’t apply until the bank account was secured. However now in November I can look forward to a few more hours of doing battle with the Gov.uk beast.
Of course while that was all being tended to I was also starting therapy to treat my speech loss, managing the Happy Planet, my social enterprise gift shop, painting and before I forget organised and managed the very successful second community art exhibition Celebrating Seasons which took place in August.
I have kept painting and making in the meantime but have somewhat short of energy due to all of the above plus finally being diagnosed with FND, (Functional Neurological Disorder), which basically means bits of my brain aren’t communicating with my body the way they should. This could well account for my speech problems and certainly plays its part in my hand tremors, walking issues and well just general weirdness.
To summarise I think 2022 has been a bit of C+ year, I’ve had worse and I’ve had better. I’m aiming at making 2023 more of B+/A so I have set a few things in motion to facilitate that. I’m closing Happy Planet on Christmas eve in it’s in current format and won’t be re-opening until February after some refurbishment to more a gallery type space. I will be painting in the shop when it re-opens, and I will be hosting regular exhibitions. The rest of the details will follow in due course. For now it’s back to work, mounting and framing new work ready the new look business next year.
