It is over nine months since I wrote the last post here and I feel as if life and work have changed and developed without maintaining a record. Perhaps I doubt the validity of baring my soul to the world with the vain delusion of remaining private?
The internet induces us into new forms of behaviour as we constantly hear on the news. I must confess to feeling ambivalent. It is undoubtedly a generational thing for those of us who passed our formative years with pencil and paper. It is as if we pretend to be home-alone with our screens, exposing parts of our thinking and feeling whilst deluding ourselves that we are alone, when in fact we are on a worldwide network. The medium has obviously exposed a vulnerability in the human mammal which is deeply complex and private whilst we also have a herd inclination and instinct. Luckily I dont often suffer from loneliness despite living an isolated life and on the odd occasion when I venture out into the wider world, am amazed and somewhat appalled at the ways people behave and how we treat one another. No coincidence then, that I have wound up on this sea washed shore, a hundred miles from the nearest city.
Since last April, 2019, when I embarked on printmaking for ‘Bug Life’ I have continued my fund raising effort. They have a new website and an Anna Raven page;
As I write my total now stands at £911.90 and as I explained, I aim for £1000. The land fill tax, match funds all donations in a ratio of 10-1 so £10,000 is not bad as a contribution to the conservation of intervertbrates!My enthusiasm has led me from postcards to teacloths with fine art prints and one off tiles. One gallery has framed the tiles individually without the glass, another made shelves along which the tiles were propped. I had great success with eco warrior Christmas Shopping!
The big plan was to have an exhibition which would include a wall of tiles; fifty frogs by Charlotte Mellis shown alongside fifty of my beetles. I wrote a preposal entitled Endangered and was delighted to have it accepted. This time to be shown in a public space funded by Creative Scotland, a first for me. Sadly, despite my excitement and enthusiasm, the exhibtion was cancelled as I have had a woeful winter of illness and misdemenours and with the amount of work involved at short notice, I couln’t possibly have done it in time.During the couple of years that I have been making this work, I have experienced something new. I have been lucky to have had a very positive response from a wide selection of people, many of whom are not especially interested in painting. They have enjoyed the graphic imagery and the contribution to a cause they are enthusiastic to support. The positive response is enormously supportive but it is also confusing. Perhaps there is a place for both? I have really enjoyed fund raising for a cause I believe in and it is one way that with my skills, I can draw attention to an eminent crisis and encourage others to engage with it, without taking to the barricades.
In a recent news headline we were all warned of the demise of the natural world and in particular that of invertebrates. They are dying out at a more rapid rate than any other life form and we are hurtling towards a world with few pollinating insects. Surely this will be the end of the world as we know it?
Anna Raven | Artist's Notes 