The reason I'm posting a blog is to keep a diary of what's happening in my life to allow me to better evaluate what the hell I'm doing. So here's where I start.. I guess. 

I think it's a good place to start to tell you a bit about who I am and what I'm about. I feel extremely  self indulgent in writing about myself, but I'm figuring it's my blog so I'll have to get over that. Ok, so I'm Paul. I live not far from London and I'm an Artist/Animator/Creative Type. The past few months have seen a lot of change in my life, with the end of a long term relationship that has shaped me to be who I am today. 

Such change created a lot of questions about what I wanted to do and where I wanted things to go, etc.. Having the freedom to spend my time indulgently, coupled with trying to straighten my thoughts, meant I turned to my creativity like I'd never done before. I wasn't working, so it allowed me to be productive and gave me time to reflect on things. I tried a lot of different things both in my art and outside, and got a cracking tan. :)

This was when I stopped creating to try and please others, and did it because I love the process of creating. I love to experiment. I even love it when things go wrong. (excluding technical wrongness, obviously). And so I tried a whole bunch of stuff, from drawing, to painting, building things in the forest, to carving,  to mosaic, video, photography, or whatever I wanted at the time. I was creatively spoilt.

As my savings dried up I had to think of a way to continue doing what I loved, and so I started selling my work online via facebook. I realised that if I wanted to succeed in the art field I'd have to commit to earning crap money for a lot of hard work, and so decided to try and earn minimum wage through selling paintings. My reasoning being that I'd sooner be painting for minimum wage than serving coffee or working in an office (the irony). And so I started a facebook group called 'ARTWORK for ALE', where I began accepting commissions for paintings for any value, so long as it was enough for a beer (In a London bar, mind).

So this took of reasonably well and I received a decent amount of commissions for prices ranging from £10 to £100. However I found myself spending far, far too long on each piece because I needed and wanted to please each one of them. In other words, it wasn't bringing home the bacon.

Around about now I was enjoying a drink with some friends around East London's Brick Lane, where a lot of trendy types like to hang out when the sun is shining. I was poking fun at a friend for wearing plimsoles (as I'd counted dozens of pairs of the things on skinny-jean-clad, cardigan wearing individuals). James (plimsole boy), said he'd paid £30 for his white plims from topman. I took my pen out and drew some funky pattern on the side of his shoe. He said I should sell them. So I did.

I found a supplier, and started doodling. Once I had a few pairs done, I put together a bit of branding and posted some info on the ARTWORK for ALE group I had set up before-hand. The beauty of it was that I could sell the same plims that everyone was wearing, charge them the same price they were paying in topman/topshop, they'd get a unique pair of shoes, and I'd still make minimum wage! 

And so I did the usual... set up a myspace (www.myspace.com/pimpmysoul_uk), researched competition, and sold some shoes. This was when it got exciting. A friend had sent me a link to a customised shoe exhibition that was looking for artists. I emailed the woman with some links to what I had done (including some youtube videos I had made where I did some designs). She got back to me saying she was impressed and we ended up talking. It turned out that she'd received a fair wedge of funding to throw a one night show anywhere in London. It was in it's early stages and the woman had to work full time at her business. So, being excited at the opportunity, and seeing as she was asking me to help out, I ended up taking the reigns and organising pretty much the whole event. I hand picked 30 amazing artists, some I knew personally, some I didn't. I went to see the space at The Gallery, Soho, and it was plush. I was excited to see some of banksy's work locked away upstairs, as he has a share in the gallery. (I hate name dropping, but banksy is an idol of mine, so soddit). I publicised the event online and even made a promo video to be included in the publicity e-bundle (or whatever you want to call it).. lol.

Anyhow, the shoes were coming in from across the world, I'd organised live artists, music, gallery layout, press and booze, and the only thing I had no control over was the budget. So you could say I was a little disappointed when four days before the show, I get an email from 'the lady' saying that the show had gone way over budget and was cancelled. I called the gallery manager and he said he couldn't remember meeting her and that she had not placed down the deposit she said she had. I could've got her with a custard pie right there and then.

I can't tell you what I wrote in the reply to her email, but luckily I never sent it. And I haven't heard from her since. I guess I learned from it, however at the time I was devastated. And the shoe thing fell on it's arse because the last thing I wanted to do was be active selling shoes on facebook after letting all my artist friends down. So what did I do? I shoved the boxes of plimsoles under my bed and switched to YouTube.

I think I'll pick this up another time...

Bye now :)