GillianLeeSmith

Well it has been quite a year - mostly good and when I look at all these images together I realise again how lucky I am to be following the path that I am on. A creative life, and one in which I am free to pursue my own aesthetic rather than being bound by other's ideas of what I should be doing.

It is strange in a sense as only the other day I was wondering (not for the the first time) at the fact that I have not pursued a career in costume design (my degree was in Performance Costume). I had a lovely and very forthright gentleman challenge me at the recent gift fair I exhibited at - he was wondering why my designs were not 'in convent garden, in a theatre..on the stage somewhere' - he was looking at my Baroque Baroque print as we were discussing this. I guess I did not really have an answer for him - except to say that this is the journey I am on. It was almost comical as he was a businessman and kept throwing questions at me - what about if I got my doll's mass produced abroad, or charged £200 for a print - why weren't my originals 10 or even 20 times the price.

God bless him, a lovely man with the best intentions at heart and wanting to see artist's making a decent living. But all I could say to him was that I was happy with how my career was progressing, I could never have someone else producing my art dolls. Everything I offer to people who wish to support me in my art and own a piece for themselves...everything has been made by my very own hands and I want to keep it that way no matter what. I may never earn a fortune but every stitch on every doll is stitched with my hands.

On this path, I get to paint one day, stitch the next, tell stories the next. I am working to no-one else's deadline but my own (meeting deadline's has never been my strongest point!) I am creating my own story and who know's where it might take me. Perhaps I will return to costume design at some point, perhaps not but I am open to whatever might happen!

The most important thing for me is that I recognise myself in everything I make, that all my work is a perfect reflection of me and my character and aesthetic and this little mosaic makes me smile when I see all the details together, the colours, the textures, the age-old feel - I can't wait to keep creating in 2009!

So if that gentleman is reading this - just know that I got alot of pleasure in speaking to you, it was great fun and certainly challenged me in lots of ways. I do appreciate the time you took out of your day and that you do have an appreciation for the arts and artists. But I did learn something - mostly just how important it is to remain true to myself and to carry on creating for me in the hope that other's will appreciate what I make and desire a piece of that for themselves - that is what makes this all worthwhile after all.