Ticket Master Challenge is Too Much for Most People

Change is my theme of the moment. I am really struggling with the reality that I can't read small print. And for once it's not about the numbers. It's about the print, or should I say the size of it.  And the poor light. I am now one of those people who, clutching my illuminated magnifying glass, complain that the Guards are getting younger, and that children are running the Banks. 

So, I decided to get a bigger stand at the RDS Art Fair.  You can argue with yourself that this is a non sequitur, and that for some other reason, I  have moved a few feet away from where I said I'd be.  Well, of course you are right, and my bigger spread has little to do with my need for reading glasses and more to do with my love of the grand scale. I am now at stand B7 (it is still at the back left-hand corner).
 
But some changes do remain constant. And this year again, with a few days to go, it is decided that the Ticket Master Challenge is Too Much for Most People and the RDS has agreed to let people print this email as a valid entrance to the Art Fair.  

So here it is. You will need one separate 'ticket' for each person in your party, but that's it. There are two tickets on this page. You can stop struggling with the passwords and codes and once she's printed the two tickets for you, you can send that nice ten year-old helper on her way.   Or bring her along to the Art Fair,
hope to see you all there,
Mary

Wexford Art in the Open

During the recent August Bank Holiday weekend, I took part in one of my favourite events of the year, Wexford's En Plein Air Festival for artists. Read more about it here

What I did with your money

When I was snowbound I got a great idea. The idea was that I spend your money and become an international financier. So that is what I have done. I have taken your money, and invested it in entrepreneurial projects on two continents. Let me explain.

It all started with the snow, and the delicious adventure of being icebound, housebound and self-reliant for about ten days after Christmas.  I decided to re-design my website and yes, get my life in order. The hours ran into days, the days into weeks, the weeks into months....Seemed like such a simple task, at first.
By March, I had finally completed writing my 'To Do' list. There was nothing for it, but to tackle each item head on. I had several older entries (16 altogether).  I knew they were all excellent ideas (once upon a time), but it seems I had written them in a mysterious code. The first was "Look in 2 Kiva". I considered this might be shorthand to get a kitten, but I had to resort to Google to decipher it. Now that I have, I realize that this word concerns you.
This is how I learned that  Kiva is a simple organization that allows people to lend money to other people across the whole wide world. Simply. Easily. Effectively. 
And where do you come in...  Remember my calendar? I hoped it would be self-financing and it was and then some. In fact, by the end of December,  I had quite a surplus, about €400. Much of your money came in from across the world via PayPal and it was my first real experience of electronic payments and together with the rolled up tenners in brown envelopes I was off. And it was just magical.
Once I had decided how to spread the magic of your dosh, within a few minutes I made an investment in a business inParaguay,  and by tea time, I completed a deal in Cambodia. You can read more and get details about Kiva below.
But what about the painting I hear you ask? Am I not doing any painting anymore? Well, yes, I am doing a bit. Quite a bit, even. I have been working on a number of portraits, and I even made a few videos available on my website of work in progress. (It did snow rather a lot.)
I have also been sending off a load of small pieces to the Old Market House Arts Centre in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, where Assumpta Nugent has been selling paintings like hot cakes.
 The latest on my organizational binge is that I bought an iPhone. It hasn't solved my problems, but it makes me desirous of having two heads instead of one...
with warm regards to you and yours,

Become an international financier yourself.  

Kiva's website 

There is something really nice to be able to lend out this surplus in places where $100 is a fortune. And you can do it electronically, with PayPal (which offers its services free).

Try it yourself! Go to Kiva's website and lend to someone across the globe who needs a loan for their business - like raising goats, selling vegetables at market or making bricks. Each loan request has a description of the business and how they plan to use the loan and you get updates letting you know how its all going.

When the entrepreneur pays back their loan you get your money back - you can lend again, donate to Kiva's running expenses or take it back yourself. Kiva's loans are managed by microfinance institutions on the ground who have a lot of experience doing this, so you can trust that your money is being handled well.

Since I made the loans with your money  in March, one has already been repaid. Being an international financier is good for the soul in these recessionary times. You can join me and start small if you like....you can loan as little as $25.00! 

I love this "nook".. my petite office space on the east side of the house. It gets lovely light as the sun rises - the time I best like to work- and it has replaced decades spent with makeshift desks and drawers made from old crates and doors.  It was a guest room that didn't work... our guests outgrew the bunk bed style double that fitted into this spot I call now my nook. The only bits that don't work is my  filing cabinet that requires two hands to open it, and because I have none, I am open to suggestions on that one! I also  got two very long drawers that I call the "coffin spaces".. They are two metres long, and run the length of the desk, under the keyboard. They are very difficult to open. There is so little space that I could not have drawers under the desk without moving out my chair out of the space entirely.

A view of my "Nook"

Have You Won My Painting?

Winners Rebecca and Sharon Carey

I have had one of the scariest experiences of my life. I have been reading through all the entries that you have sent. I have been in awe of the long ones, and short ones, laughed at the funny ones, and gawped at a perfectly weird one... and of course, I have loved them all. 

However, I had to choose, and for a while I was terrified. How was I going to choose? How could I be fair? How could I have promised only one prize? 

I resisted the temptation to have someone else choose... because that really wouldn't be fair - I promised to chose not great writing, not a great story, but based on my heartfelt response. And, I have had quite a few heartfelt responses to the entries. I have tried to explain to myself why this one and not that one, but I can't explain it. It's a feeling, and all I can say is that some of the entries really touched me. They weren't all particularly clever, or well-written....(sorry, folks, but I was innundated with beautifully written prose, clever poetry and lovely short stories, and for me, the top entries were not in these categories). 

There was a wide variety of paintings selected by you, but only very few paintings were chosen by more than two people. This surprised me. And then of course I realised that just like there are many different paintings there are many different people. 

Today I have been engaged in the laborious task of putting these entries up on my website... 

But the task is going to have to wait a few days because, in the middle of it all, I got another surprise.... Today is the first of February! And I thought it was tomorrow... Did I ever tell you I am terrible with numbers, even simple ones, and I have a talent for over complicating things? 

A keen multiple entrant and a good friend, Frances "WHAT?????? Is it mid-night tonight January 31st, Or mid-night tonight, February First? Now forgive me for getting confus-ed I'd thought it the former And sweated To submit all my thoughts by that date... And all day today I've been waiting Watching the email alert Wondering why it was taking so long...?" Actually Frances wrote loads and loads and took my entreaty to enter often very seriously...(I lost count at the fourth)...And even with such beautiful entreaties, I have to be true to my promise..So, the winner is Rebecca and Sharon Carey from Newcastle in Wicklow. Rebecca, who is only five, had a joint entry with her mother, Sharon. When Rebecca first saw my paintings "Dark Lilies" (on a postcard) she declared that who ever painted it deserved a "trophy", and to this end she put pen to paper and "drew you one" writes Sharon. 

 And the prize painting is The Station House, Six Mile Point at Newcastle, Co. Wicklow.

And now, as it approaches midnight, sincere congratulations to Rebecca & Sharon... In a few days I will put the entries up on my website, but from me, tonight, goodnight.

These days I am struggling so often with graphic files, web updates and mp3 files, I wonder is there any time for painting?