Coming up ♥

Hello everyone, 

As of next week I will begin featuring artists on this blog. Some may come from my Desperate Artwives project; others will be artists I've met, or will meet, along the way. I believe that sharing and collaborating is a very important step along an artist's path. It enables you to experiment differently with your own work, creates debate and inspires and motivates new work. 

Since launching the DAW project I came across many artists from around the world with impressive artwork and amazing stories to tell. Women would get in touch with me sharing their life stories, their hopes and sometimes their desperation about finding the time to make art. Very often I've thought that the stories behind the works would make a good book! Obviously I haven't forgotten about them, in fact, some of them made such an impression that I was inspired to feature their work here. I could not wait any longer and last week I got in touch with a few and invited them to take part. I feel extremely excited and lucky to be able to introduce these incredible and awe-inspiring artists to you all. 

Please keep reading and spread the word!

Later on,

Amy x

Ps.If you're a visual artist and you think your artwork could be part of the Desperate Artwife blog I would like to hear from you! 

Peas in a Bucket ♥

One thing that I've found myself constantly doing since having children is picking things up from the floor. Not just random things, I mean toys around the house, clothes, books and food! Peas are the worst thing to pick up. You think you've got them all but then after a few days you find another one hiding in some obscure corner, dried and hard like a stone. I hate picking peas up so much it's put me off eating them.

I once counted how many times I'd repeated this same action in one day and was amazed to discover I actually bent down 219 times in 12 hours!

Who needs to work out? I thought. Well "Peas in a Bucket" comes from my awareness of these repetitive actions performed everyday, testing my physical limits and my psychological strength. Of course kneeling down 219 times a day sounds hideous but they’re spread out, so one doesn’t really register it’s happening.

In the film, I aim to gather those moments into one. I do it consecutively without stopping as a way to acknowledge the effort and struggle during my everyday and also to expose, in perhaps a more drastic way, how a simple and infrequent (for some) action like picking something from the floor can become so exhausting and tedious.

Amy Dignam 2013 ©