The Start

Well... there seems to be so much going on, maybe a blog will help make sense of it all. I will start with the birth of The Sugar Project till today and update from there.

The idea for The Sugar Project came in November 2009... I had just painted and sold a skull which started life as a Halloween decoration, a vase of artificial flowers from a romanitc evening with Dave and an eBay frame which was unsuitable for the project it had been intended for. At the same time my mum was talking about raising money to save the hospice that my dad had died in from closing. I felt bad that I wasn't willing to run 10 miles, or convince the mum's at the school gate who I struggle to talk to anyway, to sponsor me... then it struck me that I knew maybe 20 tattoo artists... if each of them would paint a skull for me and each of those sold for £30, I could easily make £600 for the hospice... maybe more if I auctioned them!

I guess when I get an idea, I have to start it there and then or never at all...75% of my ideas don't make it to completition... I'm looking to improve on this much in the same way that the local tip looks to increase it's monthly percentage of recycled waste. It seems to be working, The Sugar Project is the most successful of all my brainchilds to date! As with all good ideas I ran it by Dave first. He will either laugh at me or make suitably positive noises... neither can stop my mission but he has a creative mind and often makes the best of my ideas. I think I was a little suprised he was so positive about it, and maybe that is what gave me the confidence to make The Sugar Project what it is now. Even I was a little unsure about how painting skulls to help cancer patients would be received... but I have always loved the sentiment behind the Mexican festival "The Day of the Dead" and this all seemed to fit in with that really nicely.

Have you ever tried buying a polystyrene skull a week after halloween? The most I could find was 6, all far more expensive than I had anticipated. I called a few suppliers direct thinking I was being clever... nothing! no re-orders until January. This did not suit my now or never frame of mind. I felt a little disheartened... but I had foolishly already blabbed about my idea on my favourite forum... I already had artists signing up, I wasn't about to give up now. Within a week I had rescaled the project and was placing an order for 80 skulls from a very nice chinese lady named Bobo. As I wired far more money than I had intended investing in this project (borrowed from my mum!... how old am I?!) to a small halloween decorations factory in Beijing, I quietly shat myself... maybe this was taking the idea too far? Could I really get that many artists to paint for me? would I really be able to sell them all? ...did Bobo really exist?

Well, it was too late for that... order placed, I started contacting artists... this was now a little bigger than I had planned. If all these skulls were really going to sell I was going to have to make sure people wanted them and the only way to do that was to ask the biggest names I could think of. I made a list of about 50... of those 50, maybe 20 of the artists I asked said yes! The snowball effect that happened from there has litterally had my head spinning for months. The more artists I asked, the more artists started contacting me... I love writing lists, but they're never particuarly useful... more often than not my lists are predominantly made up of things that I have already done so that I can feel good about ticking them off... for once my lists had a purpose and without them I was lost!

The skulls took nearly a month to arrive and I set about the arduous task of priming 80 of them white. Between the school runs, nappy changes and sleepless nights (at this stage Daisy is just 5 months old), I managed to paint 8 a day with 2 coats. By about the 40th coat I was already sick of the sight of skulls... this did not bode well for a skull project and 120 more coats of paint to go! I ordered boxes and bought myself a printer... everything was looking remarkably well planned! The polystyrene skulls meant they were light and therefore cheap to post enabling me to send them all the way to America for no more than £3 a time. The only thing that got in my way was lack of arms and the snow. I could only carry 2 boxes at a time so after the 40th trip to the post office I was begining to wish I hadn't bothered. What with snow and arms and things... my house was not skull free until the start of the new year... cutting things a little tight as I had set the deadline to return the painted skulls by Feb 1st!

January seemed like such a long wait... I don't think I can really describe the feeling when the first skull arrived. It was the work of Jan Moat... and he has done far more with the skull than I had ever imagined. I had expected people to paint some tattoo flash on them, a custom design maybe... I just hadn't even considered what happens when you give a tattooist a blank polystyrene skull and tell them to do whatever they like with it! Jan had cut bits out, stuck bits on, remoulded bits, sprayed it, painted it... what he returned was a robo-cop-esq creation, far better than I could have hoped for. Now each time a box arrives in the post my tummy does a little wibble. I open the box slowly, hoping to make the moment last, it's christmas every day. I read the artists sheet first, then I check the name that they have given their creation to see if it gives me any clue to what delight lays ahead. Then I unwrap it, wiggle happily and send Dave a photo on my phone.

Three other very important things happened within this time that I have not had a chance to mention.

Thing 1: The Brighton Convention. So, having not seen Woody since Brighton the year before, we caught up for a long over-due lunch and I had a chance to share my plans with him. Not only did he think it was a great idea... but if I was willing to organise the art Gallery at the Brighton Convention for him in January... he would be willing to sponsor the project, paying for the advertising and providing me with exhibition space for the skulls at the Convention. Of course I would have been stupid to say no... this could be the only way I may actually shift them! Did I have time to organise all this? of course not! ...well I must have done... because amazingly the convention came and both the gallery and the exhibition happened. Not only did they happen, but they happened well! With Dave's help the pictures were hung, the skulls (which had only started arriving the week before) were mounted on neat little oak plinths and the noises people made were very encouraging. 48 completely individual skulls all beautifully painted and crafted... the Sugar Project was actually happening! Brighton itself... was great. I have been a number of times, but being involved as I was this time was a wholely different experience. I met so many good people. Kind, helpful, supportive people. I cannot wait for next year... as The Sugar Project now has an anual spot at Brighton I guess I will be running the Sugar Project every year!

Thing 2: The book. Syman Kaye, who is Daves best freind has been taking studio photos of all the skulls for me (I can paint but I couldn't take a photo if my left foot depended on it). It was Dave who came up with the idea... the final list of artists hit 70. With that many proffessional photographs of such a unique collection of art, why not put together a book? The book idea is still very much in the making. I want it to happen... but I've never published a book before... I have the artwork and the page layouts. But I will need sponsorship and a monkeys clue of how to go about getting a book published. I'm still working on this.

Thing 3: The skeleton. At some point I decided, actually, a week before Christmas, I decided what the exhibition needed was a full sized skeleton... broken down and painted by different artists, then reunited to be the centre piece of the exhibition. I didn't discuss this one with Dave because I knew he would say it was too late! With the kind generosity of Brim from New Rose Tattoo in Cardiff... he sponsored the skeleton and within days "Juxtapose Jack" was on my doorstep. Getting artists to commit this late in the day was not an easy task. Phil Kyle took the head, Leah Moule took the pelvis, Gerry Carnelly took the left leg and Paul Naylor took the right leg. I won't say who took the arms... because what they returned (having virtually begged for them) as we were packing the exhibition away, was half done and quite literally rubbish. Despite this... Juxtapose Jack looked great and his purpose will be far greater than I had planned. Once I have turned his ribs into a bird cage and found a new artist to take on the arms, Juxtapose Jack will be getting, a myspace, a facebook and a passport (he may even get his own cardboard coffin!). Once complete, Justapose Jack will be travelling around the UK doing guest spots at different studios to advertise The Sugar Project. His myspace and facebook albums will be full of photographs of his travels. He will be be for sale at a fixed price of £1000 or will eventually go for auction. I would like to discuss the details of this with Brim who sadly has had far too much on his plate lately x.

I think that pretty much brings us up to date. Currently there are 20 skulls left in the ether awaiting return. This week I have sent out the press release to as many magazines and newspapers that I could think of. All I have left to do is panic about selling all 70 of them for what they are worth.

The ebay auctions will start on March 22nd. They will start 10 a day on the hour from 3pm till midnight for 1 week... then I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens! Fingers crossed it's a success.