Poor Artists is out in the UK AND North America 🍋

The book is now out in the UK and North America and things are going well. The reviews for Poor Artists have been almost exclusively really, really positive. More important than reviews are just normal people’s opinions and we’re getting the same message a lot – that people feel like we have given them permission to make art for themselves again, the way they used to, instead of making it for the sake of the art industry or in the pursuit of being a professional artist. We’ve had a lot of emotional emails from people. A lot of emotional chats after talks and interviews about the book with people who feel like their love of art became toxic, and now they’re trying to reconnect with this need to make things on their own terms. I’ve done a lot of travelling over the past two months for those events, and I hope we get to do lots more. It’s cool seeing it in shops, and especially nice that it is in so many bookshop window displays.

And yeah, I don’t think I will ever feel this again. How new and vast it all feels. I have been writing things to a big audience online for years but there is something aboout this being a book. Big pink block people take on train journeys. Lemon book that people are requesting for Christmas. Paper that people are drawing over, and annotating, and dropping in the bath. What I’ve noticed really fondly over these past two months is how many more messages we get about the book on Saturdays. I really like that this is part of people’s weekend plans. It makes me feel so good. Makes me feel like Quest in the final chapter of the book. Sheila telling her about art as an excuse to connect with other people, and how loving that is, and how – ugh – that’s all it needs to be. All it needs to do.

some film pictures :)