Do Lectures dream update

In the two weeks since finishing my Do Lectures inspired animation I have been mulling over how I could come up with the £1000 ticket money I need (forgetting about travel etc which I'll need on top). There have been a few days I've felt like just damning the consequences and whacking it on my credit card but that didn't seem like a particularly sensible solution (particularly as my finances are not exactly in a blissful state as it is). I thought about getting all my completed art pieces up for sale on Folksy (which I've been meaning to do for months) but then I can't guarantee I'll sell any pieces let alone sell them quickly enough to secure a ticket to Do Lectures before they sell out.

Last week I came up with a crazy but possible solution and tweeted my proposal:

If someone gives me £1000 now, I'll donate £100 per month for the next year to a charity of their choice.

That would means someone's favourite charity would get £1200 (plus gift aid) over the course of the next 12 months. Unsurprisingly no-one responded to my tweet but then today one of my close followers sent me a Direct Message which simply said:

"I'll give you £100; can you find 9 more?"

So I sprang into action and set up a mechanism whereby folks can make a donation to me via Paypal (I wanted to use JustGiving.com but you need to specify a charity upfront for that to work)

The idea is simple: instead of one person giving me all the money I need, ten folks give me £100 each and their charity of choice gets £120 (plus gift aid) in return within the next year.

I tweeted this new idea and waited ... so far *nothing* but then I tweet a lot so it would be easy for folks to miss the idea even if they follow me quite closely.

If anyone would like to help out then they can use the PayPal 'Donate' button on the lefthand side of this blog. If I get ten people donating £100 then I'll buy a ticket to Do Lectures and make a payment to a charity of each person's choice as per my plan above. Each person will also get sent an original doodle which I'll do for them while I'm at the Do Lectures. If tickets to Do Lectures sell out before I reach my target of £1000 then I'll give donors a choice of taking their money back or letting me go ahead and donate the money to a charity of their choice (but without my extra amount on top) - they'll still get a doodle from me to say thanks :-)

If I get anyone donating less than £100 then I'll donate to a charity of their choice with 10% added on top and they'll get a doodle too.

Theoretically I already have my first donation of £100 pledged by the person who gave me this idea ... so that's just £900 left to raise, hoorah!!

I dream of Do Lectures

A couple of weeks ago I was (once again) drooling over the Do Lectures website and wondering how I might be able to afford/justify spending the £1000 I don't have on buying a ticket. Suddenly I spotted a single line on their tickets page "There is one special [free!] ticket going to someone who can create the best Do inspired animation." I had never really even thought about doing an animation before let alone actually sat down and made one but doing so seemed to be the only way I would have a chance of getting to attend the Do Lectures so I got to work. Two days later this is what I'd made:

Do Do Do Do Do animation from Helen Harrop on Vimeo.

I never imagined that my first ever attempt at animation would be good enough to win the free place so I wasn't too distraught when I got the 'it's lovely but' email back. The feedback from Claire was really encouraging and I was *thrilled* to see it featured on the Do Blog a couple of days later :-) The thought that it might inspire someone else to have a go is fab ... please do share your efforts with me if you do :-)

Happy Mothers Day

imperfect beauty, originally uploaded by creating in the dark.

Daffodils are my Mum's favourite flowers - everytime I see one it reminds me of her :-) Happy Mothers Day to my Mum who is more than 200 miles away but very much in my thoughts today :-)

angels want to wear my red shoes

red shoes [close up]
Originally uploaded by creating in the dark

About a year ago when I painted a picture of my favourite red shoes I would never have dared to dream that someone would buy the painting. Then I was invited to exhibit my work at the Round Foundry Media Centre in Leeds and a few weeks after it went up I got the exciting news that someone was interested in buying my red shoes painting!

Going on [creative] safari for charity

Today is pretty historic for the world of social media ... 175+ cities across the world are hosting Twestivals and will all be twittering away about it as they raise money for Charity: Water. I'm heading along to support the Leeds Twestival and have also donated a prize to the raffle.

I've described the prize as "A half-day Creative Safari (a volunteer tour guide will take you on a tailor-made expedition to explore your creativity)" ... in a nutshell I'll be spending half a day with the lucky winner and dragging them at high-speed on a whistle stop tour of art galleries and other interesting places in Leeds. Along the way I'll be forcing them to brush off their creative skills by doodling and playing with words. I just hope the person who wins likes walking and eating cakes because there will be plenty of that.

I would love to raise more money for Twestival so I've got a plan ... if you like the sound of spending half a day getting in touch with your inner child then donate £50 to Charity: Water and then get in touch with me. The deal is that if I come to Leeds you also cover my travel (let's call it a tenner) ... if you want to come to York instead then you just pay for your own travel. We'll each buy any refreshments out of our own pockets :-) ... simple!

... And just to make it really interesting ... If you donate £100 or more to Charity: Water then I'll spend the whole day with you :-)

Let the magical mystery creativity tour begin!!

Notes from behind the curtain

On 11th January I spotted a tweet from @nmeth on Twinkle which read: "York Light Opera need backstage people for 2 weeks in Feb at York Theatre Royal" - In a rare moment of decisiveness I sent a message back saying that I might be free ... Nigel put me in touch with David Pumfrey and just under a month later I found myself backstage at York Theatre Royal for the first full dress rehearsal of 42nd Street. I couldn't remember anyone's names, I didn't know any of the backstage lingo, couldn't make head nor tail of the set notes and was petrified that I'd get in the way or generally show myself up as the newbie I was.



Against all odds I enjoyed every nerve wracking minute and after three nights I'm already starting to feel quite at home ... I even know what 'paging the blacks' means ... and will get it right next time! :-)

Tonight I've got a night off because I'm heading to the Leeds Twestival and I can already tell that I'm going to miss those hours spent in the shadows waiting for the next flurry of activity and trying to protect members of the cast from being run over by the fast moving 'treads' (trans: staircase)

The Element (by Ken Robinson) is mine all mine

I put Ken Robinson's new book, The Element, onto my Amazon wishlist the moment I saw it was being published. When I saw it was on special offer at less than half the full price it got immediately promoted to my shopping basket ... can't wait for it to arrive!