To celebrate this shiny new website fresh out of the box, I want to share a couple of inspirational highlights from 2013 which stopped me in my tracks… The first was the series of three lectures on art by Grayson Perry, former winner of the Turner prize, given as part of the Reith Lecture Series broadcast on BBC Radio 4. If you think that sounds rather formal and dry, take a listen on the BBC iplayer (link below) and I think you will find what Grayson has to say is very funny, incisive, entertaining and full of gems of wisdom about the art world. The man (above in a frock) is quite simply, a genius!

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes

The other “art truth” that caught my ear recently, was again in the form of words, not images, and came from one of the nominated artists from this year’s Turner Prize, Lynette Yiardom-Boakye, pictured below in her studio. I have transcribed it from her commentary to a short video about her work, so it might not be word perfect, but she is basically commenting on the business of being an artist… “It is like running a marathon with people standing alongside and clapping. It’s great and makes you feel good, but you still have to keep running, maybe forever. There is no finishing line.” I know exactly what she means!