Saturday 23 November 2013

Cash For Kids





A couple of months ago I was approached by artist Jimmy Mackellar who regularly attends the life drawing classes at WASPS Studios where I am based in Glasgow. Jimmy had an idea for a celebration of St Andrews day whereby Scottish artwork would be shown in a slideshow to the soundtrack of singer Agnes Munro performing "Caledonia".

A meeting was duly set and the project sounded simple enough. Agnes dispelled my fears about copyright as she has permission with regard to her performance. It was decided that we should try and do some good with this interesting little project and have since created a JustGiving page where viewers of the video can donate  to the Cash For Kids Christmas appeal.

I have blogged elsewhere about charity and art and how it is sometimes done in a manner that takes advantage of artists. This is mainly when artists are repeatedly asked to give away artwork. It becomes impossible to do, whereas if an amount is given to the artist, it allows them to keep giving. I fell foul of this again recently when I was asked to provide artwork for a very high profile charity event. I did not realise that I would have to give multiple paintings with less than usual commission coming to me and in the run up to the event I also gave to other charities. When I adviesd the high-profile event that I could only give them two pieces at the reduced rate and that it would have to be a 50/50 split on the remainder, they decided that they could not agree to this. Very frustrating - as a self employed person, it simply is not possible to give away that amount  repeatedly and yet certain people do not seem to "get" that in bolstering up their charities, they are making life difficult for artists. I know several artists who now just say "no" to everything but I don't want to fall into that category.

Since then, I have worked with another charity, which is very mindful of artists and they sold my artwork at an event which worked for both of us.

The Cash For Kids project was entirely different. All I have had to give was my time. Contacting artists and putting together the slideshow took a bit of time as I don't have a huge amount of experience in creating these slideshows. This project grew naturally and came about mainly because of Jimmy Mackellars passion for all things positive and Agnes Munro's willingness to help. They are both lovely people.

The slideshow has now been live for just 24 hours and the total is at over 200 pounds for Cash For Kids. I am surprised that more people don't make small donations. If all my Facebook friends gave just one pound, then there would be over 800 pounds by now. I guess however that there are so many charity projects that people cannot keep giving, even if it is a small amount - just as it is difficult for artists to give art freely on a repeat basis.

I hope people enjoy the video. - Please consider DONATING HERE

You can watch a larger version of the video on Youtube HERE