Hiya
Chagall's 'Acrobat and Church' I look at this from my bed everyday
There’s a lot going on. There was so much excitement and buzz after the festival, that I found myself inspired with a large number of new projects – and also presented with a large amount of opportunities…
I was a bit over-heated and dizzy with the rush of it all…
And it is great.
All positive.
But I am now spending the next couple of weeks sorting out the big fish from the small fry: That is to say, I am discerning what it is I really want to aim to catch: that is to say ‘what is my plan for next year, two years, four years?’…
I need to meditate a little on the deeper waters where the really valuable sea- creatures swim.
After performing (mingling one’s sensibilities with audience euphoria -well, hopefully! – getting into the media machine, meeting people with power to help further your ‘whatever’ -art, arse..) – after all this, I always feel I need to come down, come back, return to my sea view in bray… return to my sanity and common sense.
This week I am applying for busaries, funding, residencies…
This is almost going to be a full time job for the next couple of weeks.
- And it is really about what I am going to do for the next couple of years.
And that’s about, listening to my artistic aspirations – the practical and the soulful, the rooted and realistic, the financial and the fulfilling.
Actually, filling in these forms and making these applications is really helpful. It’s very grounding but also I am being asked to write many mission statements about the real purpose and benefits of the work I am doing. I am being asked to write very clearly about my intentions and and estimate how much time and money they will take.
This is invaluable.
1)I am writing a film and a novel.
2)I have a show that I am going to tour gently over the next year and a half.
3)I would like to record another album.
4)I am making a documentary of my Cabaret work (with a wonderful crew – the footage is already very lovely).
5)I am also painting (very slowly) some visions which have emerged directly associated and interdependent with my film and novel.
6)I also need to earn a living – which I am doing with life modelling – and also with my Cabaret act (there are a few very interesting and interested restaurants, venues and promotional opportunities).
All this needs to be looked at realistically, while acknowledging that my health has been fragile in the past and that I need to look after myself.
I know what I have written there looks huge and unrealistic. But here is the good news:
1.)The film is almost finished in its second draft form. I have a deadline to meet a film maker with it on Dec. 1st.
2) The novel. I have written the a good deal of the novel already and I have already made two applications for funding and residency support. I have decided that I can work on this from January-April of next year – almost full time.
3)The tour. The show is already basically there and ready to perform. I have two great musicians and a public ready to see me if I do a few basic things like keep my website and e mailing lists – and other ‘accessories’ going. I already have cool new photos for a poster, my boyfriend is a genius of a graphic artist - and I have already toured and done such hard work with ‘The Fallen Angels’ that Rose Lawless Cabaret is quite well known as being fun and enlightening in the areas I want to return to. I am applying for touring funding this Monday. I will do one show in December before Christmas, then go to a few places over the next 2009 from late April to the next September festival. This will not be aggressively full time – maybe a 2-3 shows a month – but it will be enough to make it vigorous and enjoyable. I will also have time to continue a couple of hours a day on my novel.
4)The recording. I have written many new songs since my last album, ‘The Passion of Rose Lawless,‘ three years ago. I feel that this was my first album and I have learned a lot since then. I would like to have more than one musician. The people I am now working with are very creative. It’s important I record the work. We are meeting once a week, as it is, to rehearse and create. – It will not make much difference to set aside some of those rehearsals for the recording process. I am also applying for a funding deadline for recording my music which ends this Monday. I feel that this will be a very mature and important album – one with more verbal jokes and wry statements between songs – one that I would like to take with me on a tour. My boyfriend again, can make nice graphics for it. And because I am applying for funding I will be able to pay him! good.
5)The documentary is something that seems to be happening almost by itself. Every time I do shows I get footage – so I already have a lot of content on reel. I have met wonderful people who are on the project with me. I am happy, as an actress, to have a camera follow me round and to be talking about what I love and know best. They are film people and will be motivated in their own interests to get the documentary seen. I would like the beautiful vision of why I do cabaret to be documented for philosophical and aspirational reasons.
Did I mention by the way that all these different mediums are interdependently supportive of one another – and help publicise one another? So that this really does become ‘La vie en Rose Lawless,’ -’ The Cabaret world of Rose lawless!’
6) The paintings. I have three of the paintings finished already. This is like therapy for me. I paint in tiny bits as I go along. It is like it is a process whereby I am discovering the visions of my internal creative pulse. All these paintings are essential visually to the film script I am writing and form a part of the story. There is no rush to complete them. Like the tortoise, I do them a brushstroke or two at a time. One took three years to finish. Another took two years. I used to paint them in a day – or a few hours. Now these longer abstract works are slow marathons – but they manifest enduring visions which continue to describe some deep eternal longing in my soul – in other words, they are somehow immortal for me -As I feel the film script and novel is also meant to be. My plan is to give a month or so during the summer (leave space during the six month music tour – probably July) to really immerse in painting.
7)EARNING A LIVING. Yes, I need to earn a living. I am doing life modeling still, thank god – which is a place I can rest in meditation, meet nice artists, be inspired by their work, hide from the harsh acting community..
I can also find a Cabaret gig to do once a week. There are a few options brewing. This will be good for us as musicians, aiming to both create a show and establish a name for ourselves. It will bring a bit of money. And it’s great for a Cabaret singer to be singing. That’s the whole point. As I said, there’s a few places interested. I’m in the discerning process. And so are they. I don’t want to do gigs every night because I need alone time to write and paint. I’m looking for a balance. I have a business card, so gigs and promotional events can come my way with the website etc (which ladies and gentlemen, you know I keep up to date). I have a standard fee which will establish a steady and dependable financial side of the art.
Also, I’ve started to write articles (another one is coming out in December called, ‘Life is a transcendental Cabaret’ – check out Positive Life magazine) and I am also beginning to do workshops again – check out Buddha Bag in Oscailt on October 23rd (www.buddhabag.org).
So there are different things going on which help support me on my less lucrative projects. I’m used to being broke anyway. So I’m not too worried.
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THAT’S IT. Anyway, it’s a big business – but it’s my work. I’m making the applications over the next few weeks – and I’ll be practical and flexible and follow where the apples fall. I’ll publish this now, warts and all and it can be a kind of blueprint for me for my next year’s itinerary. There are other longer projects and objectives for a more longterm plan (like a book of short stories which has been germinating for a very long time!) - but that’s enough for now.
love rose xxx