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Happy New Year! This piper was one of the original objects in my 10 X 10 cabinet. It has remained there ever since the project was first launched a couple of years ago.

Perhaps someone will exchange him in the coming year if 10 X 10 goes on the road again.

I'm looking forward to a creative 2011. I'm currently working on a new piece celebrating my late Grandmother's life, having spent my first Christmas without her.

February 2011

I'm very pleased to have been asked to be part of an exhibition called home which will take place at Core Gallery in October/November of this year.

www.coregallery.co.uk/current-exhibition

home is curated by Rosalind Davis and Annabel Tilley, two artists whose work I admire. I'm flattered to be asked to exhibit alongside them and the other artists taking part in the show.

www.rosalinddavis.co.uk

www.annabeltilley.moonfruit.com

A lot of my work revolves around the theme of home, in particular in relation to family. Working for many years with vulnerable families both in their own and in residential care homes, I gained valuable insight into the importance of home – however chaotic, however dysfunctional, the age old saying that 'home is where the heart is' seemed to remain true.

Home has always been very significant for me personally. As the child of a Scottish father, returning 'hame' was an important part of my Dad's life. My Grandmother lived in the same house for over 70 years and her home became hugely significant in helping to keep a large extended family together, particularly at Christmas time.

I recently paid a visit to Weston Colville, the place that was home to me for the first 15 years of my life. My Grandmother lived the entire 102 years of her life in this small Cambridgeshire village and I had been asked by the arts organisation Inspire to talk about my experiences and memories of growing up there. This is in the run up to a workshop I will be presenting in April 2011 based around their Sharing Stories project. westoncolvillestories.org.uk

I visited the ancient church yard while I was there and as well as the sadness of my Grandmother no longer being alive, what also struck me was how serene and peaceful the churchyard felt, how connected I felt to the place through the names on the grave stones – members of my family, both immediate and more distant, past neighbours and friends; many of them born and bred in the village and then buried in a familiar churchyard.

April 2011

I visited the village of Weston Colville in Cambridgeshire to run a workshop as part of Inspire's Sharing Stories project. The workshop revolved around memory and objects. To read the story of an inspiring day click here

I'm very pleased to have been selected for Artside 2011 in Southend-on-Sea. This year's theme is pause and my contribution will be an interactive piece called Stop Look Listen.

I will be there on the first two Saturdays (2nd and 9th July). Look out for the sign. For more details visit the Artside website here

On Sat July 9th the Stop Look Listen sign will be on display from 12 - 5 pm at a market stall in Elmer Approach (near Venue 10 on Artside map)

You are invited to give your own personal response to Stop Look Listen. What would you want to Stop? Ask people to Look at? Listen to? Fill in the postcards and share it with the people of Southend.

Glad to see so many people (both adults and children) taking part and the thoughtful and considered way in which they filled in the postcards.

Some chose to respond to Stop Look Listen as part of a bigger picture; their messages reflecting what was going on globally at the time. Other people's messages were more personal to them.

Below are just some of the messages that people left. Thanks to everyone who took part.

Stop moaning
Look at what you already have
Listen to your mother

Stop talking on your mobile phone
Look at the person next to you
Listen to them

Stop counting
Look at the big picture
Listen in silence

Stop stealing bags
Look and see how beautiful life is
Listen to good advice

Stop worrying about it
Look at the clouds
Listen to the birdies

Stop disillusionment
Look at life as fun
Listen to people but draw your own conclusions

Stop Rupert Murdoch
Look what his newspaper did
Don't Listen to people's voicemail!

Stop and think what you had
Look at what you lost
Listen to me for once

Stop phone hacking
Look at what's happening in Somalia
Listen to ways we can help

Stop worrying
Look at the flowers and slugs
Listen to music

Stop being sad and miserable
Look at the beauty around you
Listen to Radio 4 BBC! Very calming and inspiring.

Summer's officially over today and autumn has begun. I moved studios over the summer - just over the road to Core Gallery on Creekside. The summer months were busy - I managed to see the Tracey Emin exhibition at The Hayward a couple of times (so much to take in!) and to visit and donate to The Museum of Broken Relationships in Soho.

I was also invited to submit images of my art work to Rise Art and its Board of Curators. I've been introduced to some brilliant new art through it and have discovered an enthusiastic, responsive community to which I already feel connected. I've enjoyed the process of being involved and this week I was really pleased to be contacted by the curators who told me that I have been shortlisted for consideration as one of their Select Artists.

Other than that, I've been sorting and sifting for pretty much all of the summer. It's been a cathartic process and taking a decision to have less stuff in the studio has been a positive one and means that I can see the wood from the trees. I'm feeling freed up and being amongst some truly talented artists at Core has been inspiring. I've been working on a piece for the home exhibition and my work for the Sharing Stories project in Weston Colville has also gone full circle, ending last weekend with a lovely day of celebrations in the Reading Room.

And so, to the autumn… it's Deptford X time again - the launch is on this coming Friday evening and the impending Open Studios means my new space is in some sort of shape. Although there is still lots of stuff in boxes in one corner of the studio, I've managed to create the space to press on with The Fabric of Life, a piece of work which I've recently resurrected. It's a big piece of work in all senses of the word and it had begun to give me headaches!

So far, so good - it's not finished but I'm enjoying the process of creating it and putting it together. I've put in a lot of intense working hours at the studio this week. I feel a bit like a virtuous student in the first few weeks of term!

November 2011

So much has happened in the last two months! I will write about the home exhibition in due course. In the meantime, I've started a blog on the a-n Artists Talking website. It's called Keeping It Together and the first post explains at least part of what's been going on. You can read it here...

http://www.a-n.co.uk/link/katemurdochs-blog