The views and opinions in this post may not be the views and opinions of Friction Arts, etc, etc

Yeah.  I’ve come to realise that, as ‘webmaster’ (mwahahahhaha, the power, the power), that, with this blogging thing, it’s easy to go off on one, like I did a bit yesterday.  It’s a good outlet for getting your frustrations out there, but I think it may be a little unfair to Sandra.  Any views expressed by myself can be no more than 50% of the views of Friction, and Sandra may be diametrically opposed (unlikely, but possible) to what I say.  So, basically, most of what you read here will be the opinions of Lee Griffiths, rather than Friction as a whole and may be personal, rather than company policy.

However.  Friction Arts is not an arts organisation, in any normal sense of the word.  Friction is Sandra Hall and Lee Griffiths, merely two artists, and the work they make (supported by some great people of course).  We haven’t got loads of staff, beavering away on our behalf – just us, Zara who supports us in the office, and then artists and freelancers we bring together to work on some of our projects.  Friction Arts is a ‘holding form’ for our work, it gives us a legitimacy that allows us to apply for funding and commssions that we wouldn’t be able to do as individual artists, as well as giving us protection should, god forbid, things go wrong.  I’m very aware that, as we tend to ‘punch above our weight’, that there is a perception that there are dozens of us, sucking up loads of funding and making loads of projects.  Well, we have been described as prolific on many occassions, but this is just a result of obsessional work habits and the fact that we love our work, it really is our raison d’etre, so it is a 24/7/365 thing for us.

Sandra and myself are also a couple, so the 24/7 thing really does apply.  If we are not making work, we are talking about it, organising it, developing it.  We’re just a couple of participatory art trainspotters really, we don’t have that much of a life outside the work – everything relates in some way – it’s quite sad really.

But am I complaining – am i ‘eck as like.  We have a truly wonderful life, we constantly meet people who inspire us, we have experiences that change us almost on a daily basis, we feel that what we do changes others, and we have so much fun in the process.  We are lucky little beggars, if this isn’t ‘having a life’, then who wants one?

Talking of wonderful lives, we had a lovely time on Sunday at our anti-christmas party, just ten or so of us, snuggled up on the sofas at the Edge, with It’s a Wonderful Life on the biiiig screen.  I hadn’t seen the film for years and it’s massive gorgonzolaness put tears in my eyes at the end.  What a great piece of art that film is.  So, in the New Year I’ve decided to start a film club.  We have a massive screen (as big as a commercial cinema), great projectors and a good PA, so we have what we need.  So, once a fortnight we’re going to show a film, open house style. so anyone can come.  We’re looking to show classics, like the aforementioned Capra epic, but we also want some obscure rarities that may be people’s favourites. And thats where you come in.  Please feel free to send in suggestions of fantastic films we could show – anything you like, (but no pornos, please, you know who you are), and we will endeavour to get hold of a copy and show it on the biiig screen sometime in the new year.  Either drop a comment here, or email lee@frictionarts.com and I’ll post a list of dates for the film club, once the festive season is over.

See you then.