[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-grayson-perrys-reith-lectures":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"I'm a big fan of artist \u003Cb>Grayson Perry\u003C/b>, who has been delivering a series of four lectures on BBC Radio 4, called \u003Cb>The Reith Lectures\u003C/b>. Today's lecture was so good that I made Stuart listen... and then drew a picture of him in our lounge, musing on the subject:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/10698175534_767706c8ce_o-ed8d4f117d.gif\">\\r\n\\r\nGo listen to the four talks if you can. Grayson Perry is a rare combination of so many good things: a proper hard-working craftsman, an innovator, a good speaker with a sense of humour, a businessman, a very sensible person, and a showman with a wonderful sense of dramatic flair. A lot of what he says applies to working in the field of illustration, and I might write more about that later. But for now, just \u003Ca href=\"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00729d9\">go have a listen\u003C/a>. (You can even read the transcripts online, but the audio versions are more fun.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00729d9\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/10698056625_bcf10887f6_o-2cd524eb69.jpg\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\nYou can also read an earlier blog post I made about Grayson's exhibition of tapestries, \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/492279.html\">\u003Ci>The Vanity of Small Differences\u003C/a>\u003C/i>. I would SO love to do a project or a children's book stage event with the guy some day, but I would need a few months to get my frock and hat together, so as not to be upstaged. Oh, the flouncing!\\r\n\\r\nI met Grayson once and spoke with him briefly about his tapestries; I hadn't actually gone to see him, but his wife, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/philippa-perry/\">Philippa Perry\u003C/a>, for the \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/487365.html\">launch of her book\u003C/a> \u003Ci>How to Stay Sane\u003C/i>. (She'd previously written a comic book, which was how I knew of her.) I had a funny moment of self-realisation, that I wasn't as socially adept as I thought I was. I'd been so used to swanning into children's book events and knowing lots of people, and everyone being super-friendly, mucking about drawing pictures of bums and farts, air-kissing - la la la - that I started to assume all events would be like that. I was so confident that I didn't take a friend, and wore a rather ridiculous dress. When I got to the bookshop, I realised that the only person I knew (a little bit) was Philippa, and of course you can't monopolise someone at their own launch. And everyone else seemed to be nervous middle-aged women who absolutely didn't want to talk with me. It was very humbling. I got my signed copy and after about ten minutes of attempting chit-chat with uninterested strangers, raced off, back to cosy children's book world. ...Ha ha, I'll do better next time I go to a serious book event for grownups. (You can follow Philippa on Twitter at \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Philippa_Perry\">@Philippa_Perry\u003C/a>.)","2013-11-05T23:17:00.000Z","grayson-perrys-reith-lectures",[],"grayson perry's reith lectures",1776628725853]