the snow has melted, real-time is upon us

Merry Christmas everyone!

I haven't been on for a while because i've been eating anything i can get my hands on and drinking everything else :)

The auction hasn't gone as well as hoped, my chest piece sold though, i feel a little sad because i love it and it doesn't belong to me anymore!!

Christmas was fun, i got lots of goodies for my room and or studio, a fun piggy bank to start saving up for next year, there's already a few notes in it but i'm pretty sure they'll be getting used soon!

I am currently sitting here with hair dye in, preparing myself for fancy dress tonight, Betty Boop :) so todays post is only a short one, hopefully enough to tide you over till my next post!?

Much love x

A tattoo a day keeps glumness away

After a very busy working weekend i have updated my ebay page and now have 7 tattoos up for sale!
Pegasus, my chest piece, butterfly, 'life wont wait', skelingtons, 'mum' and 'dad'.
Phew, quite a lot, but still no bids!
A bit of a bummer, however, it's not about the money, it's mainly an art project. To make money to go towards my tuition fees would be an amazing bonus!

I had an update article in the paper again on thursday, its all good publicity.
Tomorrow morning i'm going to be interviewed on BBC radio lancashire about the project so fingers crossed it goes well!!
I always get massively stuttery when put on the spot so here's hoping i sound like a normal person lol, as normal as i can be anyway!

x

new day, new tattoo

morning folks,

my butterfly is now listed, no bids on pegasus as yet :(

ebay item number 140367916900 < search it!

x

we are go......

Good evening everyone, i have just posted my 1st tattoo, i will post another one each consecutive day for the next 9 days :)

Please bid, lets make history!!

Ebay item 140367832697 << just search it :) x

confusion and comments :-/

A lot of people have been asking me to explain my project to them because the article has them confused.

To put it really really simply, i am selling the ownership of my tattoos to anyone who would like one. With your new tattoo you will receive a photograph of it, a drawing of it, a written explanation behind the tattoo, and regular updates. For example, if i'm at the till in asda and the lady putting my shopping through starts up a conversation i'll tell you about it!

Like a song-writer sells their lyrics, i'm selling my tattoos.

I've read some comments that say my idea is "lazy" and "faux-intellectual".
Not the case really though is it? I think it's quite an inspired idea and after all, to quote Damien Hirst, "i am the artist and it is my idea, therefore it is art".
I designed the tattoos with MrF, and 2 of my roses were designed by a tattoo artist in Manchester called Rachel. I do not have £3000 worth of ink on my body, far far far far so far from it!!

Apparently i am in The Sun, a national newspaper, whit woo go me!
I've also been approached by a company who will help me spread the word and hopefully raise some more money.

MeShellxxx

almost famous

We've never had so many copies of the Warrington Guardian in my house!! The parents are more excited about this than i am i think!!

I didn't expect the article to be so big, i'm flattered that the Guardian are trying to help me with my cause.

For those of you still confused about why i am doing this let me explain.
When you go to uni you get the opportunity to apply for a tuition fee loan, and a maintenance fee loan. Most people apply for both, art courses can be quite expensive so any extra money helps, also the fact that i travel every day makes me apply for the maintenance loan. I'm gonna be paying it back when i leave uni anyway so why not have the extra cash now when i need it? Anyway, i digress.....
I left high school in 2002, went to 6th form for 3 years and did an art foundation course at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2005/2006.
Because i'd stayed on at college for an extra year and was 19 when i did the foundation course i was charged £1000. For 1 year! It's not fair, i understand why they make mature students pay, but 1 year over deadline, really??!
After my foundation year i joined the fashion design and technology course at MMU but left in february 2007.

This is where i lost my way a little. I knew i wanted to do art, but people kept asking me "what are you gonna do with a fine art degree" "an artist isn't a job" and i listened, and i let these thoughts swill around in my head.
It was after i dropped out that i got depressed, but it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me, i decided to apply for a fine art course at UCLAN and was accepted.

My first year in preston started in 2008 and i'm not in my 2nd year.

So i apply for and am granted my maintenance grant, i am however DENIED my tuition fee. I ring up Student Finance and they tell me according to their system i applied for and went to MMU in 2007 to do an Art History. This did not happen, lol, so i asked the guy why i had been denied money.
He told me that Student Loans Company only finance 3 years of uni. 3 years!! What about my MA? Or my teaching degree? Why isn't this made more public, why aren't more people aware of this?!
I was told i had to appeal the decision so i had to get pay slips from all my jobs in 2007-2008, bank statements proving that i was being paid, basically send a skip load of evidence, EVIDENCE, to proooooove i hadn't gone to uni in 2007. If my appeal had been denied, i would have had to pay for this year myself also. Luckily for me my appeal came back and was re-assessed so all my evidence must have satisfied them, SLC are paying my tuition fee's this year thank god!

So i discovered in that phone call that because SLC paid £1200 for that 1 semester at MMU, and i have had my 1st year at Preston paid for, i am now getting year 2 paid for, but where i stand on year 3 i've no idea?!! I know i have to pay something but i don't know whether it will be the full £3225 or if i'll just have £1200 deducted and have to pay the remaining £2000.



I need to come up with ways to raise money to prepare for these scenarios, if i work extra hours as well as being at uni during the day i will get taxed. If i get an extra job, i will get taxed. The thing is because i'm a student i can't do a 9-5 job, i have to do bar work, the hours are much easier to work with, uni in the day, pub at night, uni the next day, pub at night. You get my drift!


My art teacher Mat told me about a few artists who sold themselves, i thought, what can i do that's not been done yet? What's so different that will make people stand up and take note........and that's my story.

I hope you've enjoyed the read :)

I think i'm gonna have a busy few days explaining this to people!

Right, uni is done, all my work is handed in, i am free to work on the tattoo project.

I am launching on monday, this monday, MONDAY 14TH DECEMBER!!!

I will post the item number and what tattoo we're kicking off with on here beforehand obviously, but Monday is day 1. One tattoo a day at a time.

Oooooh the excitement :) x

countdown

In the words of Stacey Soloman from the X-factor, oh my god!
The paper will be out 2moro, i'm really nervous ha!
Will report back after my uni deadline......
x

controversy abounds, i can feel it in my gut

So yesterday i had a telephone interview about my project, today the photographer came around.....i am not looking forward to my photo being in the paper for everyone to see and scrutinize.
In fact i might even go as far as to say that i am terrified of what people will say, what people will think, what people will do. I'm so not that person who craves attention or is used to people paying her attention, now with this story and the fact that my tattoos are pretty recognizable i am scared i'm gonna get all kinds of abuse. Just for having an idea and being an artist and for going through with something i believe in.

There's gonna be a lot of older people looking down their noses at me. There's a man who comes in the pub and makes jokes about my tattoos, saying i'm like a man, i laugh these comments off with him but it actually really offends me. What gives him the right to make a judgement on me because i have a few tattoos?! He's a rude old man but i don't say that to his face do i, no, because i'm POLITE. Something a lot of the older generation aren't, concerning themselves far too much with my decision to get tattoos, MY DECISION.

They aren't all bad, in fact just in asda the other day i was looking at the magazines and i heard an old guy trying to discreetly whisper to his wife 'lovely rose, look, a lovely rose, the chest on the chest', i caught him pointing at me and then prodding his wife, lol, it made my day i swear.

Wow sorry, didn't mean to turn that into a rant :-/ like i said, i'm worried. When people complain about something or judge or criticise they seem to forget the person they're aiming their jibes at actually has feelings.....

lovelove x

yet another inspiration

It's official, i am a contemporary artist......

This was another inspiration for my project >>>

http://www.showitwithmoney.com/artist_product.html

It's not the real Damien Hirst, but i think it's a really interesting project.....

Check it out, become a contemporary artist like me!

Love yourself and sell yourself x

me? in the paper? how odd!

I see my tattoos as my own personal art, distinguishing features, kind of like scars. also i see myself as a canvas, therefore, being an artist, covered in art, its like my own little collection. Of the people who actually like tattoos, not many are brave enough to go through with the pain of tattoos, or can afford them, or want to put up with the whole 'taboo' subject of them. People still look down their noses at me because of them, someone blatantly did it in the restaurant tonight, i can put up with it, because i love my tattoos so much, maybe being a little bit of a bohemian artist helps with this way of thinking?? But some people arent prepared to put up with it. Or maybe their job doesn't allow them to have tattoos?? Thats why i'm offering mine to people, they don't have to hide them-i do, they don't have to watch as people scowl at them-i do, they don't have to be worried about keeping them a secret at job interviews-i do!! The way i would describe it is like adopting an animal at the zoo, or buying a bit of the moon or a star, its a little piece of my art and myself i want to share. My art is very personal and quite exhibitionist, the complete opposite of my nature. With the actual purchase of my tattoo they'll get photos, hand-written stories behind the art, updates if people ask about them or compliment me on them, its a really personal project i'm embarking on, and i just hope people can understand its conceptual art, and that there's so so so much more to art than just painting or sculpting.

The artists that inspired me were Jeff Gates who sold his demographics on eBay (http://www.outtacontext.com/ebay/ebay.html), Keith Obadike sold his blackness (http://obadike.tripod.com/ebay.html), and Michael Daines was a teenager who tried to sell his body at some point. Also that girl who sold her virginity to pay her tuition fees. Its just a little twist on that. Its very much inspired by the whole Dada 'laugh at and mock art' sort of movement.

I was interviewed today by the lovliest journalist, she's interested in my story about how i am trying to sell my tattoo's to go towards my tuition fees for next year.
It feels so peculiar that i actually tried to get publicity for this, it's so out of character for me. I feel like i have an alter-ego inside me, the 'me' that everyone knows, quite shy, reserved, sensible and quiet. Then there's the artist in me, the MeShell, who wants people to know things about her life, who tells people personal things through art, who actually goes out of her way to make contact with people. It's quite a kool thing.....i like it. I don't have to be shy all of the time, and by being loud through my art, it's still like a mask.

I'm not sure i'm prepared for this project to be made public, i'm worried people are going to crucify me and mock me. I suppose that only succeeds in putting me in good company though, Tracey Emin was mocked for her bed, Damien Hirst for his shark. It's contemporary art people, please try and understand this!!! Art has evolved so much, to be an artist you don't just have to know how to paint. You need ideas, concepts, balls, talent, skill, personality, empathy, intellect.
It's not just about painting a beautiful copy of the landscape near your house, there's more to it. Not that i'm scoffing at painters, i have such respect for people who paint amazingly, it's just not my skill or my thing.

I've decided to put my tattoo's on ebay, maybe at the weekend once all my projects are in and i've finished with uni. I'm going to start them at £0.00 and not put a reserve on them, they'll each need a story, when where why who, then we'll see how it goes.
I think i'll do one tattoo a day, maybe leave them up there for 2 days, then if they don't sell.....who knows? Maybe leave it open to offers?

We shall see anyway, much love folks x Meshell

dreaming like a ghost, so in love

As my deadline approaches my work gets pushed to the back of my mind. I've finally written my presentation piece on feminism in art. It was tough, but i did it.
Now all that is left is my 'when does art stop being art and become the business mans pawn?' essay :-/
Last night was decoration night in the pub where i work. Imagine this, a group of people, ages ranging from 16 to mid 40's. I'd say our average age was 25. As we got drunker off mulled wine, goldschlager, and the festive spirit we got younger. By the end of the night we had progressed from intellectual conversations on improving business to sliding down banisters and down stairs on our arses. A successful night, and not the last, we still have our xmas night out to go, xmas eve, xmas day night, and new years eve. Good times to be had by all :)

I need to price up my tattoos. I'm wondering whether to charge what i paid for them, a bit more, a bit less, or whether to just charge for shares? Buy a small piece of me, buy your very own artist, see you don't have to be a fat cat to be accepted by society!

Well tired eyes i bid you goodnight, 4 hours sleep and an early start, my bed beckons......
MeShell xxx

1 tattoo, 2 tattoo, 3 tattoo, 4. 5 tattoo, 6 tattoo, 7 tattoos and more :)

ToTattooOrNotToTattoo

Definately to tattoo :)

I've been a little m.i.a for a while, not the rapper, i've so many deadlines for uni at the minute that i haven't been online or checked my emails in over a week. A veritable offence in any case.
Spoke to Mr.F today, he's agreed to be my photographer later in the day so by tomorrow i will most definately have photos up.

A busy weekend ahead, today is filled with presentation research and essay research, groan, maybe a little wood engraving....we'll see though. Tonight i'm watching a band play that i haven't seen in a while, then watching X-factor when i get home. It's going to be a late night. Tomorrow i'm working two shifts then we're putting up our xmas decorations in the pub, which is going to be another late late late night.
I don't know where i find the time, lol :)

Laters taters x
MeShell

ps-i saw a programme on BBC3 late last night, called MeeShell, i was furious, this always happens, people steal my things, my ideas, then because i am not well known at all i get stick for stealing 'their' ideas, oh the fury in my bones :-/

Hungry like the wolf?

My name is MeShell. I am a sruggling artist, aren't we all!? I need to raise money to fund my final year at university because the Student Loans Company, who are supposed to be helping me, have decided not to give me a loan. Which i would have to pay back anyway, it's not like it's free money, but hey, who's grumbling!?
I heard about different artists selling parts of themselves, their demographic, their blackness, their status as a contemporary artist, and i thought i can do this.......but what could i do? What do i have that people might want? Then it came to me as i was writing on my hand, my tattoos! I have a pretty nifty selection of tattoos, maybe those people who don't want to deface their bodies by actually getting one of their own might want to save some hassle and just buy one of mine!
Think about it, your very own tattoo, you didn't have to go through any pain for it, no awkward conversations with your parents, no having to hide it in work or at interviews, all that is left for me to deal with!
I will get some photo's taken in a few days and then post my wares online for sale.........
Brings a whole new meaning to selling your body :)
MeShell x