Why Parlour Press? Why Art Writing?

Why?

We all still have the naivety to say that money, that a steady job, that a stable home, that procreation, that ownership of land, that bricks and mortar, that wealth, are not (yet) important, are not the meaning of life, are not our destiny, will not define our purpose.

We still have the naivety to say that literature, that beautiful places, that observation, that human frailty, that excessive collections, that new experience, that shared experience, that self expression, that fragile talent, that subversive pages, that sharing, that showing, that embracing everyone and everything will somehow make the world a better place to live in. That love and experience needs to be shared, can be spread over everybody like soft butter.

Because we are young enough to dream, because we are old enough to know that time will not wait, we believe that this moment is all we have - we are going to make the most of it.

We wish to share our thoughts, our views, our obsessions, our eccentricities, our expression, our experience, our aches, our pains, our ecstasy, our minds, our craft, our talent, our skills, our passions with you. We hope that you oblige.

We will not sell out, we are not old enough to sell out. We will encourage beauty and story telling and share our art until it is absolutely necessary, absolutely essential to get a proper job!

I wrote this a little over a year ago when Libby, Lucy, Caitlin, Sophie and I set up book collective, The Parlour Press. It was written as part of the Parlour Press Manifesto. Currently, exhibitions/fairs are currently few and far between (Parlour Press Ladies will be in attendance at MMU this Saturday as part of the Fifth Manchester Artist Book Fair). Re-reading this serves as a reminder not only to invest more time into the press, but also defines my pursuit of Art Writing as a practice as oppose to getting a proper job. It's pretty relevant. It just gave me a little inspirational kick in the shin. Good Work!