A blog review by Mr James Oakley

I am injured! I have had a bicycle accident! I fell in a pot hole about 1 foot wide and 2 foot deep on Peckham high street. I fell on my chin and gashed it open, same goes with my hands. My shoes flew off down the street and were returned by two sweet girls. A man from chicken cottage attended my wounds whilst I wept copiously and somewhat hysterically. I refused his attempts to call an ambulance and wobbled off home, to be attended by my partner’s gentle hands and then fainted. A short stint at the A&E in the glamorous Lewisham hospital resulted in the doctor saying nothing was wrong with me and being sent home without even a plaster. Nothing serious then…. Except the major pain I am in and my black and blue legs!

Luckily I have been sent an analysis of my blog through by a very talented writer friend of mine and as I cannot properly type as it hurts my fingers it is quite handy to use for today!

An analysis of my blog by James Oakley
www.JamesOakley.info

The arts boffins at Central Station said I should write a blog entry...
I thought cripes - what shall I do?
What if all those self-harming arty types don’t like me?
And also - I’m bursting for a cuppa tea - will this kettle never boil?

In order to get a grip on exactly what it takes to make a top quality arts blog, I wrestled blogging supremo visual artist Rosalind Davis to the ground to ask for her top tips.
I also turned on the kettle. It does help.

Rosalind Davis is best known for her haunting and uplifting mixed media potraits. She layers bits of old curtain, wool, embriodery, good old fashioned paint and anything else she finds lying around creating beautiful urban landscapes. But I wasn’t here to ask about her art - I wanted to know the tricks of the trade. How do I make my blogging “Award Winning” like what hers is?

Unfortunately she was so busy suffering for her art, I got to suffer with her answering machine. So I nicked someone’s teabags from a cupboard in the office and looked back over her blog to what ideas could inspire me. While the tea brewed I made these notes about her Blog:

Gentle distinctive tone, like Sir Trevor McDonald reading you a bedtime story. Lovely.
Beautiful pictures of amazing artworks. Like really good.
A real human interest stuff - Ros doesn’t force her story. It’s subtle, it’s there, and it makes you love her. A lot.
She’s in London and I’m in Glasgow I don’t have a clue about some of her London references, but she explains enough to give me the gist. I feel I’m treated like a proper grown-up rather than the teabag stealing ruffian I am.
She has a distinctive opinion, but she’s not shouting. Whispering works.
When nicking tea bags check they’re not green tea.