It is an unusual bargaining tool, but I did it - I painted Cedars Infant School a Storyteller's Chair. I don't think it will work. I think the end of the Creative Partnerships funding might be too big a barrier to overcome, but it's worth a try.

It's not quite finished yet, another hour should do it. Another hour of yr 2 pupils telling me that I am a brilliant artist and saying 'Wow, that is beeootiful Miss', 'That's like something you would buy in a market' and 'It's brilliant...... it's very symetrical'.

I have spent so much time updating the blog from the Curious Minds Training I did last week I had entirely forgotten to update my own blog!

All I want to say is I LOVED IT! For someone who spent years as a participatory arts facilitator I have facilitated very few workshops in recent years (far too much time form filling and organising other people to do the stuff) and it reminded me just how much I love it. I felt alive. Part of that was with fear initially, but very quickly I got into the zone and was back to my old self. (Sorry!)

Wahoooooooooo!

And this is why the drawing challenge began........

I have spent three days this week sitting in lessons at St Mary's in Blackpool drawing and photographing creativity in the classroom. The idea of the project is to explore, record and share creative teaching and learning in the school to inform the Creative Partnerships planning process for next year, an integral part of St Mary's vision for a creative future. It's been a fascinating process and I think will inform my practice as much as I hope it will contribute to St Mary's.

What's really moved me has been the response of both teachers and pupils to having their activities drawn. My presence has been welcomed and people seem appreciative of both that and my efforts. The feedback has been positive and people seem genuinely touched that someone has taken the time to come and draw their activities, and as I have sat and listened, observed and interpreted, my drawings have provided an opening for many conversations.

'What are you doing Miss?' 'Are you an artist, Miss?' 'Is that Miss, Miss?' 'Shannon, Miss has drawn you, come and look', 'Do you have to go to college to do your job, Miss?'.

Had I sat in a corner with a clipboard I am sure no-one would have voluntarily come and talked to me about their lessons and creativity, what they love to do and how their Aunty is a great artist, but sitting and drawing prompted curiosity and friendliness and I now have pupils chatting to me in the corridor and shouting 'Hello Miss' as I pass (generally lost in the corridors between technology and science).

I have chatted to some of the quietest children in the classes (particularly boys) who stand next to me and generally comment on the pens I am using before telling me how much they love to draw or teach me how to draw hands (I used to be quite good at hands, not any more) and we talk about art and anime and the best fineliner pens. I have really enjoyed our conversations and I hope they have too.

I also loved that, as I was leaving school yesterday, one of the louder girls shouted 'Hey, Miss, you should be an artist' and as I walked to the car I walked just that bit taller. and thought, 'Yeah, maybe I should be.'

Designing my first website http://cathford.moonfruit.com has been a challenging and rewarding experience, and not in the way I anticipated. I thought I might have a problem with the technology, but that was straightforward and I would recommend moonfruit to anyone who is thinking of creating a website. I thought I might struggle with the design, and there were times when I found myself looking at a chaotic pile of badly colour co-ordinated and disjointed boxes, but in the end what I found most complex was finding a way of describing who I am and what I do.Having worked as part of an organisation for many years I had become adept at describing the organisation's mission and values, but stepping out on my own has required me to focus in on my own values and mission.

It took me back to one of the most significant moments in my career when I sat with Chris May and we began to design a training course for volunteers in participatory arts. The funding had been found, the participants signed up and somehow we needed to work out what it was they were going to learn. For the first time we had to unpick what it is that we do in participatory arts, what are our values, our skills, knowledge and experience and how do you measure those things? It was an empowering moment as we started to unravel the complex role - project manager, advocate, teacher and learner, problem solver, finance manager, performer, campaigner, professional partner, session planner......oh, and artist.

This process inspired the development of a competence framework for participatory arts by c-pal (Consortium for Participatory Arts Learning) which will enable participatory artists and organisations to assess and celebrate the core values and wealth of skill, qualities and experience which underpin our work.

So, as I set out on my new adventure as a freelance practitioner, sometimes feeling quite alone and wondering what it is I do and whether I have the skills and focus I need to succeed, I can already sense that the experiences and conversations, the partnerships with other artists and communities that I have had over the past 20 years will be there to draw on and inspire me and I await with eager anticipation the new experiences which will add to my rather random and extremely useful toolbox.