A Little About Me
What One Can Be One Must Be
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My name is Nicky Mortlock , and I’m the director of ArtiPeeps a 100 percent creative soul who believes wholeheartedly in the power of creative expression and creative potential. I have created ever since I was a young girl in virtually every medium, finally resting in writing plays as my preferred form of expression.
In my past life before ‘ArtiPeeps’ , I have been, amongst other things, a full time BBC Script Editor for BBC Wales and a freelance script editor for a number of film production companies. I have also worked for a Community Radio Station, run my own theatre company, managed a professional youth theatre company for someone else and directed plays as well as having two plays I’ve written professionally produced by Menagerie Theatre. I have also run and edited a creative writing magazine called Orion and completed a novel and a collection of poetry. I have also composed 2 albums of music and have run many a creativity based workshop. That’s a brief overview of my creativity up to this point in time .
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WHAT’S HAPPENED SINCE THEN AND WHY I DO WHAT I DO NOW :
In 2003 I was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder which strangely was a complete blessing for me. For decades I had been crashing from up-to-down without knowing why so when I got the diagnosis it all made sense! An ‘Oh, so that’s what it’s been’… a real ‘lightbulb’ moment. I could put a name to a face and then deal with it. Since then I have spent 8 years in cognitive behavioural therapy, which has helped me turn myself around completely and introduced me to a wide range of awareness and mindfulness techniques. I have first hand experience of how to create change and focus in a life, in my life. My creativity has come flooding back along with my health and a sense of well-being and out of this brewed the idea that has become ‘ArtiPeeps’. It’s a brilliant, exciting combination of what is important to me, and can hopefully also contribute to the happiness, self expression and well-being of others at the same time.
Here’s some press about ArtiPeeps and my journey:
Cambridge Evening News
‘I was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, but art helped me turn my life around’ says Cambridge woman Nicky Mortlock
Read more: http://goo.gl/ErYsbx
Even though we have consolidated our status now as a not-for-profit organisation and a ‘Company Limited by Guarantee’ ArtiPeeps is still a work in progress. Over the last year or so we have started to build into a real collective of creatives who enjoy working together on a regular basis. Its substance, depth and spirit has evolved as has our intention to respond to the needs of our contributors and readers. Indeed ArtiPeeps is driven by its contributors and readers. Without a shadow of a doubt the fuel that pumps ArtiPeeps’ engine is COLLABORATION. And as such our primary intention is to :
provide creative spaces and opportunities for anyone who wishes to create and to actively promote emerging creatives from any discipline. We nurture creativity and well-being through collaboration, specialising in and facilitating, small, medium and large-scale collaborations.
It is my intention to grow ArtiPeeps into a truly dynamic, co-operative platform for creatives fuelled by the creativity, talent and inspiration of all those involved. In the long term it is my intention to turn ArtiPeeps into a fully funded organisation with a breadth of initiatives focused around creativity and well-being.
Everything I’m doing at the moment via ArtiPeeps is founded upon a wholehearted belief in human and creative potential, and the amazing life-force that is creativity. Everybody has the right to be able to express all that they are, and often in life we’re not given the space and opportunities to do so. I want to address this matter and start something that matters and sustain it, so that we can all lead happy, healthy, creative fully expressed lives.
Here’s some press about our latest large-scale poetry art exhibition ‘Transformations’ :
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‘Campaign hopes to Kickstart a huge poetry and art exhibition in King’s Lynn’
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Kickstarter Campaign
If you are interested in getting involved in any of our opportunities or collaborations please do not hesitate to get in touch with me via the What’s On Page or @ArtiPeeps. We’d love to hear from you.
Thank you for your interest.
ArtiPeeps 
Thank you so much for liking my blog. I can’t wait to read more about you 🙂
Bless you for that, and that equally applies to you! All the very best!
Great blog – just what the doctor ordered.
Thanks for your comment. So glad you enjoyed Nisha’s piece on Gaskell! We’re thrilled to have her as a contributor. She’ll be back again on the 28th with another Classic Friday. Your interest in us is very much appreciated. All the very best.
You’re welcome.
Hi there, how do I discuss script writing with you? I’m looking for a mentor, or at the very least someone who can check over work I’m submitting at the moment. Thank you, Sharon
Dear Sharon,
Thank you very much indeed for getting in contact with me regarding your script-writing. Probably the best thing for you to do is to email me at artipeeps@yahoo.co.uk outlining where you are with your project etc. and then we can go from there!
All the very best to you.
Nicky
Hello Nicky Mortlock,
I stumbled on to your page on twitter. I am Filomina Pawar, based in India. I manage the following website of art works of Belgian artist, Eric G. C. Weets at http://ericgcweets.weebly.com (which you are aware of through twitter, I guess.)
I have loads of audio & visual data Eric talking about art, his life, influences, his inspiration etc etc. I think these are quite interesting stories and for some time, I have been thinking of publishing something for the artist. I have very little understanding about book writing or publishing and would like to know, if you would be interested in collaborating in some way?
Here’s some background information:
The artist is quite unwell at the moment and he is that way for a long time. We are dealing with his severe COPD, couple of chronic infections and his bad eye sight because of cataracts, which forced him to stop painting.
(In a strange way, Eric’s COPD played the catalyst: in achieving his aim to create something original and unique, in painting because he was rendered home bound. This made that Eric could fully concentrate on his work, without much of outside influences.)
Sad thing is, I have a quite a collection of art works but am unable to organize a physical exhibition of these, mainly, because I am also the caregiver to the artist and find myself acutely short of time. Eric is dependent on me for 90% of his day today activities.
It’s a long story and will keep it for later, should you like to hear them. I await your response.
With kind regards,
Filomina Pawar.
Dear Filomina,
Thank you for getting in touch with me about Weets’ work. I’m a little unsure if ArtiPeeps is actually the right site for Weets. We do have showcasing slots during a season of work but I’m not sure if that opportunity would do justice to the mass of material that you have. You might be better off approaching an online gallery that would be able to feature the breadth of Weets’ work in a more sustained way.
In terms of publishing, you could go down the self-publishing route via sites such as lulu.com, and you could try an e-book for Kindle via Amazon. That could be a way into the publishing world (if you haven’t done so already). For the audios, you could also try Soundcloud and see what happens if you lodge some material there. And there’s Vimeo for the videos.
Bearing the above in mind, I would nevertheless gladly offer Weets a Showcase or a FreeSpace in one of our next season’s of work. However, the one we’re running at the moment is full, but I do have a long memory and could offer you one or the other of the above opportunities in the next season. As yet I have not finalised when this will be as we are in the middle of preparing for our first large-scale poetry-art exhibition in September.
I hope this helps a little, and I send you good wishes and strength for your role as caregiver.
All the very best.
Nicky