Driver or pedestrian?
I am currently having driving lessons. On the first lesson I had to learn where to rest my gaze, further forwards along the road. Not directly in front of me, like a pedestrian. Yesterday my instructor was teaching me to look ahead, to anticipate and plan. This provides a rather pertinent (if slightly naff) metaphor for what I am also trying to learn to do as an artist. Rather than reacting to what is directly in front of me, I aim to plan for what is next and – taking another metaphor of life, or career, as a journey – to decide what route I want to take.
This is, of course, an ongoing process, not something I just suddenly want to do. And I find it gets easier as I get older. It is 10 years since I graduated from a BA in Fine Art and that time has seemingly gone fast. Looking back, I can put a narrative on what has happened in the intervening years and see the logic or illogic of some of my choices. It shouldn’t be too hard to extend that process and that narrative into the future should it? I’m quite good, I think, at planning for particular projects over, perhaps 3 months or 6 months. But I find it harder to plan for my practice overall. I can break it down into bits, but what are those little bits headed towards?
If I want to push a metaphor to breaking point, then I might also say that I like being a pedestrian and wandering along not always knowing where I am going. I am a reluctant driver for various reasons (danger, environment, cost), but just as it is becoming increasingly apparent that driving would be useful for me, to be able to get to and work in more places, it’s also becoming apparent to me that soon enough another 10 years will have passed and where will I be then?
