The space for comments on these blogs is where the real conversations between artists take place and is for me, one the most useful parts of maintaining a blog here. I really appreciate other artists taking the time to interact, all adding to the overall feeling of being connected and not alone in experiencing the many highs and lows often associated with being a practising artist.
Stuart Mayes left a comment on a recent post I wrote. His comments are always upbeat and positive and I’ve been an admirer of Stuart’s work ever since I first encountered it here, via his ‘Project Me’ blog on Artists Talking. Consequently, I’m always pleased to read Stuart’s take on any of the issues I raise.
He left this comment on my blog last week:
‘Your question about how much, and what, to reveal is interesting. For me it is often a question in relation to a fear of being judged – if I say something personal will it change how someone looks at my work, could I come across as frivolous or silly, or equally as someone trying too hard to seem intellectual …’
I’ve been thinking a lot about this over the past few weeks – about how honest – I mean, really honest – we’re prepared to be, ‘for fear of how it might impact on the way our work is perceived,’ as Stuart says. Much as I’d like to think that being aware of a readership didn’t affect things, I know that the reality is that I have become more conscious of what I reveal.
For some weeks now, there’s been a strong parallel running between the recent prolific sorting out and de-cluttering I’ve been doing and my feelings about maintaining this blog; a correlation between the actual physical act of sorting, running alongside the sorting of my emotions. If each object taken from storage means (at least) something to me on an emotional level, then that’s an awful lot of feelings to deal with. So many questions have been raised in the process – what do I want to keep – quite literally, of the objects from mycollection – versus what do I want to give or throw away? Like-wise, how much do I wish to keep to myself, versus how much am I happy to reveal? The private versus the public. How much do I share? How much do I keep to myself? It’s back to that question again, one that keeps cropping up.
I closed the last post on the subject of letting go – leaving behind, relinquishing. It’s a theme that’s deeply immersed in my work and I’ve written already about how it felt hard to let go of the second piece of work I submitted for the ‘Discernible’ show. It’s called ‘Other’ and is composed of three bubble-gum pink plastic people sitting high up on a perch in a cage. All three of them are closely seated together – but, while two of the figures, the man and woman, have their arms wrapped around each other, there’s an air of isolation about the third figure – a man alone, shoulders hunched, isolated, in spite of his close proximity to the other two.
There is a narrative in the piece, but I’ve chosen not to reveal it. I’m letting go of a piece of work and allowing it to stand alone – no stories attached, and no request for any participation other than to observe. In this respect, it’s an interesting and very different experience for me.
See Stuart Maye’s blog here:
