(PART 2)
Regardless of personal motivation, Xmas simply forces me to come off the boil a bit, due to family commitments and the crazyness of the season. However, I'm newly invigorated by a load of illustrators I found on a little google journey that's taken a couple of weeks. My passion for drawing or doodling has been reignited through some very talented people, who are all younger and more attractive than me and seem to have this secret coolness that I missed out on. More importantly, they all seem to be DOING IT, ie working. There's so many of them too. It's so overwhelming but I'm curbing my doom laden instinct by just doing what I feel. Is there room for another? I do feel though that I might have a few commercial ideas that are untapped and could raise a few beans. I'm also working on a sort of artist's book, and this is another recently discovered world that already seems saturated with artists, along with typography.
These are all old passions that until recently haven't seen the light of day for years but I'm reminded that I really used to enjoy them, and rejected them because I had a big moral crusade that they weren't useful or practical. Anyway, I've got over myself now and can do the practical, leaving room for the beautiful and pleasing.
The remaining wringing of hands concerns just how to get all of this creative body of work (both realised and unrealised) to be cohesive. It's a little frustrating as the world seems to continually compartmentalise creative work so when you work in lots of areas where the narrative of contemporary practice is at different points, or overlapping, or ignorant of others it's hard to know where you sit.
And where am I heading? With another baby planned for next year, I will be carving ever smaller chunks of time for me and my work, literally forcing a jekyll and hyde approach. I've decided not to be too hard on myself, and just do what feels right, until I have more time and can reach a confident decision about direction.
One of my doodles says
'IT CAN BE ALL THESE THINGS'
so we'll see.
