What kind of a year has 2015 been for you?
Shifting, exciting, fruitful. Sometimes too much work, at times not enough; coming to terms with change, coming to terms with what I can’t change; personal upheaval, resulting in becoming almost itinerant with a temporary home and loss of studio.
What has changed for the better and what, if anything, has changed for the worse?
Having worked on larger, more involved and extensive public commissions, my confidence has grown. At the same time I have started working on a smaller scale – more personal and experimental, drawing and printmaking, and I’ve returned to stitching, going full circle to where I started in embroidery. I have also embraced social media and written my first blog.
What do you wish hadn’t happened this year?
Paris attacks; having post-exposure rabies treatment while in India after getting bitten by a stray.
What do you wish had happened this year, but didn’t?
A lasting resolution to all needless atrocities and acts of terrorism and extreme violence to innocent people.
What would you characterise as your major achievement this year and why?
Spending three months in Shetland meeting truly wonderful people and getting to know a special place, and on top of that having the opportunity to make a big piece of art; buying some Redback boots has seen me through three months of all weathers and situations in Shetland.
Is there anything you’d like to have done this year but haven’t?
Finished that series of drawings I keep promising myself I will do that are in my sketchbook, and those prints I have ideas for that are in my head, and the series of stitched drawings that are in a folder, and the wall of collages that are in a pile and…
What would make 2016 a better year than 2015?
Getting somewhere permanent to live and a studio. And finishing and exhibiting that series of drawings I keep promising myself that are in my sketchbook, those prints, etc…
Read Jo Chapman’s Pelagic Sculpture Project blog at www.a-n.co.uk/blogs
Use the hwify2015 tag for more in the 2015 – How was it for you? series
More on a-n.co.uk:
Best exhibitions of 2015: a-n writers pick their top five shows
Artists books 2015: 10 of the best from personal ad romance to beautiful bacteria
Top Ten: the best photo books of 2015
