Reflections…
Where I am
What I’m doing.
Attitude……matter of fact…..(as I see the FT)….calm, authoritive and not afraid to look different.
I’ve been thinking- why can’t art be useful? I’m so often drawn to projects where the result is useful, due to things I see that need changing.
My way of working has been fairly held back and restrictive for a while, I haven’t risked enough or let go (much). Now, what might happen if I followed every distraction that captivates me, every notion of project / painting etc…? This is my current approach, along with calmly getting on with everything that absolutely needs to get done and leaving the rest to fall by the wayside. Action over reading & writing, the latter pair being my default position. I’d like to change this habit, make reading and writing more focused and making less so (I think I’ve had things the exact opposite way). I have a daring and risky journey ahead of me.
I have been getting disheartened, money has seemed to be at the root of my holding back, but it can’t be that, what am I hoping for beyond a little more money? (Echoes my question of people buying scratch cards – what are they hoping for beyond the cash?) I need to pay some attention to the questions I ask of others, these are really questions for myself.
I had a place to study for my MA in Fine Art at Gloucester, but funding is a problem, such a problem that I can’t take up my place (hadn’t realized Wales wasn’t in the EU for funding purposes for the post-grad student loan, if I lived in France I might stand a chance). This took me an age to accept. However, not doing the Masters may turn out to be just what I need. I might having been rushing things. What I need is action, not necessarily the academic side of things, with all the reading and writing involved (weaning myself off this is painful, but necessary). I don’t mean I am not reading and writing, I am simply not over-reading and over-writing. A bit like over-eating and drinking, but for me the amber liquid is text. I’m on the first part of a 12 step program to de-text and re-activate myself. Maybe I’ll do the Masters next year, maybe in five, who knows? Perhaps I need to get to the point of not needing it to make the most of it. I am now heading towards making opportunities for myself, sometimes creating opportunities for others along the way. Who knows what’ll happen if I throw caution to the wind?
Today is a studio day for me, and I finished priming the last two 254words calico boards (I am at that point, like with a good book, when I don’t want the process to end and I can feel myself making the painting of the last two last as long as possible!)
There’s a micro space to work in my studio, so earlier I began sorting through a tower of papers….bumf from shows I’ve been to, scrabbled notes, project notes..etc and came across a printed email from the town council from August last year – a reply to my question about who runs the public toilets in Abergavenny (as one is closed and another is only open on weekends).
A wide thought I have is that in the UK we really need toilet facilities like they have in France (not necessarily the squat loos, though these are 100% better than none at all!) along the autoroutes, every 5 miles or so, so regularly that you know if you hear child in back suddenly needs loo, you wont have the worry of 30 mins to next possible stop, or a risky layby stop (not even possible on motorway). There’s always an easy place to stop and at the very least the simplest facilities … How could the UK have many more loos, maybe a set design that is easy to replicate? Maybe even composting ones. Need only be one that can be used be everyone, young, old, disabled, male or female. Make travelling so much easier. There’s an International Toilet Festival http://taylor.tulane.edu/2014/10/anoop-jain-from-humanure-announced-as-waislitz-global-citizen-award-winner/ #wecantwait. World Toilet Day 19 November each year.
But, for now, thinking closer to home. Loos in towns are often few and far between and they are not easy to find. In shopping centers, often none of the shops have their own loos, so the mass of shoppers all descend on what often turns out to be 3 functioning loos (often quite disgusting). I am particularly interested in non-traditional places to show art and perhaps converting closed public toilets in a nearby park could be a starting point. It would certainly mean that the art would reach people who wouldn’t actively seek it out, not sure how great this is for the artists showing. May work best for socially engaged practices, maybe the art being something that is un precious and possible that can be added to / given away or in some way changing. I am clear the art must not be static (i.e. if it was painted, then this would need to change regularly). Not sure of the why’s yet about all this.
The Lost Library R&D stage…awaiting replies from orgs about partnering up AND the partnership needs to have an experimental outcome in public sphere. Less hesitation.
The Lost Library project had many elements which could have been works in their own right.
My projects are all bubbling together. I am excited to see what will happen.
