(I should have kept my mouth firmly closed! One of the parcels got lost along the way… fortunately it was found. It arrived safely in Jamestown NC, rather than Jamestown NY. I’ve been informed that is, at last, in a van on the way to Debra’s house and will be in the gallery very soon. So now I have the task of figuring out how I get myself there! But that is a task for another day.)
I had a lovely chat with Stuart Mayes yesterday, zooming from my Stourbridge studio to his Uppsala studio. Both of us wrapping/stitching while we did so. Most convivial! We find ourselves in a similar position in many ways. Our work is comparable, the stage of our practice also, he is a few years younger than me, but neither of us spring chickens… we know a thing or two! We have similar attitudes about the sort of places we “should” (I use that word cautiously) be showing our work, and how it should be shown and seen. We have stopped mucking about and now see the need to pick carefully where we put things. We both surround ourselves with good people and are having a good time making our work however the hell we want.
Currently I feel confident. I feel the work stands up well, I can speak about it articulately. Also, I feel confident about saying that I don’t have all the answers. I’m still working. My practice is exactly that – Practice! It is a moving, evolving, building and collapsing thing. Sometimes I know exactly what it’s all about. Sometimes, at the beginning of new work, I really really don’t. BUT I now trust my processes. I trust in myself that if I keep exploring, playing, making, writing, at some point a connection will be made. All of this happens inside my own small brain, so none of it happens in isolation… there are connections. Sometimes I don’t see them for ages, sometimes I don’t see them at all. Until other people point things out.
Already, even before I actually see this Elena Thomas Retrospective called “Full Circle”, I see connections I didn’t see before. It’s called Full Circle because it starts with me wrapping wood in fabric, and now I’m wrapping a different sort of wood in a different sort of fabric, twelve years later.
If an artist has subjects that interest them, and they keep on reading, listening, writing, making about those interesting things, things connect. If they have a particular fondness for certain materials and methods, things will connect there too. What you have to do is stay on the bus and keep doing it. Then, when you are 62 and have a retrospective show in NY, you have a coherent body of work that tells all your secrets.
PS I’m having an Open Studio weekend soon… hoping to raise a bit of cash so I can take Debra Eck out to dinner while I’m in NY
