Less than a fortnight after requesting a year’s sabbatical – to focus on my own work, and take a much needed extended break from my job at the council – and about a week after it all being agreed and announced and me being excited and scared about having a year as a full-time artist I see the advert for two part-time teachers/lecturers at the local foundation college.
Part of me really wants to apply, and another part of me really wants to ignore it … is it a test of my resolve or just a coincidence … or both!
If I hadn’t applied for the sabbatical I would without a question be applying for the teaching post. Teaching at such a college on such a course would probably be the best option for me if I want regular teaching. And could be great fun – the students are either already on their way to becoming artists or they are working out what art is and if it is something for them. My foundation year was fundamental, the tutors I had enabled me to make informed choices about what would become not just my practice but my ways of thinking about art and culture socially and politically. It would be amazing to have a position where I could do the same.
But I have applied for the sabbatical and I have promised myself a year of focussing on my own practice and seeing where that leads me. I should not be distracted or seduced by other offers and ideas. I should feel the FOMO and do it anyway! I should have the courage of my convictions.
[Later that same day] I could apply … there’s no guarantee that I will even get an interview … though obviously I feel that I should … and that I should be offered the post!
There might be opportunities to be a guest of visiting lecturer.
[Two days later] What about applying as an artist-duo? That would be a perfect solution if I can find someone to be Gilbert to my George … or would it be more Morecambe to my Wise? I really like that idea, and I think that it makes sense in terms of being able to be active artists at the same time as taking on a teaching role.
Yesterday we had a very good meeting about the upcoming show at Lövstabruk. Several of us confessed … admitted … to being over optimistic with the time that we can commit to such an exhibition. Our discussion was very useful not least because by some route we came to talk about artistic freedom – allowing ourselves artistic freedom! I realised that I was spending time and energy being concerned about how the pieces that I would like to show can be justified in terms of the title … theme. How could I give a coherent account or explanation of myself? I think that it was through reassuring another artist that they should try not to be over concerned about their own anxieties about this that I came to realise that I have the same ’right’ (?) – to make … show … what I want and need to without recourse to anyone else’s agenda. Does anyone else even have an agenda? Who is this imaginary other that I have created? The venue and the title (that we ourselves came up with) are parenthesis that hold the work together … and at the same time they are elements that create (hold?) space enabling an exhibition to come into existence. I see these parenthesis operating in different dimensions … on different plains … at the same time. At the moment I am pretty sure about two pieces that I want to show, I would like to find a third.
Immediately after that I had a meeting with the Artists’ Club’s treasurer about the administrator/communicator’s job description. It was both productive and enjoyable to work on this together – exactly the sort of dialogue that I miss in my work with the council … thinking something through with a colleague more often than not leads to a better result than working alone.
I then spent a couple of hours at the studio preparing for being on a panel discussion that evening. The Upland Art Association are celebrating their 90 year anniversary (jubilee?) in collaboration with the Uppsala Art Museum, and had invited three artists to speak about the how it is to be an artist today, our route to our practice, and our hopes for the future. I enjoyed myself and enjoyed listening to the other two artists – we had many points of connection and common concerns. Speaking with several of the art associations committee after the discussion it certainly sounds as though there are mutually beneficial possibilities for the Uppsala Artists’ Club to collaborate with them.
A very discursive day that left me tired and happy – excited and energised by the intangible but definite advancements that had been made on three, possibly more, fronts. After the long Swedish winter is feels as though there are definite signs of new growth.
