It has been a fairly productive week. I have felt quite invigorated turning up at the studio each morning with a clear set of tasks before me. You could say just a little too invigorated maybe… I have noticed that my stuff seems to be growing quite out of control. I have a fair sized space and probably if I was a more organised, less erratic worker, it would be ample for me to operate within without this involuntary sprawl. But for some reason when in the midst of working out some idea my brain can’t seem to operate in an orderly fashion. Suddenly I find myself out in the corridor, lying across the walkway trying something new around something old, tripping over some stray piece of wire or an old bit of work. I push things clumsily out the way, squash little wire doors with my clumsy feet, traipse accidental footprints on my stray notepaper and sketches, tea gets cold and lunch gets eaten about 3 hours after a traditional lunching time. It is a bit like I forget that I am there; forget that the body needs manoeuvring with at least a little bit of care and also does require a bit of food and water at times. There is definitely a touch of frantic in the way I work.
The meeting about the Hertford studios last week has still left a lot of uncertainties. Mainly because it is not built yet and therefore it feels impossible to really know what a space in it would be like. Things are pretty fluid and changeable at this stage. Saying this however, I have come to the decision that I will take a calculated risk and get involved and keep an option in the future. However, it has been agreed that I won’t make a final decision until I have viewed a building that exists and my deposit can be refunded if it is just unworkable. There is real potential for the project though and a great chance for an art community to establish itself. The woman setting it up has a genuine passion for seeing it a success. I really admire her for taking on such a task. The space will be cheaper than what I am paying now but subsequently much smaller…hence my way of working possibly being problematic. However, I comfort myself (and maybe other artists who may now be feeling unsure about sharing a space with such a menace as the one described above) by remembering the tiniest of space I had at uni and I managed. I am hoping that my practice has just grown to fit the space available and therefore maybe persuaded to be reversed and shrunk down a little. I guess we just do what we can with the space we’ve got. It might be time to start exploring the world of miniatures!
