Over the last 6 months I’ve spent most of my “ringfenced” creative time (about 1 day a week) marketing my teaching business: various aspects of dreams and ritual aimed at psychotherapists and art therapists. My greatest success was to persuade Roehampton to let me run a 1 day workshop. Great! I can put Roehampton on my CV. BUT – the course was cancelled due to lack of interest … can I still put it on my CV?
Other than that, I have a total of 8 hours of confirmed teaching work coming up for the next 12 months. There are also a dozen organisations on the “interested – call back” list … so not an entirely lost cause, and teaching work does grow via recommendation. So, I’ve given it my best shot, time to return to something creative.
Time is now more precious than it was 6 months ago. My daughter has been diagnosed with a hip condition that requires weekly visits to the swimming pool, fortnightly visits to the physiotherapist, and monthly visits to the consultant. Due to a collision between the appointment times, pool opening times and my partner’s working hours, the bulk of this extra caring has fallen on my shoulders, and the time has to be stolen from my studio time.
On the brighter side, my son is now old enough, and willing enough, to babysit his little sister, so the possibility of creative work during the evenings is returning, and could become a regular addition to my studio time.
At the moment I am exploring in two main directions:
1) Continuing the ritual-style events, I have been rather taken with a Tibetan Buddhist ritual which involves months of painstaking manufacture of ritual items, all of which are chucked on the fire at the end of the ritual – a practical demonstration of impermanence and emptiness – Thinks: Storing large scale works is becoming a pain, and since, realistically, I’m never going to sell any of these things, I may as well ritually burn them at the end of an event … and it would be a great spectacle, as well as being theoretically justifiable.
Problem: Canvas covered in acrylic paint is not as flammable as one might imagine, how to make it go off with more of a roar than a whimper? Have tried various experiments with various petroleum products, gunpowder extracted from fireworks, potassium nitrate extracted from gunpowder extracted from fireworks, various ammonium compounds, and some dabbling with chromate oxidising agents … As yet, the primed and painted canvas remains exceedingly reluctant to combust. My next stop will be the UK Pyrotechnic Society, but in the meantime any ideas are very welcome.
2) This is a more traditional Live Art direction – Outdoor collaborative improvisation (music, movement, video, clowning, text etc.). Inspired by my experience taking my son up Snowdon in September, and encountering massive queues at every stage from the bus stop to the summit. Captive audiences, plenty of publicity potential. Anyone interested?
