I have been selected for StudioBook 2017 through an open call submission. StudioBook is an intensive two week professional development programme run by Mark Devereux projects. This opportunity has been supported by a bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company.
This blog will be my reflection & observations during StudioBook. I am thrilled and excited (and a little nervous) to be participating alongside eleven other selected artists.
I am ready to learn….I am ready to move forward.
I am at a critical juncture in my creative career; I need to develop strategies that will help push me forward. I wanted to be on StudioBook as I knew the development programme would help me access a ‘tool-kit’ to redefine, readdress, and reconstruct myself as an artist.
What one anticipates and perhaps expects in life, can be very different from what one actually gets; Studiobook exceeded my expectations tenfold, I thought the experience was life changing, transformative and the construction of the course quite fabulous (albeit being extremely intensive). My head however is still spinning from the amount of knowledge shared, and knowledge gained. My mind and body is totally exhausted, and now sleep at present seems to be the order of the day. I need to let my brain settle for a while, before I start to disseminate everything.
What we all learnt and took away with us was so insightful and useful. One simple but massively essential lesson I have taken away from StudioBook is to always question. Particularly the questions that ask WHAT… WHY…WHEN…..HOW….WHERE…….WHO.
I think before StudioBook, I had lost my way somewhat, I sat on a confused crossroads of what to do next as an artist. During the course I recognised and realised that I had lost touch with my own questioning. Questions of what I was doing and why. A shocking realisation really, considering questioning is paramount to being an artist!
I do know from what I have learnt over the past two weeks, is that I will be re-addressing everything, I want to really look, think and question what I have before me – my website, my artist statement, my artwork even. It is about time that I re-engaged with questions, questions that will analyse and put me back on the right path.
I will be asking myself over the next month –
I am curious to see where it all takes me.
I do want to thank the StudioBook team and all the amazing and inspiring artists that formed the fabulous and dynamic group of the participating artists in StudioBook 2017 for all that we shared & discovered.
Thanks to: Mark, Jack, Liz, Suzanne, Charlie, Lucy, Claire, Sue, lada, Libby, Anna, Mandy, Beth, & Claire 2….you are all fabulous!
It is a sheer privilege to sit with a group of artists around a table, with a fabulous curator (Kitty Anderson of The Common Guild, Glasgow), and talk. Not only talk, but ask questions, those simple but sometimes allusive questions that we never really get the chance to ask, or indeed, even know how to ask. Its hard being an artist…lets be honest, we constantly bang our heads against doors, we write things because we think we should write them, we blunder around trying to navigate the vast complexities of the art world, its twists and turns, whilst trying to keep our heads above water. It is hard enough to actually make the artwork itself, let alone the rest of it.
This is now my second day at StudioBook, I have learnt so much already, part of me wants to shout…”pause”….so I can put into action already what I have learnt….the other part of me hungers for more. But mostly I just want to shout….THANK YOU….this is brilliant….THANK YOU.
The facilitation and quality of the speakers, the care that Mark Devereux Projects has put into StudioBook…is quite frankly, excellent. I’m on a high….because so many doors have been opened inside my head, I know there is absolutely loads of work on my side still to do, but I can see a clearer path how to get there now.
I am not going to even to try and attempt to write some of the things I have learnt, but just going to finish this blog entry with a few sentences; some I had completely forgotten and some I needed reminding of, and some I did not know at all.
It’s ok just to be an artist, why box yourself in with a subtitle?
Its ok to write how you speak….why construct something that bares no relation to yourself, it’s your artwork after all!
It’s ok to say no, that’s not the way I work.
Did you know its ok to be you?
Mark Devereux Projects work with artists to advance their respective practices and careers by providing high-quality, tailored professional development; they launched their intensive programme called StudioBook in 2015.
This fabulous opportunity for early to mid-career artists, delivers seminars, workshops and one-to-one mentoring sessions.
I was honoured & completely chuffed to have been selected for the 2017 StudioBook. The quality of my fellow selectees is extremely high and (already) inspiring. There are twelve of us in total. We are:
I confess the nerves are beginning to kick in. Its one week to go before jumping on a train to Manchester (a place I have never visited before). I’m looking forward to meeting all the artists and sharing our experiences together. I know also there is a lot of work to be done on Studiobook….and that’s what it’s all about, an intensive time of learning and pushing our boundaries. It can at times be so isolating working as an artist so I’m really looking forward to engaging with others again.
I have already taken inspiration looking at the other attending artist’s creative practices, especially the work of Lucy May Schofield, we share one thing in common, having done the same year long residency for VARC; I already feel there is a connection, a place can connect you without even having met before.
I experienced my first ever Skype mentoring session with Jack Welsh (as part of the Studiobook programme), he has already made me think more deeply about my work, so if a one hour session can do that….I wonder where a two week intensive will take me!
