Sometimes in my anxiety to make work, share it and think about it I forget how important it is to acknowledge the importance of having fun and the social aspect of art-making. I acknowledge it as key in my work with Dover Arts Development – we always said we’d stop if it was no longer enjoyable – but sometimes I forget this in the context of my own practice. Private views are important in that respect – the conversations I have in the context of the work being shown are ones I wouldn’t have otherwise, and important even if it means having to go back when it’s quieter to see the work again.
In that vein, the artists’ breakfast as part of SALT 2016 in Folkestone was both fun and essential. Keeping connected with each other just helps.
I have just finished a couple of small collage pieces incorporating images cut from postcards. I think they are quite successful and in line with the way I work – which is to experiment and play with stuff first and then think about what might be going on – I think the work may be about getting away, emotionally and intellectually. Possibly this is my response to the turmoil of Brexit and the sense of fear and instability it is provoking.
I am busy getting ready for the Art Market in Maidstone on 17 September. It is going to be a long day and I am not brilliant at early mornings so I am psyching myself up for the early start already!
I am going to try and be organised so on my list are, in random order:
- book for contact details of anyone interested in my work
- price list
- stuffy bags in case I sell anything
- interchangeable frames, also just in case
- the work itself
- money for breakfast and coffee to keep me awake
- work out how to use the izettle just in case
- business cards
- something to sit on when my knees pack up
I will have some enhanced prints and collages on paper. The collage pieces have been fun to do and are very much to do with play and bringing torn fragments together; a bit like painting with paper.
Fellow a-n blogger Claire Manning talks about collage being abusive: Collage is abusive – it breaks down its source materials into fragments and re-constructs them into something else, which is a really interesting way of thinking about it.
For me collage is a way of being completely in the present, being spontaneous, connecting disconnected pieces – like connecting up disparate parts of the self.
The PV or rather first meet the artist’s event for Plastic Propaganda’s latest show, Sugar and Spice, was on Tuesday 23 August and I was pleased to see my two pieces had been installed close to each other so that they could “talk.”
I was also excited to see Justine Johnson‘s indigo-dyed Japanese paper and to talk to her about how wonderful paper is to work with and the problems associated with presenting it: to frame or not to frame…the fact that it tears but can easily be glued and patched…
My sister came along and we made an evening of it – talking to fellow artists at the show and then dinner together afterwards: it is one of the first exhibitions I’ve been in that she has been able to come to, having lived in Australia for so many years.
PV’s are all about talking and the conversations instigated by seeing new work or even one’s own work in a new context and I’ve been to three this week: the MA show at UCA Canterbury and the interim MA show at the Brewery Tap in Folkestone of work by the current part-time students. It will be interesting to see how they present their final MA projects next year – this show seemed to be very much about testing how to show their work in a way that was both visually interesting and in keeping with its intention.
It took me a while to solve the problem of how to present “Tea Caddy” at the upcoming Sugar and Spice exhibition. A pristine white plinth didn’t seem right though I did think I could paint a plinth in a glossy red. However, the solution I’ve come up with is a tea chest bought off e-bay.
