Colin of Alaska

I got back from France a few days ago and have just about started to catch my breath. Looking at Emily Speed’s blog it seems that there is a recurring theme with return journeys. We had a 400+ mile drive through France without a clutch!

I don’t have much to add on ‘Colin’, except to say that I am now getting feedback from as far afield as the USA and Australia, so the ‘viral’ aspect of the experiment has proved a success.

I hope that those of you that have followed Colin of Alaska will continue to do so. ‘Colin’ is still making regular entries, and I will add news about any developments here as and when they arise. The process of writing about Colin has helped me to break whatever it was that was stopping me writing about my work, so I have decided to start a new a-n blog where I hope to talk about my other projects…..

I checked Colin’s Facebook group the other day and membership seems to have levelled out. Although the numbers aren’t spectacular they seem to be good compared to other new groups, so I’ll see what happens. The temptation to promote the blog is almost overwhelming but I will have to resist. Interestingly one of the blog followers is a professor from Romania. How he found the blog at all is a complete mystery, but I’m pleased all the same.

Working with limited available materials and resources has proved to be a real source of inspiration for me. Since my last entry I have created a few new pieces (including one based on the bones I found) using only whatever materials I have to hand. Although I will be finalising some of the work when I get back to England for practical reasons, I have resolved to limit the finishing of the works, more or less, to assembly: in other words I won’t be adding anything that I don’t already have here. I’m excited about these pieces. I wonder if they will look the same when I get back to the studio?

I have a solo show coming up in November and I have been thinking about what I want to show. Sooner or later I think I will want to take Colin out of the ether and make the project manifest in some sort of physical form. Maybe not yet.

Colin of Alaska was born, indirectly, to satisfy the desperate need to create something whilst I am away from my studio. I’m certainly not bored and I have plenty to occupy me, but that need became all consuming. Weird. It did diminish the longing to an extent, but maybe like an addict I was already thinking where the next fix might come from. I am happy with the project as it stands, as an ongoing thing, as an experiment, and for the other things I set out. I am also thoroughly enjoying writing this blog: it really is working as a catalyst for me.

Some people would say that as an artist I could always pick up a pencil and paper and draw. That is true, except that I don’t work like that. Drawing is fundamental to my practice, and figures heavily in my work, plus I always have my notebook at hand. I tried going out with a sketchbook to draw what I saw – a very, very long time ago – and it just seemed largely pointless.

So, another development for me is using some of the things I have found around me here, things which have inspired me. For example, over the course of several days I unearthed some sheep bones which had been buried under the stone kitchen floor. I will be using those.

Colin of Alaska’s blog is at http://colinofalaska.blogspot.com

Quite a few of the other blogs have caught my eye, and it surprised me that at least three of us have marine forts in common! One of the blogs that I frequently read is Emily Speed’s (if there is anything that was going to grab my attention it is the subject of Getting Paid!). I think I enjoy it because I find it pertinent, pragmatic and emotional – indicators of a good blog, perhaps? A good rant is healthy too (at least I hope so, especially since my entries are little more than rambling rants).

I have pulled out a couple of things from other blogs that strike a personal chord, probably also for most of us at some time or another:

…. even if it is unsuccessful one has to keep doing it. (Ruth Scott)

…. the constant churning of ideas in my mind during periods when it’s not possible to zoom in on any of them and start work. (Judith Alder)

(on blogging) …I feel like I’m in a room with a bunch of people I haven’t met before …. There is the murmur of conversations around me. (Catherine Cartwright)

…ultimately my work is not to fulfil anyone else’s expectation. (Christina Bryant)

Suzi Tibbetts’ blog is very evocative, particularly when she writes about being alone in a place which is normally bustling. I also enjoyed the description of walking along a country lane in the black of night, having had that experience myself many times in the past, not to mention the occasional unexpected meeting with a ditch….

continued……

…continued

There is one other here on AN: Susan Francis touches on racism and sexism in her blog (#35 – you need to read it to get the context), then, in the next, how she had googled her name and noted the differences between her namesakes. I couldn’t help but make a connection. One of the great joys of art is that a work stands on its own merits, irrespective of the sex, race, background, physical condition, age, or anything else of the artist. It is once the identity of the artist is revealed that that can be affected by others.

I have no fixed ideas about characterisations in my blog project, but at one point it crossed my mind to make Colin non-white. I had nothing other than the potential of an idea, and I had no thoughts at that stage where I might take it. Sadly, I realised I had already blown the opportunity because I had previously shown white hands. However, what dawned on me whilst reading Susan’s blog is this: without signifiers to the contrary, how many of us, whatever our gender, race or social background, will automatically assume that Colin is white?

I am citing Colin as one example – it’s not just him, of course, but every instance where it isn’t obvious. Is it the case that our view of the world must be relative to ourselves? In other words, if we read Colin’s blog from Beijing, say, we would most likely see Colin as Chinese. However, we live in a socially and ethnically diverse culture, and I think we are the richer for it. If social conditioning were the basis of our assumptions it should, by now, be more inclusive. I hope it is, but is it? I am not suggesting that we are inherently prejudiced; on the contrary, I believe that prejudice is something we are taught.

Really, these things (gender, race, disability, etc.,) shouldn’t matter, (that is to say, in a better world they wouldn’t be an issue) but when we are talking about making false assumptions, these things certainly do matter.

Sort of in a similar vein, from about a year ago I remember noticing that a man had joined an online Women Artists Only group ‘in protest’. He had two arguments: one, that there should not be such non-inclusive groups; two, that as a white, middle-class male he was precluded from so many opportunities that he felt disadvantaged….