The real world is knocking at my door and I am bracing myself for the change. I feel very accustomed to my lifestyle here and think the transition back is going to be hard. The last few weeks have been filled with visits, meetings, applications and hours in front of the computer.
The open studios went well and it was really satisfying to put everything on white walls and just take some time to absorb my progress. It funny to see how everything links, its like all the work is involved in a big conversation.
My family came for the open days, which was lovely and put my head in a clear place to (again) appreciate my position at the moment. My practice has been quite insular here, so it was good to see how people interacted with the work and get some feedback. My drawing (which is now up to 82 days and five sheets of paper) had probably one of the most interesting responses. I have never shown my drawings with my sculptures before but received many compliments for my daily doodles. It's strange as they are probably the most honest depiction of my time here. For me, it is a record of my time and for the audience it's a story. I like this idea and although some days it is hard to know what to draw, I am really glad I started it.
"Tout le monde voit le vent souffler" was finished but the weather was not good enough to risk connecting all the electrics. To be honest, the piece is not quite right. I think it has more potential than this primary structure offers so am happy to label it as a work in progress, and keep it stored in the back of my mind for a while.
The open studios also brought a local reporter, an occurrence which makes me cringe and smile simultaneously. Adeline managed to reel off a beautiful translation of my work (she is quite practiced at this, as there have been quite a few school groups in the past which have heard various versions of my practice).
The majority of the rest of my time has been filled with documenting. I seem to be very good at making things that are almost impossible to capture on film. Changing a 3D form into a 2D form is difficult enough without adding the complications of shiny objects, movement and scale.
All that said I have now finished taking pictures and am now on the daily hunt for cardboard ready for the move. Packaging and moving house and studio across countries is going to be interesting, so I thought it best to start earlier rather than later. Every now and then I have a break from cardboard world and glue my eyes to the computer as I know now I must also concentrate on writing applications so I can show some of the work in exhibitions.
