A couple of weeks ago I went to the lovely Bob’s graduation (1st in Art History – so proud of him) and by chance, this year’s Embroidery students were at the same time. Only a year since I was there myself!
At that time, I was still in the dark about how to be an artist, how to get started. It was veiled in mystery.
So it has been good to reflect on the year. I have been very lucky, I have had some great opportunities, and have been able to take advantage of them all so far. I haven’t been paid for anything yet, but then, I guess it is like any small business, it takes time to get returns for your investment. My investment has been mostly time, but also money and I’ve been lucky to have had some help with that from my family or I would have found it very hard.
There have been different phases during the year. I remember early on, in despair, going through the Arts Council mailings, and the A-N jobs and opps section, looking for things that I could apply for, finding very little that seemed relevant to me, and thinking I would never get beyond that stage.
But as the year has unfolded, my experience has changed my expectations of where work will come from. Some work has come by chance or through friends or contacts, and some I have generated myself, and some things have come out of other things I have done.
The residency at Nexus which i wrote about in my last blog was a gift. It came out of a chance conversation and was such a great start.
It gave me a space to work, and a structure, and a subject for my work, and some external expectation but not too much pressure, to come up with something coherent. It gave me the confidence that I could work outside the University environment and generate new ideas. It gave me a great showcase for my work – the sheet installation i made for the show I curated, was the best I’ve done.
That experience pushed me into finding a studio – seeing how much more effectively I worked when I had one. And the studio has become a subject for new work. Having just finished a bookmaking course with Lucy May Schofield at Hotbed Press, I’m currently developing an artists book on the history of the street where the studio is situated.
University contacts got me an opportunity to show a sheet installation in Stroud at the International Textile festival, and out of that, I’ve been asked to return as an artist in residence next year, and will be working on a project about the waterways.
A friend suggested me for a collaborative installation at Platt Hall, which will have been there for six months by the time it comes down, great exposure for my work.
Another friend, an artist whose work I saw and liked and then chatted to and got to know, asked me to show with her and another artist at Rogue, and is continuing to apply for group shows for the three of us. We will be meeting over the summer to hammer out what we want to do together. The other two are much more well established than me, and I feel like I’m hanging on to their shirt-tails and being taken to places I would never get to on my own! I’m very grateful.
Recommendations from people who have seen my work have got me opportunities at the Knit and Stitching show in Harrogate, and at the Farfield Gallery in Sedburgh. The Sedburgh project looks very exciting, and if it comes off, I think it could be one of those pivotal experiences which helps me orientate my work in the future.
So a year on, the mysterious question of how to be an artist is no longer on my mind, I am just getting on with it, and grateful for my good luck. But for now I need a holiday! See you at the end of August!
