Intuition & Intellect
One of the things I have been reflecting on this week is a piece of advice I read by Kitt White (artist and MFA professor in New York). “Work from your intuition, and analyze with your intellect”.
I really liked this reasoning as this is how I’m instinctively drawn to work and yet often worry that I should intellectually work through the piece completely before beginning. However, while having an intellectual concept underpining the work is good, to reason your way through the piece entirely before beginning leaves little room for discovery along the way.
This thought was echoed by White as he suggests that by using intuition we “draw upon what lies beneath normal cognition in an uninhibited way”. This always for unfiltered and unfamiliar thought to enter the work. From this point we can then use our rational intellect to analyse what has been done.
Exciting News
Nothing to report on the bursary front this week as I havent yet had my first meeting but as I wanted to commit to writing on this blog on a weekly basis I thought I’d share some good news instead.
Over the last 6 months I’ve been in dicussions with the curator of The Guildhall Art Gallery who has invited me to show some work as part of the major show “Victoriana: The Art Of Revival”. The show is planned for this September and will showcase artists from the last 20 years who have been inspired by nineteenth-century values and aesthetics.
I will be showing existing pieces that play with the Victorian idea of decadence, theatricality and artifice.
This week I went to visit Sonia for further discussions and was delighted when she asked if I’d be interested in creating a site specific piece for the show as well! I’ve been given what is essentially a small store room off one of the main gallery spaces. I’m hoping to construct a room within this room that will transform the utilitarian space into a shrine-like grotto. Using a highly ornate vocabulary (including fake gold, artificial flowers and altered trinkets) I’ll be questioning values of “worth” and looking at blurring the line between worship and idolatry.
During my meeting I was also blown away to hear some of the other artists whose work had been confirmed in the show. Turns out I’ll be exhibiting alongside works by Paula Rego, Grayson Perry and Yinka Shonibare!
My Studio
I’ve arranged a date with my mentor this week for us to have the first of our sessions funded by the an Re:view bursary. Tuesday the 7th of May is the date for the two hour session for which I am both excited and nervous in equal measures.
She will be travelling from London to my studio in Southampton so she will be able to see all my work in person as well as how I go about my practice.
I rarely have studio visits. If I am showing people work I tend to take the work to them. My studio is my private space – it will feel strangely vulnerable having someone I admire so much walking around in there.
My work feels different there than it does when in a gallery space – somehow “less” without the context of an official art space? Maybe less isnt quite the right word. I guess work takes on an air of independence when it has left me and is shown somewhere else. I like seeing it change somewhat with that distance.
My studio is an extended garage conversion that is connected to the house. I paid for the conversion using money from the start up business I sold when deciding to go full time as an artist. Then the extention of the converted space was a Christmas gift from my husband two years ago. Its a wonderful place to work – light, convenient and plenty of space to hoard all the objects I collect for potential future works as well as enough floorspace to have a couple of sculptures on the go.
It will be interesting to have someone visit!
ps. heard a couple of days ago that Saatchi director, Rebecca Wilson, has included Effects of the Earths Motions IV in an online sculpture collection called Object Lessons.
http://www.saatchionline.com/art-collection/Sculpt…
Nice.
Why did I apply for a Re:View Bursary?
The opportunity that a bursary like this gives to move your practice forward has obvious advantages for any artist. But I thought today I’d share what in particular appeals to me and how I think it will benefit my personal practice.
My background education is in psychology (PhD in social psychology) rather than the arts, which has both its advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage being I feel I have lacked the environment in which to develop an independent critical and reflective discipline in my practice.
I have been working as a full time artist for the past 4/5 years and I am extremely passionate and hardworking about what I do. I love making art and consider it a privilege. I have got to the point where my work has been shown at some great exhibitions nationally and internationally. However I feel I would benefit enormously from critical input and guidance from a relevant person of experience and insight. The individual who I will be mentored by as a result of this bursary fits this role wonderfully and I am incredibly excited to have her on board.
One of the things this mentoring exercise will force me to do is to discuss my work face to face with an individual. I know this to be one of my greatest weaknesses. I have confidence in my work to speak for itself but when I am asked to speak for it I inevitably come up short. This will be the thing I will be most fearful about in the process but it is something I can only improve upon.
As well as developing greater self critique and being more vocal about my work, I am hopeful that a mentor will bring added direction and confidence to my practice and career development. I believe through critical engagement with my work a mentor will help me understand the elements that are key to develop further and the areas in which my practice should be pushed more.
I think more confidence in the direction of my practice will enable me to be freer in terms of the use of materials and the scale I work on. What I really hope to see as an end product of this process is the creation of much more ambitious and confident works. And that’s something that gets me really excited!
