Just a quick post today… I’ll write a longer one soon and catch you up with the crazy month that July has been!
BLOG: My blog’s 30 Days of Drawing project has gone really well. My blog traffic has increased by a decent margin, and I’ve come to meet and find out about several interesting artists’ and writers’ work. So that’s been good. I’m beginning to wish I could find a way to monetize my blog, though I’m certainly grateful for the outlet and networking/frienship opportunities it has so far provided. To the end of making dollars, I’ve started reading Darren Rowse’s Problogger book, which details how he grew a blogging business of his own. Sounds like a hell of a lot of hard work, but it might just be worth it. After a year of funded graduate study, and a build up of freelance writing tasks that convince me I have what it takes to make this professionally, I hate the idea of working for someone else ever again! Down with office work!
DRAWING: I didn’t manage to draw every day, but I certainly drew much more in the month of July than I have for the past few months combined. I suppose a bit of accountability and time-management, and willingness to get a little tired and stressed in the process is helpful – at least in the short term. I will be doing another rethink of where I want to get to in life, and how an art practice might fit into that sometime soon. But I’m definitely grateful for the experience of incorporating drawing into my daily life. It hasn’t yet become a habit but maybe it will eventually. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t work on my representational skills as much as I had wanted to, however, I learned a lot about the pleasure of working with line, pencil, paper and ink, in a way that I’m sure will continue to motivate me in the future.
ART HISTORY: is going really well… will update with more info later… Suffice to say that August will be much more of a stay-at-home, or in a cafe/bookshop, typing up dissertation and doing freelance writing assignments. Much, much less travel.
Phew!!
If you’re interested, see http://beckyhunter.co.uk for the entire 30 Days of Drawing project!
ART HISTORY: Using the Wi-fi on the Megabus to New York City! On my way to look at some Agnes Martins, Barnett Newmans, Mona Hatoums and Yayoi Kusamas for my dissertation. Also meeting a friend that I haven’t seen for a couple of years. V nice day ahead, full of coffee, chats, and furious notemaking.
Also have the challenge of trying to figure out how to photograph these works. The Martins in particular are notoriously difficult to reproduce, and I will have to make copious annotated sketches to remind myself which bit of close-up grid is which in my images.
INTERVIEW: Just wanted to signpost my recent interview with musician and illustrator Jeffrey Lewis. Do let me kmow what you think. I’ve been a fan of his for years and was thrilled that he agreed to do a interview with me for 30 Days of Drawing.He’s written/drawn for the UK Guardian and the New York Times amongst many other great publications.
GALLERY: I must remember to contact some arty/gallery/studio people in Philadelphia asap to start building a network out here, and learnign how I can best contribute to the existing situation. Things have been so busy here in Philly/Boston/now NY, that the gallery stuff has fallen on the back burner. Though yesterday evening I did take a lovely walk around the 50th St and Baltimore Ave area in Philly to start thinking about how the gallery would work with other young creative businesses in the area.
ART HISTORY: Really great trip to the Harvard archive/storage facility in Somerville, near Boston. My meeting with Christina Rosenberger was excellent. Our research interests on Martin are so different, but we had a lot of questions in common and some similar perspectives on the work. She’s also a much more experienced scholar than me, and she was happy to give me lots of advice on things like taking good photographs and how to approach big commercial galleries with odd questions on pieces of art (like my current obsession with Martin’s aluminium frames).
I also got to view some really excellent Martins. The phrase “Kid in a candy store” springs to mind! Of particular interest to me was a pencil on watercolour grid from 1960, which seemed to be deliberately intended to soak, wrinkle (almost destroy) the thin paper on which it was made. I made approx 6 pages of sketchbook and written notes on this drawing as I think its unusual texture, set off by pencil lines which almost seem to score the paper (they don’t, it’s just a clever trick of perspective) will feature in my dissertation. It was an inspiring day – and also made me appreciate my boyfriend who not only found us a place to stay with an old friend, but also partied all night with said friend, and still drove me to the archives before 9am the next morning! True love if ever I saw it.
I’m a little worried about the writing up phase of my dissertation, which should have started already. However, I plan to begin that on Wednesday now that a lot of my archival visits are complete… well, complete is totally the wrong word here. It’s more like, my archival work for the next few years (if I choose to continue) has just begun. The archives and stored paintings of Martin’s are so rich, and so understudied, that there is a real opportunity here to say something worthwhile and hopefully original.
DRAWING: Drawing month is going well. I’m finding the interest and response quite overwhelming, especially from other artists and illustrators. I’m making some new friends and viewing lots of interesting art work too. I’m having to work hard to fit my own drawing practice into my schedule. It seems corny, but having to present my ‘Saturday Sketchbook’ online each weekend is really forcing me to keep pushing forward with it, for fear of looking like a fake blogger who can’t keep her own project going.
That said, I’m certainly learning a lot about drawing, looking more closely at other artist’s drawings and have started finding myself getting all fidgety and frustrated if I miss a day or two of my drawing time. Which is exactly what I wanted… I’d love to form a drawing habit so that I can go on improving and looking and touching and critiquing and observing long after July’s Drawing Month project is over.
ART HISTORY: Very excited, and also rather nervous, as tomorrow morning I will be attending Harvard University’s Fogg Museum store in Somerville, MA, in order to view some paintings and drawings by Agnes Martin. I’ll also be meeting with Christina Bryan Rosenberger, a conservator at the museum, and an IFA New York doctoral candidate looking at material processes in Martin’s work. I’m not sure exactly what I will find helpful in either the viewing or the meeting but I’m looking forward to moving into unknown territory. I’ve noticed that whenever I get stuck on an Agnes Martin problem, or if I’m just tired and need some inspiration/motivation, viewing some of Martin’s works “in the flesh” revives my interest and reminds me why I care so much about researching and interpreting her work.
DRAWING: My 30 Days of Drawing project is going really well and I’m attracting more readers each day. Thrilled about this. I’m glad there is an interest or a curiosity out there about such a traditional, but rich, art form. Although I’ve been busy, running the blog challenge is focusing my mind and my actions towards drawing in a way that I don’t often manage to sustain. I hope that my daily drawing practice will continue long after July is over. I feel that this might provide a way for me to really start practicing as an artist again and not merely as a critic or historian.
INTERVIEW: I’m a huge fan of New York based artist, illustrator and entrepreneur Molly Crabapple and was absolutely thrilled when she agreed to do an interview for my Drawing Month project on her use of and attitudes towards drawing as a medium. I just put the article up today and I hope you’ll enjoy it. I’ll be publishing interviews with artists every few days during July – I’m really happy with the responses I’ve received so far.
BLOGGING: 30 Days of Drawing has begun. I’m nervous and excited and I really hope lots of people are inspired to take part and to practice drawing.
USA: I’m still pretty exhausted from my travels so far, but had a briliant time in the Philadelphia ICA (University of Pennsylvania) archives. The modern art archivist Donna Brandolisio is very keen to share her knowledge and interests, and is a specialist on the history of the ICA itself. The curator at the time of Agnes Martin’s 1973 survey show there, Suzanne Delahanty, was apparently an enthusiastic, compassionate and formidable woman, holding a museum directorship at a time when the women’s movement was just gaining new momentum.
DRAWING: I’m really enjoying drawing grids each day at the moment, experimenting with texture, materials and colour. I hope to get the courage up to do some observational drawing tomorrow morning and will post my efforts up on my site.
HEALTH: I had a blood test just before leaving for the USA. Turns out I have anaemia, which might explain the constant dizziness and problems in concentration I’ve been having. Getting a diagnosis is a good thing though, isn’t it, as now I can stock up on iron supplements and broccoli and hopefully soon I’ll be back to full strength. One of my tutors from the Prince’s Drawing School said, ‘If you want to work, you need to eat.’ Will have to feed myself up!
