Chunk 3:
Reading it back, it’s almost like a list of excuses as to why I haven’t done what I know I should have been doing, but I just got swept along with life really and now here I am….
But things are turning a corner it seems. My other half, David, has a 12 month residency as a Lead Artist launching a new studio complex called Chapel Arts in Andover, and I have left the gym and am now working at Peter Symonds College in Winchester as the Textile and Photography Technician. Life has got much better. We have a beautiful little flat which is SOOOO much nicer than what we had in Southampton and we both have jobs we a) enjoy and b) are what we actually want to do and c) are surrounded by art day in day out!!!
I think for me, this is the only way it works. I need it around me nearly all of the time. I know that I get distracted and I find home, family and friends to be more important to me than art. This is another huge discussion / argument I have with myself regularly – As much as I love art and I enjoy it, it’s not my number one priority and I wonder all the time if I want to be an ‘artist’ should art be number one. Should I live it and breathe it? Should I be that archetypal artist living in squalor, spending the rent and electricity money on paints and pastels? Should my life be dedicated to art in every sense of the word? If the answer is yes to these things then I think I’m heading down the wrong road. For me, the things that come first are the simpler things like wanting to be married, wanting a family and a home. I love spending time with my partner ,my parents and brothers and tucking up at home with candles, a cosy book and something yummy to eat. Even as I write this I’ve got a pan of soup on the hob that I made from scratch this morning and I’m still wearing my apron!!!
