We’ve had new floors laid – yeh! after many years of waiting, but this has caused us to empty every book shelf and I am now in the process of putting everything back – inevitably, this started off well, until I came across a box file of old a-n magazines circa very early 90’s. It seemed necessary to pour a glass of red wine at this stage and half an hour later I am still pouring over them. What a difference!
Somehow – like a needle in a haystack, I have managed to find an old article I wrote on returning from a residency in the States, embarrassing stuff twenty years on! And the artwork – it has changed so much, lots of carved woody, chunky representational community based work, heavily detailed prints and paintings, so busy visually compared to now. And the content – forgive me a-n, it’s like getting out an old school photo.
First off, the letters page – 21 letters! Does nobody write in nowadays or are we all tweeting instead? Then the help page – a kind of agony aunt for the long suffering artist – wouldn’t Grayson Perry make a geat modern day one! And THE OPPORTUNITIES PAGES and yes I did mean to hit the caps lock. EIGHT PAGES OF THEM!. And then to the reason I picked up the first one that caught my eye. An article called ‘Balancing Act’ written by an artist called Beverly Fry, describing how to survive as a working artist with four children.
Following on from Rachel Howfields work on APT I thought this was fascinating. ‘As I plan my next career move, while the children play in the garden, I think, do commissioning bodies ever allow in their budgets the fees for childminders? or do scholarships broad take into account… the extra expenses of a family that cannot be left behind. The working person generally tries to keep the family under wraps. I do this myself for fear of being discriminated against. Why do I collude? It should be possible to achieve credibility status and acceptance from people when they are able to see the whole picture.’
Well, we may not have to hide the family anymore, but we’re still waiting for those child minding fees etc. Anyway, I can’t thow them out, they are a snap shot in time from my early days when exhibiting meant a constant stream of far off places and the ties of a family were the last things on my mind.
And congratulations a-n, I think we’ve all matured considerably since then!
