I’ve been sounding out and experimenting in the work I’ve been doing recently. The times and periods I have available are limited and often sporadic. I have a lot of time to think about my work while away from it and this changes the way I view it when I revisit. So far summer work has been revealing in that much of my time has been spent doing admin and organising. I flourish when I know what I need to do (having a checklist!) and work through it systematically. Then I come to my practice and don’t have a straightforward plan – ‘If I knew what I was going to do then what is the point of doing it?’ (Picasso) rings true. But, just because I don’t have a plan, it doesn’t mean I should work in a willy-nilly fashion. Sometimes I find I start a piece, and have to leave it midway and by the time I get back to it I no longer see any point in it. (Without interruption I would have completed it). My perception of my own lack of time (though, after all, I do have 24 hours in each day like you!) affects me and has for the entirety of my degree course. It affects what I think I can achieve and what I set out to do. Somehow I need to adjust this and make the most of the available pockets of time.
When I get into my artspace to work, I often start with catching up with admin/organising and emails, which I somehow need to manage better as this can take over completely and then I am left feeling wretched that I haven’t even got the paint out!
So far this summer holiday I have tried:
Spraypainting writing
large watercolour writing
3 x 20cm2 canvas’ placed in mini room arrangement
watered down white on black acrylic (x2)
beige on browny beige background (slightly vintage looking)
Black acrylic over old very textured work. White acrylic over
And now I’m working on (approx. A1) thick watercolour paper with watered down grey acrylic writing in any direction. For the first time I am not writing in lines, the writing is staying the same size, just swirling around the page.
I am finding it useful to come back to work done a while (week or two) ago and analyse then rather than straight after doing it. Immediately after finishing a piece I am quite black or white about it, I either think of it as a failure or ok, but not much in between and I’m either too critical or not at all.
