A lot has happened over the midwinter and new year break, the most important thing is that I didn’t get any Arts Council funding. This is not all negative as I can still go ahead with Jography and it will be changed for the better.
Venues have been either non responsive, dependant on ACE funding or not interested, so it seems that jography will be light on its feet too. So I will rely on opening up discussions on Twitter, and a blog that will run parallel to this blog.
Twitter @JOGRAPHYproject
http://www.jographyproject.blogspot.com/
I have some help on board too, in the shape of Eleanor Shipman, who is a fellow artist that I was at college with. We have hammered out a plan to get an exchange of views on the divisions between art and sport in this the London Olympic year.
The Imapmyrun app will help me to publish my route online and hopefully pull in some discussion from runners all over the world.
I intend to approach my running club, Herne Hill Harriers to start this process off. It is a very long established club and I hope many people will feel they can add to the debate about art and sport.
I have been thinking about Emil Zatopek. an outstanding athlete who won the 5K, 10K and the marathon at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. He put his whole heart, soul and body into running, a commitment I try to emulate with both art and running.
After a very windy visit to Newcastle to see a fellow artist I am back in the studio and I feel a renewed sense of purpose. It may be that in the morning I am writing 3 pages of stream of consciousness, (from Julia Cameron’s book ‘the artists way’) this really helps me to get on with what I want to do, and what is fun to do.
The integration of running into art and my daily routine is going well, I ran everyday in Tynemouth, where the wind on Thursday night actually pushed me up the hill I chose to train on. I am reading ‘Born to Run’ by Christopher McDougall which is very interesting as it is concerned not only with running as a way of life but acknowledges that the joy of running is the real secret. We are just that, born to run.
Today I tried running and drawing in Southwark park. I circled a drinking fountain and the bandstand. A regular almost circular structure is easier to draw as you move, but your perspective and the light alter as well. This makes the drawing move along cubist ideas of seeing an object from all angles. Some crows were harder to capture as they moved. They accepted me as a moving object better than when I have tried to draw them standing still.
Mel Larsen, someone I met as a result of getting involved with the ‘Peace one Day’ event in Streatham this year has been an inspiration. All the people involved were important but Mel was instrumental in the events success and she certainly demonstrated that with a strong will, and help from others, you can put on an event for virtually nothing, which has a big impact. This is surely such a valuable thing to see happen, and be part of, for an artist. This is something we all try to do, produce some thing that makes a difference to the viewer.
Last week as a preparation for running and drawing I sketched while walking. I noticed that speed becomes important and that people who are moving at your speed are easier than stationary objects. Also far distant buildings and trees are OK to attempt but the perspective changes as you get nearer.
Making quick sketches is always a challenge, but is great in the way you have to be so economic and decisive. You almost have to turn your brain off to get anywhere, which is never a bad thing.
Further to my acknowledgement of people who help you out or even have molded your development as an artist. I would like to thank Chrissie Nicholls, a more established artist than me and a good friend. Her advice and honest opinion and direct coaching, through drawing, have changed my perspective on my art practice. We differ quite widely in our approach to art, but a meeting with her always provokes a gear change in my practice.
I wore my a t-shirt with ARTIST stencilled on the back whilst training on the track as I do every Tuesday night. This felt a good thing to do and part of the cross over I am trying to make between the art and the sport in my life. Of course there were comments from my running friends and some humour and maybe some understanding too.
I have got a quote on PR for ‘jography’ and I see now I will have to change the overall amount I am asking for.
Last night I was trying to understand how anyone can run over 26 miles in just over two hours. To help I drew martin Lel. You can see how slight and light he is but even so it doesn’t seem possible to be able to run that fast. It is his job I suppose but I know if I trained every day for years I wouldn’t be capable of that speed now or even when I was his age. Some people are made differently.
On my morning run over the damp and quite nippy stretches of both Tooting and Streaham commons I had a moment of insight. I have been so caught up with ‘Jography’ I have forgotten all the people who make it possible for me to make art. The Arts Council grant application helps you to remember who is key to your process. To redress this I am going to introduce you to Steve Gorton.
A modest and very loyal friend, photographer, climber who helped me to make the video “Skatewardian’ and the stills for that and other performances. His pictures of me running whilst drawing are featured here. He does all this, and what is more doesn’t want to be paid. Well if my grant application goes through he will have no choice as he is included in the budget. And what a pleasure it will be to see that he gets rewarded for his work.
This afternoon I have turned my attention to what is the right footware for drawing and running. I think my new two inch vegan brothel creepers might not be suitable.
