Keeping It Going

July marked ten years since I wrote my first ever post here and I meant to acknowledge it.* The recent heatwave, plus contracting Covid for the first time, means that life’s slowed down somewhat over the past few weeks/months, however and I just haven’t found the motivation to write.

I’ve missed writing here and as I’ve said so many times, maintaining this blog over the years has provided me with a good, solid record, not just of the work I’ve managed to make, but the multitude of things that come with that. It helps me look back, tie up any loose ends and often, guides me towards new ideas and work. I invariably complete a post, feeling more organised, more settled and ready to move forward.

Bringing all the loose strands together and maintaining a thorough record of the various things I’ve been involved with or have been working on, feels positive and restorative – centres me. It picks up forgotten, coincidental stuff – the bits of work here and there, the gallery visits, the zoom calls with other artists – all so easily overlooked, but all of which fill my time and contribute to living life as a working artist. It’s good to remind myself of this every now and then – to remember the ‘coincidental stuff’ the next time I’m beating myself up for not making enough work!

Time for reflection can be equally as important as making the work and I’ve had time over these past few weeks to take time out, sit quietly and look back. To acknowledge ten long years of keeping it going with this blog, I looked back at the very early posts I wrote in 2012. One of them from July 2012, was about an invasion of rats:

https://www.a-n.co.uk/blogs/keeping-it-going-1/date/2012/07/ 

I remember being a bit reticent writing about it at the time, having vermin on the premises revealing a pretty unsavoury side of my life. Admittedly, it was confined to the garden shed but it still felt far too close for comfort, rats so commonly associated with dirt and filth. I had the choice of not sharing anything at all about it, but a lot of the materials and objects the rats destroyed were intended for my future work. I remember being really upset finding some precious items, wrecked beyond repair – so, why wouldn’t I mention it! Life, with all its highs and lows, is part and parcel of being an artist – you can’t just separate the two!

The rat invasion has definitely made me feel a bit nervous about my imminent plans to move my stuff out of storage and into a recently built shed in my garden. I’ll vermin proof it as well as I can but they’re pretty determined creatures by all accounts and short of steel storage boxes, I think I just have to hope for the best. (In the meantime, anyone with any tried and tested tips, do please let me know!)

It’s nothing new for me, as juggling with space and storage and huge amounts of ‘stuff’ is an integral, ongoing part of how I work, but it’s about to really get going in the next few weeks or so. In order not to feel completely overwhelmed when I made the big house move in June of last year, I separated my art materials and took them to a nearby commercial storage space. I budgeted for the cost (high!) and the plan always, was to keep the art materials in storage for a year in order to focus on sorting the house first. It’s August now and that plan’s nearly 4 months overdue. But as I said, life goes on and all sort of obstacles get put in the way and what you think will happen might not necessarily be so. It was a complete pleasure to have him, but having one of my adult sons at home for a while and leaving behind his stuff before heading off for a year in South America, followed by me recovering from Covid, has inevitably stalled things a bit. But that’s okay – it is what it is and, though addressed to a mouse rather than a rat, a line from Rabbie Burn’s poem sums it up perfectly: ‘the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley.’

In terms of catching up and using this blog as a space for recording what actually has been happening, I was really pleased and truly honoured, I have to say, to be contacted by painter Graham Crowley, letting me know that he’d created some paintings of the studio space I had at Bond House in New Cross, London. And it was a real treat to be able to see one of them in real life in the first part of Graham’s solo show ‘Workplaces & Wildspaces’ at Monica Petzal’s spectacular Print Room Studio in Sweffling, Suffolk at the end of May this year. You can see Graham being interviewed about the show by artist and founder of art review website ArtTop10, Robert Dunt here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UL9y4Tswug

And you can also see Graham’s paintings of my studio (Kate Murdoch’s Studio 1, 2 & 3) under ‘Recent Paintings’ on his website here:

https://www.grahamcrowley.co.uk/recent-paintings-2

I’m looking forward to getting back into the studio and establishing some sort of routine again soon. Things have slipped a bit since having Covid but I’m feeling much better now and eager to get back to work on a couple of ideas. It feels good to feel more organised, in my head at least, in the meantime – all helped by finally finding the energy to sit down and write this blog post.

I had no idea when I first started ‘Keeping It Going’ in July 2012 that I’d still be writing it after ten years. It’s clear, I think – and in this post, particularly – that I’m really glad that I have.

There’s more to catch up on with other things that happened over the summer months – ‘Always on My Mind’  for example, was an amazing exhibition organised and curated by painter, Harry Pye at the Fitzrovia Gallery in London. But more about that in another post because, just like the decluttering of stuff that’s about to start, it’s also good I think, not to clutter the blog with too much information!

And so, more anon …

* It was however, acknowledged by Stephen Palmer at a-n who kindly published an article, inspired by conversations between Stuart Mayes, Elena Thomas and myself about the impact of long term blogging. I hadn’t quite reached the 10 year mark when the article was published last year but I’m there now! If you’re interested, you can read it here:

https://www.a-n.co.uk/news/a-qa-with-elena-thomas-kate-murdoch-and-stuart-mayes-artists-and-a-n-bloggers/

Kate Murdoch Testing

I’ve been looking back at blog posts and not for the first time, this quote by the late activist Harry Leslie Smith, leapt out at me:

‘Keep faith in love, friendship and democracy & never surrender your human light to the darkness of demagogues.’

The quote was taken from one of Harry’s own new year tweets, not long before he died. I’ve aways felt inspired by him; a good, principled man and an activist for the poor and for the preservation of social democracy. It feels ever more important to me at this time, to stay in touch with messages supporting democracy, with hope and optimism at the heart of them.

In 2017, I ended my New Year blog post with the above quote. Two years later, I mentioned it again and went onto write about ‘copying it and sticking it on my fridge door in the hope that seeing it enough will help keep me focused and perhaps, more optimistic about the future of a world that currently feels so fragile & fragmented.’

And yet … five years on, and here we are, at a point where, day by day, the future of the world feels increasingly more fragile and fragmented. The Russian invasion of Ukraine a week ago was described as ‘both a tragedy and a humanitarian disaster in the making’ in a news headline I saw yesterday. As the conflict rages on, headlines such as this reach us and daily bulletins of disturbing events become the norm, we are reminded of how much is outside our control. There are questions, too, around the authenticity of some of the reports coming in – how much of the news is fake, what is the truth?

Collectively, feelings of acute helplessness grow and we turn to doing what we can. Art in times of war and conflict, in situations where human rights are being violated, sometimes acts as a form of resistance – a way out. Expressions of hope and optimism become the perfect antidote to the horror and pointlessness of war.

Sunflowers are the national flower of Ukraine and have become a symbol of solidarity. I remembered this morning that I had some paper ones in storage and rescued them from a box in the attic. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them but right now, they’re laying on my late Nana’s dining table, in my living room. As someone who witnessed many wars throughout her long-lived life and whose younger brother was killed in the Second World war, I wonder what she would make of the state of current world affairs …

I can visualise her now, sitting in her armchair, quietly shaking her head, condemning the horror and futility of war and expressing compassion and sympathy for its victims, just as so many of us worldwide are doing.

lovely jubbly:

British informal, used to express delight or approval: fish and chips and a few beers on the way back from a match – lovely jubbly! (from lubbly Jubbly, a 1950s advertising slogan for Jubbly, an orange-flavoured soft drink; adopted by comedy writer John Sullivan in his BBC television series ‘Only Fools & Horses.’)

I always love a good story. This report about an error on thousands of pieces of royal souvenir china caught my eye recently and made me smile. A spelling mistake on thousands of pieces of platinum jubilee merchandise celebrating the Queen’s jubilee this year refers to the ‘jubilee’ as ‘jubbly.’ It’s a word that’s used a lot in the ‘Only Fools and Horses’ sitcom, primarily by Del Boy himself – ‘lovely jubbly’ is a classic phrase of his.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60218573

I love the fact that something such as the manufacturing of royal souvenirs, so revered and admired in certain circles, should fail so spectacularly. And in this particular case, to top it all, to be compared to one of the UK’s most iconic working class characters in the shape of Del Boy (for those who don’t know, the character created by John Sullivan for his ‘Only Fools and Horses’ sitcom, brilliantly played by David Jason).

It also called to mind a piece of my work, ‘Mugs’ which I made for the ‘Push the Boat Out’ exhibition at the Art Academy, London in 2018. This piece highlighted another major royal merchandising mistake which resulted in mugs with images of the wrong prince next to Meghan Markle being produced. I quickly snapped up a royal mug with Prince William situated next to Meghan! You can see it on the top shelf next to a mug depicting William, also next to Kate.

I was surrounded by some amazing colourful art over the weekend and it’s helped me feel more optimistic than I usually do at this rather drab, grey time of year. It also felt good to be out and about again, visiting galleries and having proper, real life conversations with other artists after a long time of not doing so. As a result, I feel more inspired and motivated than I have in some time.

First stop was to see Paula MacArthur’s amazing, vibrant paintings in her solo show, ‘Still Light’ at the Rye Art Gallery. I was once again struck by artist Graham Crowley’s description about Paula’s paintings in his essay from 2014:

‘Light is not only the subject matter and content of Paula MacArthur’s luminous and rather exquisite paintings but it’s also their medium. Paula’s paintings draw us into the now. For most of us; light can be many things, but for Paula; it’s a celebration of the senses and an affirmation of values. This isn’t simply a celebration of light but of life. The key to this sort of achievement is transformation. This is one of the principle elements that distinguish painting from illustration. This is the transformation from paint into light and space. A kind of latter day alchemy.’

‘What lingers after seeing these extraordinary, luminous paintings is a sense of joy. This is a celebration of light, life and love.’

None of the photos I took on the day do Paula’s work any justice and in honour of her ‘luminous and rather exquisite paintings’ I won’t include my poor images here. Best go to see the show for yourself if you can, or click on the link below for improved images of her work.

Paula’s ‘Still Light’ show is on until March 20th 2022 and more details about the exhibition can be found here: http://www.ryeartgallery.co.uk/exhibitions-events

Alongside her solo show, Paula asked a group of contemporary artists to respond to some of the flower paintings held in the permanent collection in the same gallery. ‘Still Life with Flowers’ also continues until March 20th and includes artists Hermione Allsopp, Miranda Boulton, Graham Crowley, Rachel Lancaster, Angela Lizon, Paula MacArthur, Joe Packer, Narbi Price, Judith Tucker and myself. I’m delighted to be in such great company and very pleased with the pairing of my work, ‘Nora was deflowered by a man who worked at a soda-water factory’ alongside Mary Stormont’s beautiful ‘Orchids’ painting.

Hastings Contemporary gallery offered another explosion of colour with ‘Ignition: the exhibition’ which showcases art works made during the 2021 residency in the gallery and works from the archive by neurodiverse artists and makers from Project Art Works. The show continues until the end of February. To read more about it, click here:

https://projectartworks.org/exhibitions/ignition-the-exhibition/

Then onto see ‘A Generous Space’ exhibited over two floors of the main gallery. More than 300 works from all over the world were selected from the Artist Support Pledge (ASP) community, bringing online work into the real world. The amazing story behind this groundbreaking idea is best explained I think, by the founding member, Matthew Burrows in the following ArtReview interview:

https://artreview.com/how-artistsupportpledge-took-the-artworld-by-storm-matthew-burrows/#:~:text=In%20March%20the%20British%20painter,sell%20work%20directly%20from%20Instagram.

There was so much good art to see in the exhibition. It was clear that the work had been thoughtfully selected and placed and it was pleasing not to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it. On top of all that, reminders that the Artist Support Pledge (ASP) community provides a ‘generous culture and dynamic economy in support of ALL artists’ added another whole layer of positivity while seeing the exhibition. My visit left me feeling inspired to prepare some of my own work for sale as part of the ASP community. It’s exciting to think about how that might play out. Details of how to apply can be followed on this link:

https://artistsupportpledge.com/