When you’re aware of things in your life potentially falling apart, you can go one way or the other – give up and go under, or go with the flow and somehow manage to keep your head above the water. It takes a conscious effort and a lot of patience and staying power to hang on in there – uncertainty is one of life’s hardest emotions to tolerate.
There are simply times in life when one’s faith in humanity needs restoring and these past few weeks have been such a time. Which is why I’m grateful to those who have taken the time to comment on my blog – encouraging, kind and empathetic words have instilled me with a sense of hope that everything will work itself out and be okay. I’ve had more contact with other artists over the past few days than I would in an average week in the studio, both through consciously making the effort to place myself ‘out there’ physically into the wider art community and through being active on social networks. And of course, through this blog.
I feel I’ve managed to keep it together – because for me, recent events have shown that my ‘survival’ has been as much about keeping together the community of artists to which I feel belong as it is about keeping myself and my creative practice together.
Wise words from artists like Rob Turner rob-turner.blogspot.com with a wealth of experience of working in art communities have helped enormously to keep me on track. As well as connecting me with another artist with whose work I share similarities, Rob pointed out the importance of what to him plays a fundamental part in keeping it together – to continue to create work. His words inspired me this week to carry on being an artist; creating and making in the way I know how – with or without a studio.
Consequently, ‘Belle’ was created, carefully packed and posted to Wakefield on Tuesday to help decorate a Christmas tree in a Winter Wonderland. aliceandbobcurate.wordpress.com And ‘Dust Collectors’ was started and completed as a symbol of what in real life my art materials are doing – collecting dust in a self-storage unit in deepest Deptford. ‘Dust Collectors’ is also representative of the reaction from those who have never understood the habit of collecting; those who consider anything not being used in a home as superfluous and unnecessary – ‘bloomin’ dust collectors – get rid of them!’
The generosity of spirit in response to my first ever post on this blog has been lovely to see and is also confirmation that the sharing and exploring of my ideas on Artists Talking can be done in a safe and supportive environment. Trust is paramount in order to feel truly at ease to tell it as it really is – the high points and the low of being an artist, warts and all. And so, thank you – to those who shared their thoughts with me – for a positive start and for your empathy and sensitivity.
