I’ve been surprised by how many times my thoughts have turned to this blog over the past few days. I wonder if the absence of colleagues at the studio to mull things over with is having an effect. Dialogue has always been an essential part of my life and as it is, writing this blog feels a bit like having someone to talk to.
I hadn’t imagined that I’d have that much to say to be honest but already I feel like I’m getting immersed in keeping some kind of journal, day by day accounts of what I’m up to in my newfound state, outside of a studio.
I’m enjoying the writing process and under present circumstances, it feels like a positive step, attaching myself to something that already feels like a useful and beneficial exercise. I’m grateful to those who took the time to speak at recent a-n events, to promote the advantages of writing a blog – it worked! And so, keeping it together in its many shapes and forms, continues…
I received an email this morning from an artist who is based in Deptford. She had only just heard the news about the sudden collapse of the studio complex I belonged to, was sorry to hear about it and said that it had left what she felt was ‘a sad gap’ in the area. I felt my studio’s absence acutely this Friday evening just gone when I passed by the empty space en route to Cockpit Arts. Open Studios in other studio complexes in the area were in full swing and instead of being a part of it, I was an outsider looking in; the ideas I’d had for my own Xmas Open Studio hadn’t had a chance to materialise.
But that email wasn’t the only one I received this morning; one was from Amnesty International and the other from Shelter – like a lot of things in life, it’s all a question of perspective – and in the grand scheme of things, not having access to a studio really isn’t that bad!
So I’ve dusted down some suitcases from the top of a wardrobe today with a view to getting on with some work around the kitchen table tomorrow; I’ve cleared the day especially and have stocked up with the necessary glue to get on with a sketchbook project, something I applied for way back in the Spring and needs to be completed and ready for sending by the end of January 2012.
The suitcases are crammed full of paper cuttings from various vintage magazines which I’ve collected over the years – images that for one reason or another had caught my eye and I knew one day would be used for something. I’ve had the collection some 20 to 25 years and a lot of the cuttings were collected in the States and shipped back to England in the late 1980s.
I applied to take part in a Sketchbook Project last spring – it’s an American project and I’ve been thinking about the irony of some of the images being sent back across the Atlantic to their original home in New York. I’m pleased to have the sketchbook to focus on – it’s like Rob Turner said, it’s important to keep producing the work.
