Almost a week without working and although I feel better for it, I’m starting to get a little restless.
Blowing my hard earned cash, I had another exhibition filled trip yesterday, heading towards ‘that’ London. It was quite tiring cramming so much into my one day off, but I really felt that I got my ‘monies’ worth.
The V & A wouldn’t honour their reciprocal deal to Tate staff to see the Bowie exhibition there, which was really annoying ( they said it was too busy ) But we did go to ‘Ripleys believe it or not’ for free ( a bit of silliness before starting the more serious exhibition tour)
Really liked the Patrick Caulfield at Tate Britain…was a bit disappointed with Gary Hume (looked so much better in reproductions IMO)… and was bemused at how unbelievably busy Lowry was. (pretty quiet in the other two!)
I hugely recommend Simon Starling at TB. Fabulous, mesmerising film.
I thought Tate Modern was a bit ….meh…but then, I was probably in exhibition overload by then and completely disorientated with the building work cutting off the Turbine hall. Having said that, I LOVED Ellen Gallagher. The small body of work I’d seen before in a previous exhibition, hadn’t been stimulating enough for me to research her work more thoroughly, so when I saw this huge expanse of work dating back over 15 years or so, I was completely taken aback.
I’d had a period of black gloss paintings myself a few years ago, but had abandoned them after reaching a mental block on them. If only I’d seen her work earlier, it may have inspired me to take them further. I had no idea she had gone through this period herself.
I’m so glad I did this trek as I feel slightly more charged up now. It can be so draining working on multiples as you can’t think beyond that small space you are occupying.
There have been several opportunities recently for postcard exhibitions, but my mind had gone blank when attempting to fill just this small scrap of card. I go into panic mode when faced with these things – how much work do you do? Can it be a small scribble? Does it have be totally decorative or more time consuming?? Every time I see the end results from others I think ‘Damn ‘ I could have done that!’.
I must promise myself that after I have completed this installation, I will spend more time drawing…. Or painting…or printing… just to open my mind again
