This post was originally written on August 21st, 2012.
Since graduating I have been busier than at any time in my life, and that’s not just because three days before my final assessment my wife gave birth to our first child (a boy, name of Hamish, 6lb 3oz).
So, a run-down of what’s been happening and soon to be happening:
Site Unseen – 40 graduates from BathSpa came together for this contribution to the Truman Brewery’s Free Range event, an annual gathering of non-London university graduate works. I included ELVISLIVES, never, and exquisite.
Server/Browser – Twin exhibitions in Bristol as part of the city’s inaugural Biennial, shows put on by Madescapes^, an artist collaborative that I recently became a part of. I contributed some text, called #alwayson. I’ve also taken on the role of Online Editor for the group – follow @MadeScapes for more!
Paper Studios – Pop-up studio/shop in Bristol, and an exhibition featuring some of my work, namely ELVISLIVES and UNTITLED (I only fantasize)
Meanwhile ptII – Exhibition curated by Southampton University’s John Hansard Gallery, featuring work based around subtraction. My recent works exquisite and UNTITLED (And he was dead, everybody dies) are both included. Incidentally, that second piece was made in the first semester of my first year at university, which kind of makes me wonder if it was beginner’s luck or whether I have wasted my time and money on studies, and that I already had what it takes from the start. I’m going for beginner’s luck.
Platform 2012 – South West-based arts collective Hand in Glove invited me to take part in their graduate showcase event at the Bristol Diving School, along with around ten graduates from Bath, Bristol, and Newport. I showed Some Work and an #alwayson poster.
Arising from the Platform show was an opportunity to apply for Hand in Glove’s mentor scheme, which I did, and surprisingly won! I will be paired with a professional art writer from Bristol until June next year, so I will be bombarding that person with all sorts of articles from next month onwards. If I’m not a paid writer by the end of 2012, I’ll only have myself to blame!
Challenging Art is for Everyone – A Madescapes^ group discussion, with a live audience and Artolo. A nerve-wracking but vital event, which helped us put across our ideas to a non-typical art audience and which showed that non-art people are alienated by the language artists use – biiig surprise there.
On the writing front I have been blogging and applying for jobs, I was short-listed from about 400 applicants for IdeasTap‘s The Columnist role, you can read my submission here. Having read it back I already hate it, but being short-listed from that many applicants has given me the confidence to carry on applying for writers jobs. I have also been involved in some website editorial work that I am as yet unable to disclose. Oh, and I have written and edited a few articles for local NCT magazines, about being a new dad.
I have also had to turn down a couple of exhibiting and mentor opportunities on account of me having to pay for them, money being in short supply right now. But my plate is already overloaded anyway, and now more than ever, it is important not to spread myself too thin.
So there it all is, the busiest two months of my life, and at the same time as having to tend to a brand new baby, to be part of a team with a brand new mother, and bring in some kind of wage from a very dull and un-rewarding part-time van-driving job. But let’s not end on a sour note, life is the best it has ever been, and it’s only getting better.
So leaving my home town, going to university, and actually trying to do something has already paid off, big time!
Thanks for reading.
