The curse of the blinking cursor
I have been staring at a blinking cursor for days. When things are going well it can’t keep up with my high-speed-two-fingered typing, but when things aren’t going so well, it lurks at the end of the last crappy sentence, defying me to come up with something approaching lucidity. It also seems to have a bullshit-detection function, flashing even more irritatingly than usual when it has sensed drivel. Well I got the little sucker. Last night, trying once more to write my proposal, everything clicked into place. I raced through paragraph after paragraph. Yes. Still a long way from the end, but it isn’t all uphill any more.
I keep beating myself up about some aspects of my work. I’m not sure if it is unhealthy, or, more positively, simply a way of appraising it. I suppose the answer to that depends on mood. Perhaps it is the only means I have to be objective about it.
Something else I have been mulling over: the purpose keeping a blog serves. I have stopped looking upon it as a strictly promotional tool, although I’m not aware of making a conscious decision to do that. I hope it still serves that function, of course, but I believe that I have found it much more helpful (for the time being, at least) to use it as a kind of journal. It provides a channel for me to focus my thoughts. Treating it this way has, I realise, allowed me to be much more open and to talk more candidly. It helps in all sorts of ways. Whether that makes for interesting reading or not is something else…..
I will be back in the studio in a few days, on Friday to be exact. I have a lot of catching up to do, and I know I am going to be busy. I need to get research under way, and clarify my funding proposal – both as a matter of priority.
There is also 6by4 coming up very shortly. Response to this has been really good, with some more well-known names pledging support: most recently, the artist Richard Wilson has just confirmed that he will be sending in a postcard, as well as Martin Parr, Paul Smith and Wayne Hemingway adding to the hundreds of artists who have already contributed (including some from A-N artists – thank you!).
