Tuesday is the Winter Solstice – the shortest day. This is one day I always look forward to, simply because it means the days start to get longer. Tough on vampires, I know.
The last few miles of a journey always seem the longest.
The last two days held a few highlights. Firstly I set up in Arc at Aspex on Thursday. Five pieces are on show until the end of January.
Next, I found out that both of the works I donated to the ‘Austerity Xmas Bogof’ have sold. This is a charity event organised by Wilson Williams Gallery, with whom I have exhibited several times during the last two years, including at the Venice Biennale. Proceeds of the sale go to the NSPCC.
Yesterday I had a thoroughly enjoyable chat with an artist friend – someone I always enjoy talking with, and a short while later I found out that the John Moores exhibition has had record visitors – so far 47,000 people have seen my 3D painting. I can’t quite get my head around that. Good stuff.
I was thinking this morning that I haven’t blogged a great deal lately, and I was wondering why. I am aware that much of what I write is not necessarily art related, or at least not obviously so, probably rambling and often irrelevant. Funnily enough, that doesn’t bother me too much – I have said before that this has become more of a journal or a place to note random thoughts. Many other blogs are more professional in their outlook. This is me.
I often write first thing, after I come back from walking the dog. It is such a significant part of my day, in all sorts of ways.
At this time of the year I rarely see anyone else – it is just me, the dog, the seabirds and the sea. It is a good place to reflect. Sometimes, a good time to dream.
It has been so bitterly cold lately that I have been left with little energy to think. The past few days even the pebbles on the beach have frozen together to form a solid, concrete mass.
My days have mostly been occupied with mundane things, writing, filling out forms. Freezing my head.
Studio 22
Good news! I heard yesterday that I have Studio 22 at Art Space for the next few months. This is perfect timing, not least because I need space to make some of the larger pieces I will be working on. It’s weird – I’m going to feel like the new kid.
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!).
