Funilly enough I’m finding it hard finding time to blog – can’t imagine why!…
I had a great day at the foundry, being a bit of a pyromaniac I enjoyed setting light to the pan of wax more than putting out the fire :) but learnt how to hold a damp towel so my hands were protected to cover it and put it out.
I also enjoyed watching all the techniques and Ian, who I think it head of the wax department was great. He gave me another guided tour and really went into technical details, which I enjoy.
I also learnt you don’t need to use a key to put a disk on or off an angle grinder, and it is only if it really gets jammed.
Tonight I went to the degree show at the Art Academy where I sometime teach and where I did my degree. I’d spent the day in the studio with Tiny Marshall so I took him with me and wandered around with him in a baby bjorn carrier. He was very good and cooed and smilled at everyone. I thought the breadth and quality of the work was very good. And it was nice seeing lots of old friends and students.
In particular I bumped into my friend who I was sharing a studio with until the residency started in January. We were both pregnant together, and her 3rd was born about 3 week after Tiny. She is also subletting her half of the studio, also to a painter, and we both agreed how funny its been when we’ve been back to see the space we used filled with 2 painters with easles and a lot less mess than we managed.
As we were chatting Tiny M started getting fractious and hungry, so Felipe let us in to the art school office where we sat on a comfy sofa whilst I nursed him and we had a good catch up. She is busy with lots of sales and trying to do her waxes in her kitchen.
It made me realise I really need to sort out some more help so that I can start getting back into the studio full time.
I have been feeling frustrated recently that I haven’t achieved as much as I had wanted to in the first 6 months of the residency, and I need to start putting the foot down on the gas if I’m going to make the most of my time left.
I’ve been doing between 2 and 4 days a week in the studio, but not sure how productive I’ve been in that time. My aim is to be in the studio full time by september and doing good 6-7hr days of work. But the house is chaos and I get exhausted and irratable at times.
But I’m still not sure exactly what kind of help I want, and what we can afford. We talked about getting an au pair, but the house feels very small and it is very useful having the spare bedroom/spare bed to manage the sleepless nights. I’m now thinking more a home help type person as it is more keeping on top of all the laundry and cleaning and mess a family of 4 (its amazing how much mess a 3 1/2 year old can create in the time it takes to feed a 10 week old). But I’m in that catch 22 that I’m too busy to have time to sort it out – but I must…
Tiny Marshall is now 10 weeks and smilling lots, it is lovely just sitting looking into his face and making pretend conversation with him. When I’m frustrated by it all, its a guaranteed mood lifter.
Better get to bed now as its gone 12.30 and James and I are doing our first wax cast in the studio, for a mould we finished today.
