Listen to these three tracks on repeat:
Samishige – Mononoke Soundtrack
Howl’s Moving Castle Theme live – Joe Hisaishi
Legend of Ashitaka (Mononoke Hime) – Joe Hisaishi
Begin to make work.
I submitted an application for an MA at The University of Liverpool last year. I’m yet to hear from them. I posted my application for AHRC/ULAH funding this morning. I would have had it done sooner had I been able to make sense of the pages of ‘small print’.
Nothing is ever simple with these institutions of higher education. It’s as though they don’t want you to succeed.
I also posted an application for a curatorial assistant position based in Liverpool the other day; I’m yet to hear from them. I’m trying my hardest to enter as many competitions, prizes and open submissions as possible this year. I’m yet to hear from any of them.
Patience is a virtue.
Sometimes I hate my own work, especially when I feel as though it’s been too heavily influenced by what I think I should be doing for this degree. I hate it so much I consider throwing either it or myself out of my window. I have been known to set my work on fire. Constantly in a state of discontent with it, once finished, unless bought and out of sight, I want to change it, add to it, I just want to ruin it all over again until I like it, prior to disliking it, prior to hating it. It’s like a never ending cycle.
‘An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success.’
– Henri Matisse
This evening I discovered that Cy Twombly was a man. I’m not sure why I was convinced he was a woman. Perhaps it’s his painting style or choice of colour, who knows. I am genuinely surprised and now potentially more impressed by his work.
My mother and I had a rather heated debate on the phone this morning, about just ‘playing the game’ and attempting to understand the way universities work. I told her I can’t stand to be sat in another windowless studio surrounded by distractions, surrounded by people. She couldn’t believe the studios were without windows. Stick the contemporary artists under the artificial lighting and see how fast they’ll grow. Speaking of artificial lighting, my tomato plants are beginning to grow: http://t.co/5uwzLq2d A video relating to this post: http://player.vimeo.com/video/26534169
Since my last post I’ve recieved more photographs of my billboard from the streets of New Orleans and have been quite excited by the amount of press the project seems to be getting over there.
Art Billboards appear in New Orleans for Mardi Gras: http://t.co/EWhCDEsv London Takes on the Big Easy: societeperrier.com/articles/london-takes-on-the-big-easy/ Art Below’s ‘Pop Up’ brings fine art to the streets: nolavie.com/2012/02/art-belows-pop-up-brings-fine-art-to-the-streets-67316/
I also finished writing my review of an evening of performance presented by both OVADA and Roves and Roams with Anya Liftig and Dr. Tracey Warr, which can be found in Roves and Roams Magazine Issue IV: www.rovesandroams.com/issueiv/
Last night I started a number of small paintings and sketch book work based on the Rorschach test:
(Sketchbook) Two Russian Men:
(Sketchbook) Brains:
Passive aggressive posting shall be kept to a minimum from now on. I suppose it’s bound to happen whilst blogging, sharing both frustration and inspiration.
I think a lot of it has to do with feeling undervalued, when people aren’t aware of how much you do behind closed doors, not just in front of a screen but at events, talks, screenings and discussions. Constantly trying to promote a degree show you really aren’t sure you want to be a part of when you’re faced with what feels like a game of Chinese whispers.
When I feel as though I’m preaching to the choir, when I feel as though I should just give up, I think of all that I’ve achieved so far, all I’m doing right, regardless of other people. I saw a photograph of my billboard last night: http://t.co/s2Nz1I0A It made me smile.
I’m looking forward to the eighteenth when the mid show reception takes place at Gallery Orange, New Orleans. I emailed them today; I’m really excited about seeing photographs of my work in the gallery space. This experience has caused me to reconsider whether or not to continue making paintings for the degree show or to return to collage work. It mightn’t have been successful in terms of my grades but the public seem to like it.
