Just watched the Jeremy Deller Culture Show programme and feel really bad – what a lovely bloke – what interesting work – I had never realised. The press portrayal of his work never seems very interesting and in the past I have just shut off my attention and dismissed him. Jeremy – huge apologies – I think your work is really interesting and with humour – which is a little valued asset in art. For me – humour is one of the MOST important things.
Now feel inspired in many ways. And will try to be more open minded about everyone. (I love you all).
Not had a very inspiring day today. Trawled around the internet looking for appropriate materials for new GYO*BYO installation which is coming up very soon….
Started to panic wildly about London Marathon when I received an e-mail from RNIB (who I am raising money for) saying only 60 days to go!! With all the hullabaloo going on with Kinetica, snow and sick children my abliity to run even 1 mile is not what it was.
Note to Self: run everywhere all day long it will add up.
Had long winded discussions with poor father (who now has my new project to worry about – feeling guilty already) about the logistics of planning and how to make work. Do you look at the practicalities of how to make something and design accordingly (him) or do you make what you want to make and solve the problems as you go (me).
Big headaches all round.
I am currently in that horrible limbo time, the time when procrastination strikes heavily, between projects – the time when it is so easy to phaff the days away in indecision – what is it exactly that I am going to make next?
Much as I hate it, I think I get a lot more done under extreme pressure. This is not really good for anyone as everything falls apart when I have a project deadline. However when there is no pressure nothing ever quite gets finished.
I have a very large collection of ‘unfinisheds’ and could very easily fill a substantial gallery (my choice is the Hayward if any curators are reading…) with work that is just a little unresolved.
So the big questions of the day are: do I finish a few unfinisheds? (the responsible option) or do I forge on with all the exciting new ideas I have in my bulging sketchbooks? (this one, this one!) Which idea will be the one to make me rich and famous? How do I choose?
I am considering using a ‘hands of fate’ option in decision making (perhaps a bit of a cop-out in avoiding the responsiblitiy of making the wrong selection) by getting a pack of blank index cards and writing an idea on each one. Then it is just a question of ‘find the lady’.
My fear from this approach is that I will just end up with the old boot of card tricks – ‘the 52 card pick up’.
Helpfully my dear husband has suggested a rhyme for my blog posting today. I share it with you here:
‘My husband told me to get a proper job but all I do is this silly blog’.
Not sure I can add anything after that – I’ll carry on colouring in.
With Kinetica and half term over, today I had to face my studio. As space is at a premium I had the usual task of infinate juggling -old work/new work – partly finished/resting work – stuff, stuff and more stuff.
I am currently sharing studio space with my ever patient father who is a retired graphic designer and portrait painter turned studio assistant at the age of 77 – for which I am eternally grateful. Despite the fact that we often do not see entirely eye-to-eye on artistic matters and the fact that he thinks many of my ideas are just plainly insane, he is always willing to help me solve the endless technical dilemmas that seem to beseige my work. I suspect that he did not expect this to happen when I happily trotted off to do a degree in embroidery many years ago.
The nature of my ‘time-heavy’ work is that I have collected a lot of stuff which most people would have long ago binned – and this makes up the core of my materials. It is a great child playground and my children are often rummaging around and finding long forgotten toys that I pinched from them when they were only ‘just a little bit broken mummy!’ This, combined with my love of the scrapstore means that my half of the studio is pretty much ‘standing-room only’. My poor father lives in constant fear that his side of the room (neat and clean) is gradually diminishing and merging into my side of the room (the opposite) and that he will soon be backed into a corner drowning under a sea of plumbing parts, old sacks and colour coded socks.
I promise…. I am trying to stem the tide.
