I have actually been very proactive and disciplined towards my practice for sometime now and been enjoying my work developing in ways that I did not altogether expect. I guess it is a knock on effect of the mind working and thinking more about what I am doing which in turn is loosening the creative clutch and direction my mind imposes on my pen. I have become more receptive to trying different things and adopted the attitude that you live once – enough preparatory work and now just draw, draw, draw. Take risks, do it. If it works I win, if it doesn’t – it is a lesson learned.
Really a win – win situation.
The piece of advice I have given myself and have started to work to is this:
Work – and keep working, self doubt – push through, discipline problems – push through and let the creative current do the heavy lifting. You soon get swept into what you are doing.
Be ambitious. If you think it, try it…
I really feel I have laid down an established set of roots now and can feel myself looking into the future and what could be possible, it is a great feeling just to be active.
Now that my practice has a foothold within my sometimes extremely busy life I have begun to think about how I can begin to possible exhibit and take up some of the excellent opportunities there are available. Please watch this space, oh also if I have uploaded the image of one of my new drawing please feel free to comment. What do you think?
I have been pushing quite hard recently and trying to work out how to move my work forward and develop what I have being doing in essence for many years. Whilst pondering this creative conundrum I realised what was probably my problem…since leaving the confines, safety and relative structure of the academic world where self propelled learning and deadlines ensure (at least to a conscientious student) results and continued development is almost gauranteed.
My point is, since leaving the academic walls – ironically walls that symbolised freedom and then plunging back into the working world I have used drawing and art in general as an escape so I had become happy to just draw and do my thing as it were, it was my indulgence, my passion – and always – always better than work. Slowly as working life begun to twist tendrils of ownership into the threads of my life once again the professional aspirations and ambitions slowly, inpercievably slipped away. The work ethic of a professional artist mutated into simply being grateful for having this avenue of enrichment in my life still as an antidote against the poison that is a nine to five job. This is all terribly dramatic for what is essentially a problem so many people I’m sure must endure silently along side me.
Anyway, as they say knowledge is power and hindsight is a wonderful thing. In this curious situation I feel I have the strange benefits of both – to a certain point…
So whilst giving this some thought and using it a the carrot to my proverbial donkey I have started to really stretch my legs again and push out of my comfort zone…in short treat this thing, this passion, this consuming weight as work, this is the only way I feel I could fulfill any potential ambitions I have – and do you know what? It seems to be working for me right now.
Small thoughts can lead to large gains.
Thank you as always for indulging my theoretical indulgences. Pun intended.
There seems to be a strange dichotomy in what I appreciate to what I actually produce as an artist, I assume this is probably the case for most people? Nothing really surprising in that appreciating the qualities of an 1880′s Cézanne still life may not translate or permeate into whatever project an artist living in 2016 is working upon…or is it? I think it is actually.
I spend a lot of my nine to five driving around some of the how should I say – less desirable parts of London (and many of the nicer parts also) and as a result have developed a deep appreciation for the work of street artists. The bohemian brick lane area is a literal canvas for the masses, parts of Islington littered with pieces – some by the infamous Banksy. From simple tags, stencils to full blown murals – I love it all and have taken to photographing it in an attempt to record it. This of course would be more than a full time job to make a even halfway accurate record of street art – even just within the confines of the London boroughs – the walls change hands in at a blistering pace in a colourful turf war where the tenure on a section of wall can only be classed as “temporary”. This perhaps reflects our mighty capital and it’s incredible history. The relentless surge of progress and development which is reflected upon the walls with pieces being covered, covered again and chunks of wall cut out, rendered and demolished. I think the fusion of old Victorian buildings and the fluorescent newness of the artwork is simply intoxicating.
I digress.
The strange thing is I have never sprayed paint from a can in anger onto a wall, I have never been part of any subculture that holds graffiti in a particular high regard so it has seeped into my subconscious indirectly via my surroundings on a daily basis, even stranger (for me) is the fact that it doesn’t seem to have found its way into my work as of yet, not really anyway. I don’t mean by way of me integrating some chrome bubble writing into my drawings. More the spirit and the gusto with how it is delivered to us pavement punters. It has guts, it is bold and often beautiful – always ephemeral. I am thinking perhaps I should think more about the things that have the power to seduce my thoughts such as the perpetually vibrant street art that adorns so many walls I pass everyday. Drawing is perfect medium with which to leave history on the paper.
That is enough jumbled rambling for this evening. Thank you if you have read this blog entry.
After several pretty productive days and some significant development I am happy with things creatively speaking…I guess this is a glass half full situation but I cannot help thinking what o would be able to achieve if I were able to devote more time to my work…how would life change, how much more fulfilling? Maybe not financially but (without sounding an absolute cock – spiritually).
In other news, I have made a conscious decision to colour my drawings from now on as a way to push and develop them and keep things fresh. It is nice to think that work can literally come alive with the addition of colour, and I say this as a person who is colour blind and for whom co.our definitely does not come naturally. It is almost a wild stab in the dark – some would say not good – I say experimentation is a fantastic thing to behold.
Pictures to follow on completion.
Hello and happy new year my friends.
It has been sometime since my last post – indeed a very long time. I would love to say this has been due to feverish activity on other projects – but I’m afraid it hasn’t been. I have been unable to work due outside commitments. A fair deal of procrastination on my part also dealt the final killer blow to which I have no excuse and cannot rightly justify in any way, shape or form.
I guess I am writing this as a form of non religious confession in an attempt to purge my system of this time spent on things other than drawing.
Some of the things I have noticed during this slump in activity are:
– Loss of confidence.
– Loss of validation and crumbling artistic identity.
These are fairly obvious results from making little to no work in eight months but thought I would record this and anyone in a similar position can take some solace in the fact that they aren’t alone – and that you can read about my ups and downs. One thing I always promised myself whilst writing this blog is that I would be honest. So here I am stating that I must try harder and slightly embarrassed in the fact that by now I should have learnt that discipline is one of the keys to success.
All the best
