Stockholm Residency – ending soon
One week until the Open Studio and presentation.
I’m very aware that the residency is coming to an end. And I don’t want it to! I’ve had an amazing time – now I see that it has been exactly what I need(ed). It’s allowed me to open things up, it’s been great to have time and space – things that I find hard in London – to just be. It feels as though I’m at the beginning of something new.
It would be fantastic if the Open Studio leads to further opportunities here.
While I’ve been here I’ve just got on with things. Before I came I had an idea that I could re-invent myself – be a really dynamic ‘go-getting’ kind of guy, I’d confidently walk in to galleries and speak with the directors, I’d be at all the openings, I’d be out every night. I haven’t done that, I haven’t re-invented myself, what I’ve done is been myself, and it’s been really good for me. Coming away from London, away from home, has given me the break I needed. The break from old habits and patterns. Three months has been long enough for me to relax into being here and to let things evolve.
Before I came here I imagined that I might have a studio for three months, and that I would have a different experience to previous holidays and short periods here. Having a residency has given me so much more – it’s given me a framework in which to operate. Why do I even question if deciding to spend more time here is a ‘valid’ outcome?
And I should also say that starting a relationship with a Swedish man has been a major part of my life here too. Knowing that I want to the relationship to continue is focusing me on looking forward and looking for ways to be here, rather than falling back in to old habits and patterns.
For the first time in a good few years I realise that I’m thinking about what I want.
ps. found a wonderfully apt title for the collection of polished cake tins. I love it when I discover a word that encompasses so much of what the work is about, and the more I investigated the word the more appropriate it became! “GLORY”
