18 November 14

Putting it together

On being depressed ,promoting one's self and pursuing a creative path.

So its evening and  I am at home in all its domestic splendour. Cat fed ,children asleep ,a nice bit of mellow music and time to write. Its the kind of life style that I used to be envious of ..and now that I am here,its not  something to complain about … however I had some not so good financial news the other day and to add to my money woes I realise that am not selling any work or getting anything substantial in the way of workshops. In the run up to Christmas that feels quite depressing. Ok, so I am doing better than a lot of people ,a series of portraits in the pipeline with a space to show in May,I’m getting my new free website together and have drawn a new list of places to send my details and meeting someone tomorrow over coffee to discuss a proposed project starting in 2015. However, at the moment I am not feeling that optimistic about the future . Winter blues I guess, that pre Christmas dread compounded by that dreadful sinking feeling when ever I have to promote myself online.
I have been on a FB today too corresponding with people on issues of Mental Health and why people disengage from Mental Health Services . I have quite a few thoughts on this matter as I have been on both sides of the fence so to speak, as a member of staff with in a 44 bed psychiatric unit and as someone being part of an analytical group for a number of years . Oh and an attempted but thankfully failed  suicide when I was 19 but that’s something I tend to forget these days , with the passage of time such an event seems to have lost its significance,it not longer impacts on my life and  its not the kind of thing you write about if you want to promote one’s work …or is it ??? I have just written a blog on what might be considered to be viewed as confessional art. This is on the back an earlier piece looking at  “What it means to me to be an Outsider Artist” and can be found via http://kdoutsiderart.com/2014/08/13/brian-gibson-what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-outsider/
its a very good Outsider Art site/blog , hopefully  my confessional  piece will be there soon .  I question  whether artists who have experienced trauma or/and mental health issues feel obliged to make art of a confessional nature ? Just how much we should reveal of ourselves particularly on line ,where  it is so tempting to open up , putting such material might get lots of likes but does any art simply get reduced to the status of a selfie.

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25 August 15

Artist fed up with art ? what does it mean to be an artist?

 

So, here I am declaring my self to be an artist and one who is fed up with art. I am wondering what it means to be an artist . Is it about the work or the endless self promotion of what one is up to and into, to wear the mask of the artist at all times. Ive just been browsing through another fragment of social media looking into the idea of making a video to promote myself as an artist. Every one that i have seen so far in thier presentaions is so bright so positive  so eager and so enthusiastic about thier stuff. Its so  off putting . Is that what art is about , the presentation of it ? What i really want to do is make a video that says “Hey this is me ,this my art , I make my art and I would like you to look at it and support it . I am not interested in you being interested in me, because to be honest maybe I am not that interesting ,I might even be boring to some people but I dont see that as a problem, I am more or less happy with myself and the people that mean the most to me are more or less happy with who i am too. I would like you to  support my work because I believe this stuff  is embedded  with values  and meanings and so if you support my work then  my gratitude is genuine I cant sell it to you any other way .Thank you ”
So thats the kind of thing that i would like to say and maybe i will  , I hpoe that I dont tag along with the current  social convention and offer a more uber uber upbeat presentation.

For what its worth ….I have some work going into an exhibition at Salisbury Arts Centre 20Nov http://www.salisburyartscentre.co.uk/whats-on/Event.aspx?EventID=1461 The show is titled worth fighting for ? Its in collaboration with the arts org Outside In http://www.outsidein.org.uk/ and is a show case for those artists who have either faced or are currently barriers in the art world. I think that there are a lot of barriers to overcome in “The art world ” blogging ,self promotion is one of them ,many of the barriers are self imposed or rather internal barriers and there are many others that are not of the artists own making. Either way there are as we know plenty of hard working  talented artists who  are producing work of quality ,  who despite having access to  numerous art websites where they can upload their work are simply  not getting thier work shown in public spaces like galleries and art centres for the public to see and that is something that needs to change and change soon.

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