like pebbles on a beach i reach for my experiences this week to gather them together to draw them all into one place. i gather up the photos of buxton, the heat wave and the latest mens circle meeting.
beginning in january 2017 the belper mens circle has evolved over time as participants have come and gone. this week we met away from belper at a temporary site near little eaton. i mention this meeting as i was able to park unhappy feelings generated at the meeting 8 weeks earlier. having regained balance i feel able now to assess if continuing to participate is something i want to do.
another positive activity of note this week has been receiving verbal feedback from a recent job interview. potentially the first time of such feedback it’s proved to be really useful as we were able to discuss where my presentation and answers could have been stronger.
hearing the feedback a week after the decision was helpful as i was over the disappointment.
what i heard in my feedback was i wasn’t a million miles away from topping the list. several little things i could have improved and finding stronger answers from my experience to certain questions would have improved my ranking.
so despite not being sucessful, my feedback has given me optimism. note to self – find opportunities to apply to that offer feedback after selection process.
i accompanied my partner to buxton this week for the preview event for the buxton spa prize. now in its fifth year the spa prize wouldn’t normally be on my radar, however with the prospect of an evening out supporting my partner and looking at some lovely work – it seemed a really good thing to do.
in the introduction to the evening we were alerted to someone referred to as high street ken. this was ken howard obe ra. he was a bit of a revelation – his manner and public speaking having a calming engaging quality.
his address left me wondering about my own work. i’m sketching something out at the moment and listening to ken i have to say i did leave wondering about what i’m doing at the moment.
i made some notes from ken’s words. i wrote :
- revelation
- celebration
- communication
he suggested a painting needed to be or did all of these.
ken also spoke about owning art. in a full room he linked car ownership with buying art. he suggested that attitude towards spending upwards of £20,000 on a car is more open than spending a few hundred pounds on a painting. he made the room think about spending £3000 – £4000 on running and maintaining said car.
hearing ken speak left me considering my current project involving video and audio and recombining these. he left me considering what am i trying to say?
