During the last two weeks I lost (truly) three whole consecutive days as a crushing wave of ever worsening M.E.-symptoms washed over me and hardly let me come up for air. When it finally deposited me it wasn’t on a beach… Even on normal M.E.-days every small activity exacts its disproportional pay-off. I’m struggling to keep myself motivated, feel like I’m heaving myself from post to post and have been wondering if I should continue writing or maybe focus my minute energies on reading other people’s blogs (when fatigue doesn’t blur my vision) until I start the on-line project which is part of my G4A-application. One of the things I hoped for here – direct feedback for my artwork – hasn’t really happened much, but maybe my expectations were too high. Other artists get out and have opportunities for exchanges and evaluation of their practice, be it in their studios, a pub, or an exhibition – my art conversation eggs are mainly in the Artists Talking basket and direct engagement is the exception (one art-visit coming up next week – yeah, Kate!). I do value my blog as a record of and framework to at least some of what I’m doing and thinking about, and a few closer and really fruitful exchanges have developed and are keeping me going. Just now I am esp. excited by two blogs: Jean McEwan’s Reciprocity and Rodney Dee’s Art as Therapy have widened the scope of my thinking, not only in relation to my own art practice. Jean sent me a few of her poignant zines and I posted photos and a poem to her – it’s wonderful to have something real to hold, to ponder, to connect with.
Latest highlight (still struggling to recover physically) was this sunny Sunday’s visit of Ben Cove’s beautiful, intelligent, mysterious solo-show Vernacular Hangover at ACME Project Space, which he helped make possible (thanks, Ben!). The exhibition, with its critical and engaging interplay between found photographs and original paintings, exploring the politics of looking, its pleasures and pitfalls, – was the impetus for a kind of time-travel, and made me regret once more my rather superficial knowledge of art history. It was good to see work that in approach and execution is totally different to mine (note to self: stop searching for work that I can easily identify with) and find connections, and I much enjoyed the conversation with Ben. Plus: I wore sandals for the first time this year!
Jean McEwan: Reciprocity
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Rodney Dee: Art as Therapy
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