Just joined the Celeste network as it has cropped up several times over the past week so must be something that gets you noticed? Be interesting to see if anything comes of it.
Random thought – are there any male artists who deal with ‘domestic’ subjects – or is it largely the domain of women – in life and in art? – Would love to know your thoughts…..
Here is a work that started as something else then revealed itself in full superhero glory and is about to grow a little bit bigger…..
Made it to the studio! Been too long. Found everything I had abandoned in July all there, covered in a lovely layer of dead flies. A delightful welcome!
Took many bags of stuff from my house back again. Began endless round of organisational attempts and took some photos.
Feel like a different person to the one who left it – not quite sure why as nothing momentous has occurred – perhaps just passage of thought time. Wish I could keep up with myself.
Space decreasing further, not sure how to solve this one. Don’t think I can do the most obvious solution.
The root of the problem is defined here:
as per. not much time to blog – just to update:
Superhero costumes – 2 finished, 2 half complete
New project – nearly ready to submit for funding (fingers crossed and recrossed)
Children’s autumn workshops – planned – except for Christmas one but then I’m not John Lewis
Train ticket booked for exciting exhibition for new project (can’t divulge a word – it’s bad luck)
Various bits of Bunting advertised on Folksy – not sure how that one will go!
Hose and connectors ordered. I’m losing my touch, helpful hose people don’t even blink at my strange projects anymore!
Cats booked in for annual vet check up (gas masks at the ready – they are bad travellers)
All in all quite a productive day!
Six and a half blissful hours where I can hear myself think at last. Where to start – six weeks of thwarted plans – what is my priority?
Rabbit in headlights…..
Tidy the playroom, lego in every conceivable nook and cranny. STOP! did I wait all this time to do cleaning with my precious hours of silence….?
Vital e-mails sent. Essential meetings organised. New contacts formed. E-mail monitored nervously. Frantic trip to shops- bills paid, library books collected, tickets for London picked up….all in an hour (look! no hands to hold).
And finally a small moment of making (‘how to be an artist’ in my mind)
Invisible superhero costume just visible under my clothes.
It is (thankfully) the last day of the school holidays and I have this morning found myself contemplating, whilst watching Men In Black 3 at the Odeon Kids Club (a film which really has way more ‘language’ and gory action than I would normally associate with kids club) causing several thoughts to collide into a bit of a Eureka moment.
Last night “How to be an Artist” (Michael Atavar you are a genius) opened at a very precient page, one which talked about how you should not expect to solve your emotional baggage (particularly that created from childhood) in your artwork. I have talke before about the question of how to reveal things in work that you would rather not reveal and whether a pseudonym was the answer or whether the analysis of a work really resides within the viewer’s interpretation. I have also talked about my many unfinished/unmade/unresolved works.
I realised today that one of the main issues in my life/work resides in the fact that I am an only child who has three children (two of whom are boys) and that if you grow up with siblings, you develop some kind of resilience or coping strategy to deal with the constant (or is it just my family?) and eternal fighting, bickering and general confrontary. As an only child I find the whole thing to be emotionally and physically exhausting.
What I am now wondering is
a) am I making my work to try to express this whole female experience (as I thought)
or
b) am I trying to escape from it by naming and disempowering and thereby conquering?
I have no idea, but I am bloody glad the little darlings are going back to school tomorrow.
Socially disengaged artist
