Superhero costumes coming together. Here is peak of my new one….
I’ve been spending so much time trying to get my new ‘big project’ off the ground that yet again the actual ‘making bit’ the bit that I enjoy has been relegated to late nights and early mornings. I picked up a tip from Oliver Burkeman’s column in The Guardian at the weekend, taking gems of information from successful people’s daily schedules and am trying the ‘how you start the day sets the tone’ philosophy to some good effect.
5.30 – get up
6 – 7 am: 5 mile run with running partner (note sneaky way of not getting out of it)
7 15- 8: finish off superhero costume from last night
8 – 8.15 yoga
8.30 – 9.45 prevent children from killing each other and attempt to get them into clothes/ eat breakfast
9.45 – take one child to drama course and other to neighbour’s leaving remaining child and calm atmosphere.
10.00 Proceed upon a day of great achievment
Easy peasy…..
I’ve been reading Michael Atavar’s ‘How to be an Artist’ (top tips always appreciated) and finding it working in a very serendipitous way. Dipping in at random – like taking a fortune card, I have always found something pertinant to my current situation – this may be because I permanantly have a lot of issues, but I like to think that the book just knows what I need to be advised upon at that moment.
So today’s page has made me think again about the materials that I use and why I use them. Pertinent to this is also Stuart Mayes – Project Me blog of today
www.a-n.co.uk/p/377860
where he talks about washing the used reclaimed items that he uses as his materials. This also applies to my work.
Atavar advocates using the best materials you can and in this way demonstrating to yourself and others that you value your work. Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with this it makes me question exactly what I am saying about myself in my choice of old and stained clothing as a medium. To relish the blemish – is this a protest against perfection? or am I saying that underneath it all I don’t really value what I am doing enough to buy new things?
I really don’t know. And I am coming to the conclusion that I may not know but my subconcious has it all figured out and there is nothing I can do about it as I don’t seem able or interested in using anything else at the moment.
All I have to hope is that my subconcious has my best interests at heart.
That is it! I am finished with The Summer Exhibition.
WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT!
I remember back in the mid 1980’s when my father bemoaned the lack of quality of said exhibition and going just after I had finished my A levels. He wasn’t impressed. The only thing I remember about it was that someone had made a big mooosehead out of planks of wood. If it was you, please congratulate yourself on being a great inspiration to my early art career.
I have attended intermittently ever since. The past few years with small children (including the year my naughty daugter spent the entire vist pinching all the red dots that show what has sold) and it has become a bit of a family event with great shriekings over inflated pricings of dodgy work with the much argued over catalogues (they only give them out to adults and over 12 tickets – much to my 10 year old son’s horror).
Every year there has been some rubbish yes, but not to the scary extent of this year. A couple of interesting ideas – pegs are big this year. I was going to list more – but frankly I can’t really remember much else – all a bit of a mush.
Oh Summer Exhibition 2012 – where is your mooosehead?
Currently in ‘holiday time limbo’ I am happily ignoring my pile of jobs and instead forcing as many art opportunities upon my (protesting) children as possible in the desperate belief that this is the same as actually getting some work done. They love it really.
Tomorrow we are off to The RA Summer Exhibition where I go every year to curse the work that got accepted and wonder why I am collecting their fifty quid a pop rejection letters…. grrr…..
Frustrating school holiday sort of day. Got up extra early to try to sort out my ‘applications with imminent closing date that will make you world famous and rich and you will regret forever if you miss applying’ pile.
Forgetting my usual procrastinating tendancies managed to apply for two things before 8am! Children woke up and I could barely remember my own name under the barrage of ‘mummy mummy mummy’.
Just about sorted ideas with collaborative partner (with her very kindly doing most of the admin). Skype meetings with children bring added value.
New project ideas brimming over with exciting stuff – I can hardly wait to get going on it. Not long until September.
