At the beginning of October I met with artist Helen Oxley in Nelson at The Shop. As Helen lives and works locally I was keen to speak with her about Think, Question, Print to hear her opinion on the work and to find out if she had any advice or useful contacts that she could pass on to me. I first found out about Helen through another artist David Armes – I’d seen David around Hot Bed Press for quite a while but we’d never spoken before and I was surprised to find out that he’d been reading my blog. He mentioned that he’d previously taken part in a residency scheme set up by In Situ that was based at The Shop and suggested that I speak to Helen.
We spoke for an hour and she was incredibly helpful agreeing to assist me with setting up events for local residents to attend and share stories and facts about the area and the community that could potentially boost my creative responses. I left the meeting feeling excited; frantically scribbling down plans on the train home. There was talk of weekly meetings and participatory activities or events and even the suggestion of seeking out further funding to extend the work.
Unfortunately however these plans have not come into action. After our meeting I had a busy couple of months beginning two new part time roles and co-organising and managing a print fair in Manchester called Unwrapped. Although these disruptions were necessary or beneficial the timing of them meant that the project ended up on hold for two months which ruined a lot of my plans. Once I had more free time I made contact with Helen to apologise for the situation and to let her know that I’m keen to stay in touch. Although the plans we discussed are yet to be fulfilled I will be keeping hold of my notes for the future.
The conversation that we had was honest and refreshing; we spoke about the struggles of making work happen and the benefits and drawbacks of collaborating with other artists. It felt really important to speak to someone in a similar position to me who succeeds in making work but understands the difficulties of working as an artist and will talk openly about this. I lack confidence in both my work and myself often believing that my ideas or aims are not strong enough or worrying that I don’t have enough to say about my creative practice. In the past the prospect of meeting another artist one on one to discuss my ideas or work would have been a real struggle for me but during the past eighteen months I’ve made strides to improve and develop my confidence by pushing myself to engage in conversations about my work and the impact has been noticeable. This meeting with Helen was another step towards developing my own voice as an artist and I’m incredibly grateful to her for agreeing to speak to me.
