I was very pleased to find out that my piece ‘House’ got accepted into the Margaret Harvey Open exhibition. Finally, after months of it sitting looking at me in the studio, feeling sorry for its self, rejected and unconsidered, it gets an outing. The rejection from the Jerwood Drawing Prize in June couldn’t fail to leave it a touch wounded but it at last has a little consolation with the chance to show itself in public, not totally discredited.
Friday, I had a trip to Nottingham. My boyfriend and I went to see the ‘Not on White Paper’ exhibition in its completion (it came down this Sunday), along with paying a visit to the Surface Gallery to have a look around and introduce myself in person. It is always interesting on these ‘days out’ days. For some reason they make me feel smaller than normal (mentally and physically). To take myself and the art that originates from the intimate space of the studio out into the world, seems like a daunting yet invigorating experience. It’s hard to explain, but it transforms the original two way dialogue that goes on between me and the work and suddenly gets others involved. …reading that back I realise that I am just stating the obvious here, but sometimes the obvious isn’t always the way it seems to me. It does make me feel a strange distance from its creation, and in the context of other peoples work, allowing me to see it in a slightly different way. I’m not sure how doing the performance in February will make me feel. Will I feel more detached from the experience? Will people react very differently to my previous performance, or are an audience as a collective no matter where they are from, pretty much always similar?
I feel so excited about the Surface Gallery exhibition, – now I’ve seen the space and am ready to get preparation underway. I have got that butterflies feeling in my tummy and I’m sure it’s not all because Christmas is getting near!
