Threads

I do feel quite sad.

I was really pleased with the work, pleased that the RBSA had approved my proposal and supported me so well in the run up and installation, and enthused about it on social media.

I met some lovely people, some of whom I hope to continue the conversation with.

I’ve had the most amazing six months, but of course that doesn’t mean that there will be instant or even any follow up. So while I am optimistic, I am also a realist. This might be the best six months I ever get, so I have to soak it up, and be thankful that it all happened, just in case it never does again.

So I think I will leave it there for now… with thanks for all those who have helped me to get to America and back, and to Birmingham and back. You’ve made my life amazing lately!

Here are some wonderful photos of Five, Six, Pick Up Sticks by Kathryn Sawbridge, fellow ARBSA colleague and friend…

Last day…

Today is the last day of Five Six Pick Up Sticks. Tomorrow I set out the tissue paper and bubble wrap and put it away somewhere. God knows where… why do I work on such a grand scale? I should investigate working in miniature perhaps…

Anyway… that’s my problem. I’ll find somewhere. 

The process of conceiving, making, curating, hanging and then reviewing and assessing this work hasn’t really taken very long in the grand scheme of things. I started in January 2022 when the ACE funded Drawing Songs project came to a close (blog post The Slow Start).

 I sent the proposal in to the RBSA about a year later, and it was accepted with enthusiasm. I finished the main bulk of the work before I went to America, and then came back to the logistics and the curating and organising. Tomorrow I reassemble my team in order to disassemble the installation. I wish now I had booked the space for another week or two, but hey ho. Actually I am ready to take it down. I’m ready for the rest. Since I started applying for the funding for Drawing Songs in 2018/19 I’ve not stopped. 

Now I need to stop. The last few months have been physically tough. The combination of arthritis, menopause, moving house and pandemic have taken their toll. This project was an unexpected bonus, but the beginnings of it lay in a need for rest, that I never actually got!

I intend to go back to the drawing. Sink myself into it… Bathe in ink and graphite… Wallow in watercolour…

And I might spend some time in my garden, catching up with some veg planting…

It seemed fitting that I share my PV with the group of artists I helped select for the exhibition on the second floor for the Graduate Artist’s Programme at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA).

It also meant the evening was busier than it might have been just for me on my own, and that my installation was seen by a new audience that might not otherwise have seen it, possibly a younger audience, who are used to viewing contemporary art. 

It is good to be in a crowd where I can talk about the work without having to explain everything all the time.

It was a good evening. Busy but not overwhelmingly crammed. I had some good conversations, with people new to my work, and reconnected with people I hadn’t seen for a long time too. 

My measure of the success of these occasions is always the quality of the conversation.

What makes a good PV conversation?

Admiration of the work (of course! We all want to feel good, right?); curiosity about the motivation for making it; feeling I have expressed myself coherently and articulately; humour; a sense of where the work came from and where it might go (geographically and physically as well as conceptually and developmentally); feeling an emotional connection with the viewer…

I could tick all of that list at the end of the evening, so I’m satisfied.

I firmly suppress the voice that is forever asking “What next? What next?”. I need a break from being up front and visible and productive. I need feeding now. 

After three years of work on the Arts Council funded project Drawing Songs; the American adventure Full Circle; and being in the midst of the installation of Five, Six, Pick Up Sticks, I am now back in the studio with nothing to do!

While the work is out and hung, I am taking time just to tidy up and clear the decks. I currently don’t have any Real Work on, so as I tidy up I am taking photos of the piles of things that please me. I have nothing in mind except that pleasure. It is refreshing.

I’ve hung some ink and watercolour drawings from 2019 (ish) on the studio wall and I’ve done some more twig drawing, but at the moment it feels a bit like homework, so I have stopped. I am piling up little bits of fabric that could be embroidered, and I have found some old transfers that were my mum’s. I might do something with them. I am taking a leaf out of Kate Murdoch’s book, and Stuart Mayes’ by arranging colours, and making patterns with the things that surround me.

It’s like taking a deep breath and expelling a slow sigh…

Having had three days away from the studio attending to the domestic and the social, I’m feeling rather more balanced and rested.

After my last post, I had several messages of support. These gave me a real boost. My emotional energy was really low, and I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. (HaHaHa… I’m far too pleased with that). Huge thanks to all those who sent emails, messages, and zoomed… they worked.

Discussion followed concerning the role of the artist. My job was to absorb the material, consider, and respond. I am loath to use the word inspiration when it comes to statistics of child poverty. I’m not inspired I am enraged. My job is to communicate that feeling, in the hope the viewer also responds. The important thing to me with this body of work is to get it seen. The RBSA has afforded me that opportunity, for which I am grateful. So, as I said previously, I’ve never made work so overtly political: in addition I have never made work that from the outset needed to be exhibited… the whole point of it is to be shown to others. Early on in the process of wrapping, I knew how many I was going to wrap, and how they would be displayed. This is rare.

I have been driven to make this work. I was intensely emotionally invested in its creation.

But from the moment it goes up, it’s got its own life. We shall see what happens next. I’d like it to travel elsewhere to be seen more broadly. So, if you are reading this and know a space it would fit, invite me in, let’s talk!

……

The purpose of this blog is (has become) to map not just the process of the work and where it goes, but also a voyage of self discovery. What sort of artist am I?

My artist statement talks about the relationships between people, that I observe. After discussions recently I come to realise the observation is only the first part.

I observe, yes, and I respond. But the most important part is that I respond because I care. I care about what I’ve witnessed. And the way I make things is with care.

Love is all you need, right?