Despite having key and piece of paper, turns out fellow studio person and I are incompatible in a pretty hefty way. The plug has been pulled. Whilst blarting and swearing with frustration I also realise it’s probably a good thing to find out now rather than after I’d moved all my stuff in.
Such is life…. Back to square one…
One thing clicks into place…
Which means I can now blog about it. At last! This one has been nibbling at me, and every time I’ve wanted to blog, or started to blog, I’ve bumped up against it somehow and ended up not blogging at all. It’s been very frustrating. I’m very glad to have been able to talk to other artists a little removed from the situation, to help me through it…
I’m moving my studio!
It’s tricky isn’t it? I have felt for quite a while, that my studio in Dudley was too small. Not just physically, but in the amount of growth in practice that was possible there, on my own. So I started to very carefully ask around, not really sure what I wanted… And not wanting people to know before I was sure. There was the possibility of a city centre space. The advantages of having a city centre artist-community type space are obvious. The disadvantages are too though… I live about 5 miles from Dudley. Even in heavy traffic I can be there in 15 minutes, and off peak, less than 10. I live about 7 miles from the city centre. Those extra two miles, in that direction are horrendous… On a really good day, or rather, in the middle of the night, I can get into the centre of town in 20 minutes. In peak traffic you can double or even triple that. If something untoward happens on the route, I’m stuck. I don’t want to spend that time in the car, don’t want to spend extra money on parking, don’t want to use public transport all the time either.
A friend has a studio in Stourbridge, which I have visited, and it seemed perfect…. And through a series of chats, cups of tea, exchanging life stories and principles of practice to see if we are compatible…. I now have a shared space there to move into. I shall move in throughout this month, and properly get working as soon as possible in the new year. Stourbridge is about three miles away (less than ten minutes off peak). It is a much more artistically inclined population in general… I won’t feel I’m bashing my head up against the wall, and I will be able to engage in the sort of conversations I have missed… In person at least.
So I end this year and begin next year much the same as I felt a year ago, (with the prospect of arts council funding for nine women looming ahead of me). I am full of ideas that have been kept on hold because of lack of space in my studio and in my head. I know these changes are coincidentally tying in with the changes of the year, but it does lend it more significance, makes it feel like a stepping out into a brave new world again!
So, farewell Dudley, it’s been great, but it’s time to move on now!
Absence of chair.
Nowhere to sit.
Nowhere to lay your hat.
If I work with the chairs, eventually, then there also has to be a non-chair. Even if only I know it isn’t there.
A representation of those without a place to leave a mark upon. There are so many, and for so many reasons… And this week it seems those reasons for chairlessness are mostly man-made. The gendered word unfortunately appropriate. So while I work upon the chairs, I contemplate a lack of chair too.
Where does the mark of me end up if there’s nowhere to leave it?
No one to leave it upon?
What use is art?
It’s the only thing I can do.
The only thing I have to express my despair.
I am aware it has been over a week since I posted, and it’s not like me is it? As I sit here, not sleeping, again, I mull over the reason why. It is because I find myself, again, in one of those unbloggable periods. You know what I mean I’m sure. There are issues of privacy of others, confidentiality and I must confess also an element of tempting fate. The thing that I want to happen won’t happen if I blog about how much I want it to happen. So I don’t write. So instead of all that, which will have to wait for a series of resolutions and confirmations, I shall write about something else.
Teaching…
It’s probably been a while since I wrote about that… Hang on… I’ll check… It was August, I very briefly mentioned a conversation with a student. Can’t be bothered to check back further. But while flicking back, it is obvious the games that are afoot have their roots in the months following the grand unveiling of “nine women”… The sea change again… To these things I will return when I can…
So, teaching…
I did an artist talk today to a group of first year training teachers. I spoke about my non-linear career path. I spoke of my practice, and my attitudes to education, and basically how it was too important to be left to politicians to bugger it up. I did this flowchart type handout thing with connecting arrows and so on, showing which bits of my work had led to others, which people had led to important changes and shifts in thinking. Then we played with some old bras…. And told each other stories…
I think, as I look at it, it is precisely this all-encompassing, non-linear aspect of my “career” (sorry, can’t do it without ” ” because I still don’t see it as that) that has formed my personal philosophy of education. I have taught pretty much every phase and in all sorts of odd settings over the last 35 years… Early years, pre-school, primary, special needs, adults with learning differences, FE, HE, workshops, practical skills, seminars, conferences, symposia, in galleries, shops, schools, colleges, universities, libraries, hospitals, fields, tents, sheds…. And in all that time, I haven’t stopped learning either. I never set out to be a teacher. It sort of happened to me while I was wasting time trying (or not trying) to do something else.
(Despite wanting to shake it off, education lies at the heart of my practice, whether I want it to or not. Those elements of interpersonal influence are really just education…. Maybe?)
What this life (ah, yes, life, rather than “career?”) gives me is actually quite a privileged view of the big picture. If I had school aged children now, in this political haystack of an education system, I would very seriously consider home education. Education throughout shouldn’t be led by a list of stuff to remember, but should be inspirational, full of wonder. I’ve known some pretty amazing, charismatic, inspiring teachers in my time, been taught by them, taught with them, and learned alongside them. These amazing individuals are being hammered mercilessly, and it’s time we told the hammerers to stop.
I now think it doesn’t really matter what you teach children, it’s more a matter of how. Reading can be taught in all sorts of ways, but a desire to read is the important bit. A love of stories and poems and songs can be fostered as soon as a child can hear and see. Same goes for maths, science, art, geography, history, music, languages, drama, dance, and even bloody business studies!
What matters is curiosity.
Getting out into the world and questioning it… Asking why. Everything else falls into place when you ask why. Everything is more understandable if you get your whole body involved. That’s what bodies are for, to collect the stuff to feed our brains. Sitting at a desk is never enough. Experience the world! Learn to get on with people. Especially people you don’t like, or agree with. Learn to grow things, cook things, learn to walk run dance skip jump… Learn how to look at the world and draw it, learn how paint works, how colours mix, how clay behaves. Learn about wood and how to build… Electricity, water… Weather… Learn how to interact with the world and suddenly the maths, English, science, etc has happened all by itself. That gets us up to about age eight maybe? Hahaha!
I find I don’t want to teach in the schools really now. But talking to teachers, even brand new training teachers is great. They aren’t yet jaded and worn down, they are idealistic, and keen and wonderful. These young people should be treated as the precious things they are, not beaten into some sort of political weapon to be used against each other. I hope that I’m not too old to see our government come to its senses (and any of the others left wanting in this area)… Would love to see a sensible shift towards common sense, away from the tail of data-gathering wagging the dog of what is really needed…
Idealistic romantic old bag? Moi?
Well yes, and unapologetic. In my experience, artists and musicians continue to educate themselves for the length of their lives, they continue to work until they die. No retirement. (Ah, yes, again, maybe that’s why I can’t call it a “career”?) This is in complete contrast with teachers, who at the moment seem to want to retire and get out as soon as possible, and to be frank, most of them look older than their years. Artists generally look and behave younger than their years. I wonder why that is then?
Drawing Stitching Songwriting Singing Talking and teaching now and then.
