There are times when the weather cannot deter me from travelling to and being in the studio. I am a woman on a mission and things need to get done and I need to be there to do them.
And there are times, like this week, when the weather is just an excuse that keeps me from the studio because I’m not really that sure what to do when I get there!
So, in a fit of probable madness, I have decided to open my studio to the public. After the end of the project and before Christmas, when it is all an absolute TIP… yep that’s just perfect!
But it sort of IS perfect. It will make me tidy up for one thing, clear the decks and so on. It will make me hang some work on the studio walls both as a sales platform, and as a way of reviewing. If I sell a few things it will make space and a bit of cash. I am conscious that while funding is marvellous, it does not create a sustainable model. The costs involved in putting on events and exhibitions are enormous, and unless you are sure of selling loads, they’re not recovered.
Also, the Open Studio is a bit more laid back. It doesn’t matter really if people come, I’ve got plenty to do if they don’t. If they do it gives me an excuse for a tea break and a chat. The chat then is more wide ranging too, I don’t feel the need to keep it focussed on the project, and neither do my visitors. I shall hang work in a higgledy piggledy manner, not curated as much as arranged on the hooks that happen to be there.
I feel as if, now Drawing Songs is “finished” (more of this later?) that I am a bit rudderless. I do need to spend time in the studio, but it will be of the tea-drinking, feet-on-the-table sort of time… maybe with a book… maybe not… it might just be time spent scrolling through instagram, looking at pretty pictures. It will be a time to soak things up, let the words and images filter through a little, remember comments, reactions and feedback.
Formally, of course, I will have to evaluate the project for the Arts Council, and I do intend to get this in before Christmas. That doesn’t hold any fear, I just need to do it.
I suppose I’m not quite finished, in that Laura Rhodes and I need to sift through all the photos and video and make a story of it all for a short documentary video. I like to do this because it does round things up nicely, and gives me something to refer people to when they ask what the project was about. Hopefully that will be done before Christmas too.
So… back to the bit about Drawing Songs being “finished”… the funds have been spent, the events have happened, the book and CD have been published and the songs have been sung, the drawings drawn. But there are remnants that linger. I have had conversations, been recommended bits of reading and there are artists I need to look up that people have mentioned. I need to go and see art other than my own… And I need to listen to some music other than the 12 songs that were produced for this! There are threads that need to be picked up and followed, and work that can be done, when I am in the right mind to do it. I do have some new paper and ink to have a go at, smaller pieces to try out some new ways of working, to check out new interactions between materials.
I also have some new lyrics… so I need to think about whether they are band songs, or me songs…
Lots to do then, but I think I will wait until this little bit of snow thaws, and until I’ve finished this pile of ironing…
