This has become a useful habit I think, looking back over the year and thinking about what has worked and what hasn’t. Then making sure my plans follow that through.
Compared to other years, I think I have done “less” in that the itemised list of stuff is shorter. But I think it is better in that I seem to have been able to focus on the good things that are professionally and personally rewarding, and I have pulled back on the stuff that makes me swear in frustration.
I’ve had a few chances to exhibit with RBSA – although that has had its frustrations, I am booked in to have a ground floor exhibition with them in March. I will curate this myself, and although it is in the shop gallery, and two other artists will also have allotted space, my section is all my own to deal with. I will have both 2D and 3D work installed. It will be interesting to see how the things I have been making relate to each other in that busy area. My work will be for sale, but I have no illusions, and I doubt that anything will sell to be honest. I don’t think I am that sort of artist… Time will tell…
I belong to a Crit Club with three other RBSA members and that is always fun, and insightful, and they have helped me in the choosing of work to show.
I also this year joined Eastside Projects’ EOP group and have exhibited with them, and had a one-to-one mentoring session with Ruth Claxton. The question she asked, that has stayed with me has been “Why are you using up energy on that when you could be doing this?”(mentioning no names) …And she was right. So there’s a thing I can pull back from. I already feel better about it, and I don’t know why I didn’t see it myself. I guess that’s what good mentoring does. There were also her thoughts about my work that consolidated things that were buzzing around that I hadn’t dealt with. Thanks Ruth!
I’ve done a few Sewing Circle sessions this year, that haven’t really come to much, and I am wondering if it is worth bothering, but as it just requires me to share my studio with a few people once a month with little planning, I will probably continue to put it in the calendar. If by the summer it hasn’t built up any more, I will stop.
I’ve had the usual cycle of band rehearsals, and some really lovely gigs, and the highlight of recording in the church in Dudley with Dave Shaw. Songwriting continues…
The things that I have thoroughly enjoyed and will definitely be doing more of are the Swedish adventure, The Fish Collective, and Ceramics sessions:
The trip to Sweden for the Correspondence Residency with Stuart Mayes was amazing. I have continued to learn Swedish, which has surprised me, but I am loving it. I am still looking for a local Swedish speaking Fika buddy, to practice on… but I am loving learning a new language. The work I have done since the trip has definitely been affected by the work we did together. Stuart, in his Glitterball Showroom role, is going to the Juxtapose art fair in Aarhus, Denmark this summer, and I am hoping to join him. The travel fund has taken a bit of a hammering, so I am hoping to build it up a bit before then!
The Fish Collective is work done in collaboration with Helen Garbett, Bill Laybourne and Rick Sanders. I’ve not previously found much happiness in working collaboratively with other artists, but have come to realise it’s because I’ve not been doing it with the right people. This lot are experienced collaborators, and they know how to do it properly! It has been very rewarding and an absolute hoot so far. It will continue into the new year and will hopefully gain funding.
I’ve been doing ceramics at Mac Birmingham with a friend. We share the driving and parking costs, and we have company on the journey, which in the winter months can be arduous. We have not signed up from January to March, but have reserved places after easter. I have found it rather wonderful to be creative in a medium I know very little about, that is (relatively) unrelated to the rest of my practice. I am just playing. It is nourishing. I have been using that word a lot lately. I think it’s going to be my word of 2025.
I’ve been thinking about the direction of my practice a lot this year, in terms of what I’m making, my audience, my slightly shifting philosophies… and in an attempt to put myself in an environment and the right company (hopefully) to think about this in a more focussed way, I have signed up to do a course with Camilla Nelson titled Towards an Ecology of Line. It is based on Tim Ingold’s taxonomy of line, from his book Lines. I’ve read this a couple of times and refer to it frequently. Helen Garbett is signed up too, so I’m looking forward to a year of fruitful discussion.
This year has ended with Kate Murdoch delivering her 10 x 10 cabinet to me. It is now installed in my sitting room with a selection of my own items on it. I am fostering it, just in case she needs it again. It is an honour and privilege to be part of its story. It looks great in my house, and so I am torn between hoping she doesn’t ever want it back, and hoping that she does, because I think it is an important and interesting piece of art. Win/win I suppose, either way!
So goodbye 2024, and hello 2025, I have more concrete plans for the coming year than I usually have, so I am feeling very positive!
Happy new year, dear readers, thank you for your time, support, and comments.
