It’s been a while since I posted, a bigger gap than usual, so I felt the need to go back a few posts to see what I said, and where I was up to…
Weirdly, or maybe not so weirdly, I seem to be looking backwards, in order to move forwards.
I had a few hours out with Bill Laybourne, back to the village of my childhood, and we traipsed about in the woods on a beautiful sunny spring day. I took a few photos, hummed a bit, got the low branches snagged in my hair. I took two walking sticks, a fancy collapsible one I use all the time, and my Dad’s old wooden one, and I did manage to go a little bit off the path here and there. I remembered dens I had built and trees I had climbed. Bill recorded the sounds we encountered and the sounds we made, and the tunes I hummed to work with back in the studio.
There was something poignant and potent about going back to these particular woods in my current state, when the last time I was there, the only time I was ever conscious of my knees was if I fell and scraped them on the bark of trees and the forest floor. I was so conscious of my body this time. It was impossible to have an out-of-body experience. I felt super-conscious of all of my joints and the mental effort required to move efficiently and safely. (I must go back when I have had a new knee)
I picked just a few twigs from the floor while there, and back in the studio I tied them into a linen bound bundle to keep them separate from the rest.
I have also had an exhibition of my work at the RBSA. This time in the ground floor shop gallery. I was a bit unsure of it when I put it up, but when I took it down I was more sure that this was not the right place for it all. I didn’t really have any conversations with people that I wouldn’t have had in my own studio, or in my own circle. I don’t think it brought anything new to me. I sold two very small pieces, and once the VAT and commission have been taken, the income will not quite cover my parking fees.
I have been participating in Camilla Nelson’s online course Towards an Experimental Ecology of Line… this I didn’t expect to effect the work much, but I thought it would keep me thinking/making/writing over the period of my knee op and recovery. I’m not sure I have followed completely what I am supposed to, but it has so far kept me ticking along. It has been good to have conversations about the work in this environment, with strangers who are artists but did not previously know me or my work. Very fresh eyes.
So although I am thinking there’s not much going on, when I come to write here, I realise there is, so I can stop worrying! I have sent off the rooty twigs to Stuart for the Juxtapose Art Fair in June, and Bill is working on the sound piece that goes with it. The Lines train of thought is chugging along and has generated new work that I think will be worth pursuing later on.
Inspired in part by the twigs, the walk in the woods and the work by Helen Garbett and Bill Laybourne (Limpets Alive!) I find myself in need of a den… I think I will at some point build a real one in the woods, but I also want to draw one… I will need big paper again…
My operation for a total knee replacement is provisionally set for the end of April. I am on a wind down/up in preparation. I am trying to sort things in the garden that I won’t be able to do for a while after. I am batch cooking meals and freezing them for afterwards when I won’t want to or be able to stand and cook. And I have tidied up the studio and cleared the table and a couple of walls. I have said my daughter-in-law can use the space for a few weeks, but even if she doesn’t, I can go back into it with a clear head, to start that new big drawing.
