with football matches happening all around the uk i make myself comfortable to make a reflective post about this year.
kicking off i feel a little unsure to to pass the thought to next, there have been some highlights of the year and also some low.
this time last year i wrote quite a raw post about being kind to myself. in 2017 by about june i was being able to be kinder to myself as i was feeling happier and connected more than in the first 6 months.
something that evolved over the course of the year has been my attempt to create a forest school for men. i think i experienced the difficulties in trying to make something for the benefit of others. eventually the idea morphed into a more generalised well being concept that i hope to explore in 2018 with the potential for forest school for men remaining an ambition.
in february this year i spent time updating my main website to reflect where my multidiscipline practice is. during that time i also featured on the a-n instagram feed, part of their featured bloggers of 2017.
our forest school remains popular and we’re starting to see the benefits now for those children we hoped would benefit from the process. in july i lead my first whittling workshop at the derbyshire forest school day. it was successful and i would welcome the opportunity to lead other workshops. looking ahead into 2018 i want to expand my whittling skills through the practising of ideas from the three new books i have.
my summer was an amazing experience at derby museums trust while jointly covering the life long learning commitments of the museum while staff changed over. i learnt so much through the experiences and am happy to say my facilitation of sessions has moved on through the confidence gained and experiences i had.
one of my absolute highlights of the year was being part of the team to install (newly knighted) richard long’s cornish slate ellipse at derby museum and art gallery.
the year has been a year of two halves.
the second half saw me create another tranche of the non linear film for the derby silk mill museum. it’s nearly finished and i’m so happy with how it has evolved and how it now looks.
in the first half there had been the digital drawing machine. starting as a bit of a public trying out of an idea it evolved into an exhibition piece at the big bang as as part of the opening night entertainment of the finding lines exhibition at the museum and art gallery in derby.
this year has helped me realise that i need to feel part of something alongside having the time and space to play and follow my own lines of enquiry and interests. going into 2018 i have more things in place to feel part of than i did a year ago and i think this is helping me to feel less anxious about the year rolling on.
in looking back through the images i’ve uploaded this year i feel proud and a smile forms at what i see before me. i have to admit to you that sometimes i generate my own bad feeling for myself when i don’t actually appreciate what it is i’m doing and have done. it’s difficult to put into words – this feeling i have. i think the closest i might get is an analogy of the professional dart player. they speak of playing the board, not actually following what their opponent is doing. at times i stop playing the board and take a massive step back and look at the other players all playing their boards and being in awe of their scoring, even though we’re not in the same game. if there’s one thing i need to tell my future self it’s keep playing your own board and be more diligent – be inspired rather than down beat.
for my future self i ask :
how’s the mentoring of the young person progressing ?
how’s your understanding of the play process going? do you remember how you wanted to revise your knowledge of how play leads to critical thinking so you can apply that within your work within the ios and timeplacespace.net ?
what whittling practice have you done ?
how were the richard long exhibition based workshops in january 2018 ?
how will you move tranche 3 on from 2 ?
how did your interview for the learning support position go ?
what inspired by forest bathing walks have you done ?
how have you coped with steam tots in the smaller space ?
did you submit shimmering place to doc fest ?
what have you done to move your artistic practice forward ?
are your cv, linked in and website up to date ?
