Having just completed my Masters at BCU in Art Practice and Education I find myself wondering “what comes next?” and searching for new ideas and inspirations to challenge and stimulate myself.
Back in my classroom, the realisation that I can only make Art if I’m teaching has led me to ask why this might be, and to explore how I could develop my own practice further in the “outside” world.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bo-Jones-ArtistTeacher/662681703796086?fref=ts
Rereading through what I have written, it surprises me just how little I speak about the artist… the maker… the practice I pursue… my intentions. What I get is the teacher… instructor… provocateur…
Why is this? Why this lack of conviction – this reticence to comment? Do I doubt my worth… work… courage to face critique?.. Have I nothing to say… Is my work meaningless? Am I already pure teacher?..
Prep for my 10 hours, demands I start thinking again about definition… aspiration… ambition and purpose… Why I make and what I want the work to say… or propose an alternative that negates substance… “Art for art’s sake?”
I’ve examined the origins of the term artist… sought definition… What is it that I am… claim… supposed to be?.. What is the fit?..
In ancient Greece sculptors and painters were held in low regard, somewhere between freemen and slaves, their work regarded as mere manual labour. So what elevated our position?
artist /ärˈtist/
noun
A person who practices or is skilled in an art, now esp a fine art
A person who has the qualities of imagination and taste required in art
A painter or draughtsman
A performer, esp in music
A person good at, or given to, a particular activity, such as booze artist (slang)
A learned man (obsolete)
Someone who professes magic, astrology, alchemy, etc, or chemistry (obsolete)
(Chambers dictionary).
Practices?.. Skilled?.. Imagination?.. Taste?.. Learned?..
Does this fit me?.. Am I side-tracking?.. Avoiding issues?.. Not addressing my training?
I think not… Or maybe it’s just ingrained Mr Teacher… I need qualification before recognition… insight prior to adornment…
Let’s cross reference… second opinion…
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the older broad meanings of the term “artist” as: –
A learned person or Master of Arts.
A follower of a pursuit in which skill comes by study or practice.
One who makes their craft a fine art.
One who cultivates one of the fine arts.
Strangely, instant empathy lies with the second – …”comes by study or practice!”
Teacher?.. no escaping this anathema…
I have my Master’s Of Art… tick box…
I do practice my craft daily… be it generally on an iPad… tick box… Does that constitute skilled?
Imagination… yes… tick box…
But taste?.. ah right!.. ok!.. “The faculty by which the mind perceives the beautiful or elegant”… (Chambers dictionary)… I think I can do that… tick box…
“Makes their craft a fine art”?.. Craft?.. A skilled trade?… Skilled?… Now there is the question?..
…Is what I do on the iPads skilled?…
Skilled?.. “aptitudes and competencies appropriate for a particular job”… tick box… but… don’t all of these just come down to levels of proficiency?.. (Education and grade systems!)…
So… we have arrived at the artwork… Lets presume I pass muster and can call myself Artist… Am I Artist?..
So what is it I do?
Strange how in the definitions there is no reference to research… planning… consideration… development…
Is creation… composition… in art terms then spontaneous?.. a matter of perception?.. intuition?.. instinct?..
Because that’s kind of what the iPad engenders…
Of course… I have starting points… projects… but I question the relevance… does the viewer request this when they view the work?.. Why does audience desire insight? Why this craving for explanation…
Maybe that’s the thing… maybe that’s me… why I shy away… struggle with descriptive…
The main focus of my practice is rooted in the singular pixel and discusses the nature of other singular entities such as viruses and bacteria. Working predominantly with iPad and App technology the principle objective of my work is to create beauty from the minute and infect the antigen in the same way as it taints us. Alongside my research I have developed complex methods of manipulating singular forms and transforming them into intricate, abstract images that hide their origins yet retain hints of their original single structure. Hundreds of slightly different versions are reproduced mimicking virus multiplication. Increasingly as new images evolve, the work is inhabiting and polluting new organic forms and human structures…
There… that’s it… my overview…
… and for the first time… with pride… I have work in New York…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ybd5nSnmvI
…and can hesitantly say…
I am Artist…
It’s strange watching my year 11 GCSE pupils doing their 10 hour practical exam… to realize just how much I miss studio practice… the luxury of a solid block of time just to make Art… the culmination of research, experimentation and development.
I used to knock this process… “Don’t know any artists who work like that”… “Is about passing a GCSE, not making art”… but today I value it… the training and discipline… and understand better the use of sketchbooks, process and evaluation.
They don’t appreciate how lucky they are… a small minority of them anyway. It’s a chore… a task that needs completing ASAP… because then “Jonesy” will let them escape early… like… so that that’s them and art done… permanent…
10 hours to realize intentions… broken into blocks… 4… 3… and 3… Time in between to reflect… reconsider… revisit…
They come in with those last minute doubts from a night spent up – worrying and finalizing… planning. “Do you think….”… “Can I…?”… “What if…?”… yet still keen to please and seek approval… little realizing that should they continue on with this calling their cast has been set… future years of the same… the myth of the artist… that tormentor of souls…
Reflective practice mirrored in my minors… Privileged indeed… Essence of artist…
Finding time is the key of course… not the space… that can be created wherever … can’t it? Is prerequisite within the head – the processor… the image factory?
Not having the space, maybe I’m just mitigating? My art room suffices during the daytime… is where I make most work… but it belongs to my apprentices… I charter time from them… or is that pocket? At night my iPad expands into a vast space for my fertility… borderless walls… evolution tank…
And yet…
I read my friends blog… new space… new freedom… new time…
Do I covet? Resent? Crave?
Would I trade?
I’m back to the variance… artist or teacher?… Artist-teacher?… Where is Bo’s practice positioned in this? What is my occupation?
Recent events have possibly abstracted my attention… buying into the aspiration is hard to resist… delirium from non rejection intoxicating and swamping… a few kind words heady with hope and intent…
STOP…
Reality check…
What do you enjoy most?… What would you miss?…
I have the best of both… take out the incredibly hard and time-consuming graft… (graft… craft… mmm… interesting!)… Steeped in daily… making… guiding… suggesting… observing… viewing… appraising… commenting… discussing… experimenting… stimulating…
Can anything surpass this – or is it an examination of levels… discourse… engagement?
Am I depicting the artisan or the educator?
Maybe this is where Elena got it right… time out to try the alternative? Am I institutionalized? Are these ponderings redundant or merited on bias and indoctrination? When did I last studio?
What would I do with space?… Where would it take me – my toil?
Here’s the plan… play along… I’m somehow going to acquire myself 10 hours production time… isolated confinement… fresh, unadulterated accommodation… and see what happens… be it listless staring into space… frantic production… or soothing craftsmanship… I’ll have a better inkling of direction… a notion of whether it’s waking delusion or me…
I won’t abscond from what I have… falsify the situation… enter the fantasy… I will hold to reality… shelf the comparisons and create in the now…referencing the work that has recently been considered accomplished… Time might hold the answers… not Space…
My whole mood has changed… aaahg!!!… I was so up for writing positively when I started but have just deleted my opening paragraph…
What is it with these people? Why this deliberate, determined push to undermine our subject? We really must have upset somebody…
I’ve already had four weeks GCSE prep time taken off my pupils. I was informed that Math’s, Science and English revision was far more important – that my Art students would be better advised revising for those than preparing for their exam…
And now it has just been announced that there is to be a controlled Math’s assessment in the middle of my exam and that my pupils must do this instead… FFS!.. raging isn’t the word…
I have to trust (despite having already informed those that need to know that this will devastate my results), that my pupils will come through. Although this feels like a conspiracy – my numbers for GCSE uptake are going through the roof, and I suspect (paranoid now) that judgments will be made on future results; to undermine – I’m sure it isn’t and that government pressures are the driving force behind this…
I no longer want to write like this… I don’t want to publish this… I don’t like how I sound… yet a good cuss is great for the soul….
I have a good bunch of pupils… I have taught them well… everything is exactly the way it is meant to be… I will get them the results they deserve…
* * * * * *
One of my favourite expressions is “there’s no such thing as coincidence”…
It’s funny how fate reveals itself to us – or is it “God calling” as I once was told? There is a definite change afoot in my life… something has changed, be it attitude, ambition or paralysis… that has given me an extraordinary start to the year… little incidents that have mounted up and cascaded into minute windows of opportunity… fortune offers optimism… and I’m feeling like I’ve been blessed providentially…
Is the focus changing or am I just seeking solace in my passion? I’ve never been one to really self promote or sell myself… for a teacher, I’m pretty quiet, shy and withdrawn – or is that how I’ve become? Is that where teaching takes us? Is this the balance to daily exuberance… performance?
Anyway…
If a genesis is happening, it started at the beginning of this year in ASDA when I encountered an artist friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen for a while, but whom lives a mile down the road from me! We both graduated from KIAD Canterbury around a similar time, but she has gone on to huge success, particularly in the Far East, whilst my career has followed alongside education. On hearing that I’d completed my Masters and was now actively once again pursuing art, she suggested that I should enter the National Sculpture prize…
…minute windows of opportunity…
Now, I’m not a sculptor, but hey… what the hell… nothing ventured, nothing gained… I entered…
The second “coincidence” came shortly after. I had booked myself a portfolio review at the National Centre for Craft and Design, which isn’t too far from where I reside and one of my favourite galleries. I took work from the “ONE” show that I’d had last year with Elena Thomas hoping it might lead to joining the Design Factory – a community of craft makers and designers…
…minute windows of opportunity…
Now, I’m not a craft maker, but hey…
Serendipity three happened as a direct result of donating to the initial kickstarter fundraising event for the upcoming “COLONIZE” exhibition in New York, that Elena Thomas is exhibiting in… http://sciartistprojects.wordpress.com/links/ …
… minute windows of opportunity…
Now, I’m not normally in the habit of donating to such like things, but hey…
How many similar minute windows have I missed in the past?
I am 1st reserve in the sculpture competition… should one of the top ten drop out, my piece goes in..!
NCCD advised me to put in a joint proposal with Elena for a show…!
I have two pieces of A5 work going to New York..!
Happy?..
…don’t even get close…
I think for now that I’ve had my fill of feelings… I want to concentrate on the good things…
Time to change the focus…
I sent off my proposal for the National Sculpture Prize today… Soooo out of my comfort zone… excited that I’m finally getting involved…
It’s a strong design I believe. I’m proud of the idea and what it represents and where it could take things; me… stepping away from the iPad… not quite… looking to use the iPad in a new way – and how it stands as a three dimensional drawing in its own right…
I’ve discussed the notion of ambiguity with friends… pondered figurative… sought opinion on various designs… compared to the obvious… drawn and re-drawn… considered… mused… contemplated… tried… altered…
Copper or steel?… tubing or bar?… Ply or hardwood?… Beech or iroko?… Both?… Height?… Width?… Measure and re-measure… Thickness?… Straight or curved?… One piece?… Two pieces?… Single boards?… Mortise and tenons?
I’ve titled the piece “Urban Tree” and it’s based on an iPad image of a figure wearing a hoody… which might just be too much information…
I plumped for ambiguous…
“Urban Tree is a natural evolution for the iPad manipulations that I have been developing. As a physical starting point, it crosses backwards and forwards between the virtual and the real in its progression towards spatial realisation and recognition. This drawing… and it remains as such… sits in a rural setting, challenging with an urban edge, the ambiguous threat of figure only hinted at from a set, pre-determined point: questioning the need for the figure to be recognised at all. The material of the main two structures chosen to help camouflage the metropolitan, hinted at by the industrial opposing metal that works as a foil against which the two might rail. Urban meets rural… This sculpture expresses the need for the figure to be able to exist in both”.
I have entered the process!…
And now I wait…
Excited…
THIS IS NOT ME!
I need to break this… step away from… get back to Bo…
I’ve always written to release. I was told time ago that it’s a great way of clearing the decks. This has proved to be the case. I write every night. Leave the day behind so I can start afresh each day… as taught… a record/history for my girls… frustrations… mistakes… joys… hopes… experiences… and yes… the occasional feeling.
But I’ve never written to show before… except that essay or research for assessment… even my sketchbooks are private and closed… until this blog…
No point writing unless it’s honest… language of the heart… this ain’t no essay, research or paper for debate or speculation… I bore myself when it gets morbid… Sympathy is for the weak…
And yet… I wonder what the reader finds here? How does this translate? What images does it create?
I love reading. I love text and books. Words secrete as many visual depictions to me as images, hand crafted by artists…
I never thought I’d consider writing of departing teaching… I’m not a man who runs away from a fight… but… I like opponents that can debate reasonably… support their point, or at least follow the Queensberry rules… It’s the cowards way to fight from a distance on unsubstantiated evidence… to point the finger and suggest wisdom unsupported by relevant fact…
I’m not alone… http://adarkwhimsy.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/life-lessons-fear-of-failure-and-why-i-left-teaching/ … Thank you…
The artist…
Ah… the artist… That’s where the obvious escape lies… little by little it’s siren call taunts me… suggests a better alternative…
And that’s where I’m moving to… taking opportunities as they arise… engaging more fully in the drug – stuff the consequences to the sacrificed time from teaching…
This is where you put me…
Is that right? Do I disgrace the profession? Have I failed? Will I be deemed to be beaten?
I cannot win this dual… I’m outgunned… Nor can I yet “lay down” or walk away… that masculine pride that cares not just for reputation, but pupil progress… won’t accept defeat…
Besides… the corrosive erosion and doubt of ability and self… can’t be allowed to go on…
This is not a resignation letter…
Appreciation Mr Gove… goodwill… a little recognition… goes a hell of a long way… as artists, isn’t that what we crave? I don’t believe hard working, dedicated teachers are really any different… Why ignore your best assets? Do you honestly believe that any one of us wants to fail our pupils?
I wasn’t born a teacher or an artist. I had to work bloody hard to train in both disciplines. Is it logical to suggest that once I got there I’d sit back on my laurels and look for easy options?… That I wouldn’t want what’s best for my students?.. Pass on my hard earned passion?.. Is that the precedence my actions portray? It takes time and dedication as well as a huge amount of bravery to produce work for display… to present… to stand in front of 30 pupils, 6 times each day…
You belittle me… my peers… my profession…
Why not motivate me?.. Convince me of your argument?.. I’m now your disaffected, disruptive pupil… Tell me please… How will you bring me back on side? Will discipline alter my attitude?
I want to draw and doodle… your ill-prepared lesson doesn’t engage me… I have other interests… convince me that I should pay attention and not peruse those instead… make me feel… fire my passion…
I’ll give you fifty minutes… one lesson… I might send in one of my peers for twenty minutes… see what they think…maybe you can alter their opinions too…
Artist-Teacher.
