In Occupation: Two Weeks in Residence at the Centre for Drawing

Yesterday was my last working day at the Centre for Drawing. I could sense the clock ticking all day and despite trying not to, I felt more pressured than I had in previous days. I knew that I only had a few hours until I had to start curating the work I had made over the past eight days and it suddenly felt like there was a very tangible deadline. I learned a few important lessons yesterday. Firstly, I realised that as soon as I panic or rush to finish things I become clumsy. More than once I stabbed my hand with a scalpel and bled on otherwise pristine sheets of paper. Similarly I dropped a paintbrush amply loaded with black paint onto a drawing, rendering it useless. I had other equally stupid and embarrassing accidents too. Stress and worry are seemingly counterproductive to me finishing work and at one point of the day it felt like I’d destroyed more work than I’d made. I also learned that the purpose of yesterday shouldn’t have been to manically make extra things to put on the wall but would have been better spent looking at what I already had and thinking about how best to present it. Maybe I was putting off this part of the process. I know many artists who enjoy curatorial tasks but I’m certainly not one of them. Given the choice I’d rather squeeze in another day of making work rather than start organising the studio space for people to visit on Friday. However, after the fairly disasterous start to the day and an enforced period of reflection I finally instigated this process later in the afternoon. By the time I left CfD yesterday I’d started to hang a few things. I still have plenty of organising to do on Friday morning but think (hope) I’ll approach it better for being away from the space today. Then, almost as soon as it started, my residency at the Centre for Drawing will be over and I’ll be moving back to my studio – back to the urban vibrancy of New Cross Gate.