A Portrait of an Artist as a Very Late Starter

Quite a few artists I know are still very resistant to social networking. I have tried to convince them that it is an excellent way to engage with other artists and to discover new ones. It is two years since I was able to begin seriously engaging with art making again and social networking has been one of my tools, part of my practice. Since starting this blog I have had contact with interesting, informed and friendly artists within the Artists Talking community who are encouraging and generous with invitations and information.

Because I live in a very rural part of the world, social networking is vital for keeping me informed. It is also much easier to have work displayed in a blog/web site than to have to lug it miles to studios and gallery spaces to show people. Entry to various open opportunities is now made so much easier with the transitting of digital images across the ether, using the internet. I have actually got to the point of resenting it when organisations expect me to take the work in for selection; it is such a drain on my time and physical energy! (And I don’t even enter that many open submissions – I am still feeling my way in this part of the art world, and am by instinct quite choosy, which, I am finding is a good thing.)

I found one opportunity a good few months ago, to become a featured artist on the Access Art web site and duly entered. Access Art provide resources for anyone using art to teach (or for self development) and they have some very good exercises and lessons that members can download to use. I have always felt passionately about the quality of art teaching in schools and colleges and when I graduated in Fine Art (and by accident, but I really needed to earn some money to pay off my debts and help put three kids through uni) became a teacher in a very large and busy FE college I put my heart and soul into it, helping the department to develop its excellent programme. So the Access Art opportunity was a fit, as they say. I duly sent off all the info they required and was delighted when they informed me that I had been selected. It took them some months to actually get the pages sorted, during which time I pathetically assumed they’d changed their minds about me but I can now say that the two pages featuring my work and an exercise I devised for them have gone live. I don’t know if this is going to result in any opportunities for me; it is always difficult to tell, but it does at least mean that some of my work is being seen by more people than if I had not applied for the opportunity and as far as I am concerned that is a positive thing. Once the pages are no longer the main feature of the “I Am Access Art” section, they will be stored in their archive, so access to them will remain possible. I am pleased about this and it’s another plus to add to my achievements since the end of 2011. http://www.accessart.org.uk/i-am-accessart-sue-gough/

There has been lots of activity this week focusing on Ryedale ArtWorks, an artist led community for which I am Chair as well as a member.

Of course, this means that, frustratingly, I have still not managed any working time in the studio but at least things are progressing positively in one area of my artistic life.

On Tuesday we had a meeting of some of the RAW committee, along with Sally Taylor, who is one of our members, and has the studio above me, our brilliant Creative Economies officer from Ryedale District Council, Yvette Turnbull and Councillors Steve Arnold, who is the Chair of the Creative Commissioning Board with his wife Val. Steve and Val were really interested to see Sally’s and my work, and to our studios.

The fact that two artists, in studios, one above the other, in a draughty barn in deepest rural North Yorkshire have both been selected for the prestigious Sketch 2013 was remarked upon!

We talked about the benefits the funding we are about to receive from the council will bring to the group and our plans for the future. I had my leg pulled afterwards for what has been called “Sue’s ‘I have a dream’ speech”, where I talked about our long term ambition to have a building that we can develop as a hub for Ryedale ArtWorks, that will include equipped workshops, artists work spaces and a gallery! Well, other artist led organisations have achieved this, so I don’t see why we shouldn’t eventually. . .

One of the benefits of the funding is that we are going to be able to offer support to members in the form of mentoring. Today has been spent recruiting mentors from amongst our membership who will be trained up and then be available to help all our members – we have some very skilled and experienced people who will be able to provide a wealth of advice and support. I am happy that nearly all of those I approached have accepted with a mixture of humble gratitude for being asked and excitement at being part of this project.

Meanwhile, in between phone calls, emails and rushing to the shops to buy decorating materials, I have painted 3 of the many window and door frames on the exterior of our house that I am frantically trying to complete before the inevitable bad weather sets in at the end of this month.

I find myself hoping it might rain tomorrow, so that I can retreat to the studio!

A direct result of joining the Artists Talking blog community is that I have found other artists with whom I have found an affinity through their work and ideas. I have learned so much already and found information of which I was not previously aware. Jayne Lloyd’s blog Gestures – Drawing and Writing in Chinese and English is one such. Thank you Jayne, for bringing to my attention the writing of Tim Ingold, in particular his book, “Lines”. It is a thoughtful, inspiring book that has me squealing with delight as I discover connections with my work in his thorough research! I am really enjoying engaging with ideas and making work properly again after my enforced hiatus when I moved to Yorkshire eight years ago.

Having been informed I had been selected to appear as a featured artist on a web site some months ago, I excitedly emailed off all the information they asked of me. I was a bit disappointed not to hear anything for what is, I think, a couple of months but it is not in my nature to hassle people unduly, so I didn’t email and enquire if all was well. I just philosophically assumed that perhaps, after seeing the work, they thought it was not for them! (Artists’ low self confidence kicking in, you note).

Imagine my delight yesterday morning, when I received an email from them apologising for the delay and asking for some more info., with links to the proof pages as they appear so far for me to look at! The pages are looking good; only a couple of minor mistakes and I am very much looking forward to having them go live. Once they do, I will post details so you can see for yourselves.

Meanwhile I have also spent considerable hours filling out an application to be considered for an entry in Chrysalis Arts’ Directory. http://www.chrysalisarts.org.uk/

Chrysalis Arts’ Rick Faulkner came over last Wednesday evening to the Dutch House http://www.dutchhouseyorkshire.com to give Ryedale ArtWorks http://www.ryedaleartworks.com a presentation about the work they do. I have to admit that I had previously been very confused about all the different aspects of their work but now feel I understand the organisation much better. I am pondering on some ideas that they might be able to help me with. . .

The next application I am going to make (and I have been prevaricating on this one for over eighteen months or longer), is to AXIS. This is to me, a very important step; serious artists are here; the site gives artists access to wider recognition and I consider it time for me to join their ranks. I know I don’t have as much experience as many of those represented on this site but I know my work is good enough now, particularly since I was accepted for SKETCH 13. It is remarkable how a little success boosts my confidence and sense of myself as an artist.

Back from a wonderful surprise family birthday party for the youngest of my two beautiful daughtersin Salford that started on Friday and continued through Sunday afternoon; I am only just recovering enough to turn my thoughts to my now tidy and organised studio.

While in Salford, we had a walk to the Lowry and looked at the Unseen Lowry show, some interesting drawings, although many of them a little too laboured for my taste. However, it seemed to me that Lowry struggled mightily throughout his life – to keep his art going and with his own sexuality and I felt enormous sympathy for him.

I picked up a brochure for the Whitworth, a gallery that, to my shame, I have never visited. It is due to close for major refurbishments, which look really exciting. The point of this preamble is that, in this brochure, is a drawing, entitled Diary 2007-2008 1 by Pavel Buchler.

I am not familiar with Buchler’s work although I was vaguely aware of his name. Imagine my excitement when I saw this drawing, because my own work relates to it. Whereas Buchler’s drawing is built up by overwriting text, his diary; mine incorporate mark making, and text built up repetetively.

I know that as an artist I can never be completely unique; the acrued knowledge and the visual memories built up over the years of art study and practice mean that is not possible nor desirable. Nor do I feel threatened when I see similarities between my work and that of other artists; it is fascinating and in a way, heartening to find other people reacting to similar concerns and to see common threads both visual and intellectual. My only concern is that I stay true to my own way of expressing my ideas so that my work is never derivative of other artists and I think that I have always achieved that.

Post Script

Since writing the above, I found another blog by Jayne Lloyd, who has recently completed a residency in China exploring script, who then alluded to another artist, (Cathering Wynne-Paton?) Both these artists are also exploring written content or the description of written content in various ways. This proves that we as artists are never working in isolation.

My own brief trip to China in Feb. 2012 had a profound influence on my own work that continues to seep into it in different ways including collaging found text as well as immitating some of the movements observed in the making of Chinese calligraphy.

I am finding it difficult to post images here as they are all too large but images of my work may be found on my other blog:

www.suegough.blogspot.com

and in the albums of photographs on my facebook page:

www.facebook.com/SueGoughArtist

Is it wrong to get excited about storage units? Work has begun to convert the units I inherited from the college where I taught into something more practical for a damp, dirty studio space in a farm building. The guys are brilliant; they reckon it won’t take them more than an evening, (I think two).

I am pleased that it is not going to cost me all of the money I recently earned working on the Ryedale Open last month. Once completed, I will be the proud owner of four robust units on casters about 1m wide with work space on top. YES!

I’ve been going to bed with thoughts about what will be stored where, the most efficient use of the space available and the pleasure of having a tidy studio space in which to work! Now I’m sounding like a sad woman obsessed with tidying – nothing could be further from the truth. My working methods are messy and experimental; I am very tired of wasting my time looking for things though. With this storage I am hoping I will be able to lay my hands on everthing I know I have when I need it without walking up and down looking for it and getting frustrated and cross!

Meanwhile I have not been wasting my time; I have been reading other artists blogs, painting doors and windows at home, (not quite what I have in mind when I tell people I am a painter, but it is work that has to be done), beginning to reclaim my garden from the 4 feet high weedage and yesterday, I went to the Hepworth to see the William Scott exhibition.

I have never seen many of Scott’s works before and it was a real pleasure to see so many together. His use of paint, sometimes thickly impastoed, at others thin and washy, along with the varied tonality of his blacks and greys, the beauty of his reduced palette had the hairs on my forearms standing up. The sophistication of the simplified forms and his skillful composition is so often and badly copied by many lesser artists who would do well to get over to the Hepworth and see how it should be done. Great stuff!

http://suegough.blogspot.co.uk/