Pushing doors. Pushing doors, in case anyone has noticed, is what I’ve been doing since I emerged from looking after young children and returned to exhibiting three years ago. Pushing doors is a dangerous occupation as they may just open when you least expect it. My son Samuel and I are massive fans of Takeshi’s castle, a classic Japanese game show, during which contestants have to run like mad at doors, some of which open and others of which are solid – behind some are monsters, others, when contestants do break through, cause them to fall straight into a a muddy lake. There is endless hilarity to be had from watching unsuspecting enthusiasts bounce back after running full pelt into a solid door. You can see the disturbing metaphor for real-life here. Metaphorically pushing doors is dangerous, time-consuming and doesn’t earn you much money during the pushing stage.
Tomorrow I have a meeting with the head of a local college about possible lecturing opportunities, a quick proposal to a London based marketing firm has resulted in an invitation to curate a series of shows in their offices, and the seemingly defunct project for organising the show and week of events in Salisbury has risen from the ashes and seems hopeful yet again. Educational based projects are spurring off each other with further projects all the time and should all these opportunities come off and all the doors open at once, I may just do a Takeshi’s Castle and fall headlong into the lake through one door too many.
From past experience though, I’m pretty sure they won’t, but all this time spent exploring ways to survive and continue as an artist leaves precious little for what I really want to do with my life which is – JUST TO MAKE SOME ARTWORK, AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
