One creative year: studio, birth and motherhood

Back to civilisation (well, connectivity), central heating and my family – ah lovely – after a bit of a cold wet stay in Italy.

I was back in Pietrasanta to finish a bronze.

It was great seeing lots of friends and hearing everyones news – I also managed to see the opening and artist talks for the DonnaScultura show – great show of 4 female sculptors. Will try to upload some photos of this over the next few days – just got back this evening and have been doing early starts to be in the foundry soon after 7 am each day to get everything done in time.

Although it wasn’t that cold, it was so damp the cold just went through me – and there were so many colds doing the rounds I’m crossing my fingers and trying to hit the vitamin C to avoid getting ill.

I did lots of skype to keep in touch with my 3 year old whilst I was away, and to try to assuage the guilt of leaving him when he wan’t well.

But, glad to be home, and will hopefully write something more coherant when not quite so tired…

Insight into another artist’s studio residency

I went to an inspiring talk in Matt Clarks studio last night. It was very interesting hearing about his studio bursary and what he has been able to do in the studio over the last year and a bit.

Matt (http://www.mattclarksculpture.co.uk) got the studio off the back of the School of Saatchi TV show and it is partly supported by Kensington and Chelsea council Culture Service.

Having previously done mostly installation work, he has spent the time in the studio developing more object based work. I was interested in the way he spoke about the space, with a whimsical affection, and how tied he felt his new way of working was to the space.

I quized Matt on timings – he really had developed a body of work that hung together and he was doing something interesting with. I was interested in how that had developed. He said he had effectively started working in the studio in about Feb last year and developed various ideas and works, but that it was really in September that the work he was showing us had started. The earlier work had been very important in leading to what he was doing. His girlfriend also said that lots of the pieces had been done very recently. It seemed like things had started coming together and was sort of snowballing into more and more inspiration and activity, but that it had almost taken 9 months to get to that point…

He had also managed to extend what had been a year, into two years, which he as really happy about as he felt that he was really getting into the work when it was originally due to stop.

This makes me a bit stressed about getting on with my residency (only 1 year with a birth in the middle!). But also made me think about initially developing ways of working and ideas, and not worry about results or finished works for a while…

This last thought may also be linked to something else I heard this week:

“free up and forget about results, and (do something that we) did as children, be completely creative and open to new ideas”

[This is at the end of Almuth Tebbenhoff video about her drawing workshop for proffessional artist: http://www.tebbenhoff.org/artclassvideo.php really worth watching, very interesting]

Meanwhile life and admin have still been getting in the way of me getting into the studio. Friday I finished the studio move and my assistant James was a star, helping me shift my boxes of sculptures into my attic, and the bigger ones into some storage I’ve got access to. The weekend was spent sleeping and trying to recover – on sunday I had wanted to visit my father who was in hospital after a big operation but I guiltily ended up just sleeping all day (and I think my bump is bigger as a result!)

This week:

Monday am: cleaned my old studio, bank, replaced bulb on car, parking permit
Pm: in studio pewter casting

Tues – teaching

Wed – am son sick, waiting for GP appnt, pm he was better so left w sister-in-law and finished pewter casts in studio, then went to talk in evening

Thurs, today – son has been worse overnight, had to cancel teaching, currently monitoring him and worried might have to go into A&E soon… but meanwhile we’re both watching cbeebies and I’m trying to write this.

Tomorrow morning I fly to Italy. This is to do the chasing on my bronze Pyruvate Kinase (I’ve sold the original that was cast from the wax, so this is the 1/8). It is going to be in an exhibition of RBS members work in Pietrasanta (Mar-Apr), along with some smaller works I’m taking with me on the plane tomorrow. I’ll be there for 6 days and will also catch the DonnaScultura show that opens this weekend. I’m wondering whether I should ship my moulds back to the UK to get cast here, but it is nice to maintain the like to Pietrasanta and the amazing community of sculptors there.

I can’t believe when I get back it is then the last week in February! Time’s flying…

I’ve Started working in my studio

So, after a midwife appointment on monday morning, I spent the afternoon retouching/chasing some small wax sculptures in my new workshop. This was the first time I’d actually sat down to some work in the new space (as opposed to just unpacking and organising).

It took a while as I was getting used to new techniques – I can’t use my baby belling as we are worried about setting off the alarms from overheating the wax and sending out billows of smoke. The repercussion of that would be evacuation of the whole building (including The Guardian newspaper offices), which takes about 1/2 an hour, and no one can re-enter for another 1/2 hour as they check the building. Not something I want to be responsible for…

But I used the soldering iron to heat my metal tools which works quite well. I am also getting my head round the wax heater – although it was filthy, lots of brown gunk down the bottom of it so took a while trying to clean it – not that successfully.

So in the end I worked from about 2-9pm!

On my way out met some very friendly security guards who showed me where the toilet is on my floor (I’m at -3 i.e. the lowest basement with the bike racks and car park). I’d looked before but had only found plant rooms! They also took me up to the ground floor in a lift I’d been unaware of. So I’m slowly beginning to find my way around.

Earlier I’d gone up to the lower foyer of Kings Place to use the fancy public loos (which is quite a hike). I must have been a strange sight, pregnant woman in blue overalls spattered with plaster, as I walked through smartly dressed people sipping wine and waiting to go to a concert!

After teaching yesterday, today (wednesday) I spent my first whole day in the workshop with my assistant James.

We finished sorting the studio, and moving my stuff onto the shelves. Its a bit annoying that none of the electrics have been PAT tested yet although I brought all my electrics in and requested it 13 days ago. As I’ve laid them all out on 2 of the metal work benches ready for the electrician to test them, it is stopping me from finishing organising the space, as well as not being able to use any of the tools or benches! (I also want to use the microwave for a hot lunch)

James then finished the last 2 wax men in the morning (I had started teaching him the technique in my old studio, and he’s picked it up fast), and did a repair on a pewter sculpture in the afternoon. I was quite involved, but it was great having a bench drill to do nice easy straight drilling, although we still managed to break a drill bit in part of the sculpture (easily done as it was a 1.8mm drill bit).

Meanwhile, I made a few calls: ordering rubber and other materials (eish expensive – reminds me I need to see if I can get some materials funding). I then started having a play/experiment with wax. Made a few interesting shapes which I’ll work back into next time, but still haven’t got the temperature/consistency quite right for my molten wax experiments. Great to actually get to some creative work, but its not really going to start bearing fruit till I can build up some momentum.

However, realised I spent a lot of today commuting! I took me 50 mins to get my son to nursery as the busses and traffic were being a nightmare, then 45 mins up to Kings cross, so having left the house at 8.20 I only got there at 10am. Left at 5.15pm, stopped for a little while at my mum’s, and got home about 7. That is 3 1/2 hours!

Need to work out how to do this more reliably and quicker…

Other news: I’ve sublet my (old) studio!

Which is great, but means friday will be spent finishing the studio clear (tomorrow teaching all day again). The weeks are just flying by…

The first month

So, as you might have noticed – I’ve started this blog at the end of January, so in theory nearly a month into the residency, but in practice I haven’t really started yet. This is frustrating but I supposed inevitable as things take time to set up. Partly this is because I was only told that I was to be awarded the residency the week before Christmas, and having spent a few weeks in limbo, I’d persuaded myself that I wouldn’t be getting it so had accepted lots of things for January.

The main thing I have done is that I have hired an assistant! This makes me feel like a proper grown up sculptor and I think it will really help me to make the most of the residency. So I have James who is a recent graduate who will be helping me 1-2 days/week. The deal is that I’m going to teach him how to mould and cast, and he will then be able to help with a lot of the production side of my work. He gets lots of experience in sculpture techniques (he is more from an installation/media background) and an insight into my world – for what it is worth.

I advertised the assistants post on University of the Arts work placement board: http://www.arts.ac.uk/student/careers/ and was really chuffed that I got over 20 applications. It was quite hard narrowing down, but I managed to get down to 5 who I invited for interview. They were all really talented, keen and good assistant potential – however 2 did stand out above the rest and I’m hoping the other one will still be available to help me if/when James needs to move on to other opportunities. Not bad for an unpaid role.

So activities this month:

– Doing my tax return for 09-10 (3 ½ days I think)

– Packing and moving studio (3 days – and not quite done yet – but much easier with James’ help)

– Trying to sublet my current studio

– Work on a portrait commission (2d)

– Finishing another commission (1d)

– Teaching 2 days per week (6d so far)

– Finding/hiring assistant (~1d advertising/managing, 1/2 d short-listing, 1 d interviewing)

– Trip to Pangolin foundry in Gloucestershire – coincidentally to drop off my Olympics commission piece and to do some H&S inductions (1d)

– Creative time in studio: 0 days :(

Well it all adds up to 19 days – and there have only been 19 work days this month so it is easy how quickly a month goes. I’ve also promised myself totally empty weekends with no commitments – this is my concession to being pregnant so I don’t get exhausted and ill. I’ve had to warn my friends that I might not see them this year, as my priorities are studio time and family, which is quite enough. Recent weekend have involved a lot of sleep.

I’ve also found I haven’t been seeing much of my 3 year old, a bit of manic time in the morning before dropping him at nursery, then on some days I just pick him up after he’s had supper and bring him home for a story and bed. I’ve also had quite a lot on in the evenings, so one week I only saw him an hour between Tuesday morning and Friday evening. Its tough and I think he is getting a bit more clingy as a result – when we are at home together he follows me round and gets upset if I pop upstairs “mummy I lost you!” So I’m trying to make sure we get regular good time together, part of this is that I’ve decided I have to get up earlier in the morning so it can be a bit more of a leisurely breakfast with a bit of time for play, rather than a battle to get him fed, dress and ready to go out the house between toddler tantrums.

At times I even forget I’m pregnant and hardly think about the upcoming birth, but the little one has suddenly got a lot more active and is reminding me of its presence doing a jamboree in my growing bump. Then I see someone with a little baby and I remember that we’re going to have ‘one of those’ soon, and I get all broody again.

I hope I can get some good creative time in February – it is looking a bit too businessy already for my liking…

To residency or not to – that was the question:

When first approached by Pangolin for this opportunity I was both excited and disappointed, and frankly quite confused.

On the one hand it seems perfect timing: following on from a 3 month residency from February to April 2010, I had realised that what I need is to consolidate the discoveries I made then and extended studio time, away from daily pressures of making a living, would be just what I meed to really develop as an artist.

I would get a great fully kitted out studio in Kings Cross to use for a year, some materials, technical support from the foundry, and if I can do the work to justify it – a solo show at the end of it, in an amazing gallery which would place my work in exactly the right context that I want it to be viewed.

On the other hand – I was pregnant, and already had a 3 year old. I had been thinking that 2011 would be mostly taken up with a maternity break whilst I cooed over a new born baby and made sure my son bonded well with his new sibling.

Should I try to persuade them to let me have the residency in another year or so, or was the risk of loosing the chance too great. Would I get more out of it in a year when I wasn’t giving birth – yes probably – but who knows – it might be harder to do it with a 2- and 5-year-old who can both talk and want to see more of me, than a new born and a 3 year old. And currently I have a great support network of family to help me with childcare which I can’t guarantee will last forever.

If I did it an could get what I hoped out of it, then I would be so much further ahead in my artistic development by the start of 2012, and I might be in a position to be taking on other even greater opportunities.

So, after a lot of soul searching and thinking and talking to various people – and, I’m so lucky for this, the encouragement of my husband and mother – I decided to put in a proposal to Pangolin London for the 2011 Sculpture Residency at Kings Place.