Professional Practice has been a continuing theme throughout our studies. We are asked to consider and record plans for exhibition, promotion, future career development, next steps.
It has prompted me to seek out and participate in some really interesting stuff this year – drawing with Mark Wallinger @ The Hayward last summer was a highlight, attending a Writing& workshop at the Arnolfini was another (and one I’ll be repeating this weekend). I also took some time to work on my bookmaking skills with Guy Begbie in Bath – a great practical introduction to making and thinking about the architecture of books. I’ve also found more local opportunities via our Wiltshire Arts programme and spent a fascinating and enlightening day at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in the company of other local artists, thinking about possibilities of engaging with this fascinating archive.
I’ve taken advantage of student rates and used the time I’ve spent in these alternative learning environments to think about my practice.
Walking into a room full of strangers is always daunting but I’ve been fortunate to meet some extremely interesting and supportive people along the way. As well as coming together for a specific purpose and being led through the workshop by a teacher or tutor – the opportunity to learn from the other participants is an enriching experience.
“It’s not what you do, it’s the place that you do it”…or so Bananarama might have said in the eighties.
I wrote a little in my last post about taking my lines for a walk (see what I did there…). It’s Friday. Forgive me.
Anyway…as I was saying. I’ve drawn at home this week and in the photography studio. Prior to beginning this month-long project, I tested the premise in the installation room at college.
As I draw each day my mind wanders. Not too far. I have to count the lines. Nevertheless each five or six minute blast of drawing allows a short mental meander.
My main pre-occupation is time. Why do we do the things we do? Why do we think some things are a waste of time? How are our online activities shaping our realtime activities?
As I draw, though, I’m starting to think of the where – drawing at college feels purposeful, drawing at home feels like a distraction, drawing in the photography studio feels like some kind of performance.
Drawing these lines as well as taking up time is also marking out a territory of time when I can think and I suppose I’m thinking about the who, what, why, where and when…
The pasting table, lining paper and biros took a trip to the photography studio at college yesterday. This was not a stress free experience – half an hour of country roads followed by a full carpark at college, three trips back and forth carrying everything to the studio accompanied by unpredictable gusts of wind. My carefully folded roll of lining paper became more precious by the minute and my anxiety about folds, tears and creases grew.
Once in the studio itself all was well. I had a lot of help from our studio technician/tutor. Photography is not my strong point. It was interesting to see the work in a different place and to have it scrutinised under the studio lights. This process of displaying work via photographs, online and in presentations is something I want to explore more after the degree.
As part of our professional practice module, we are in the throes of preparing a presentation about our work – hence the photographs and the studio time.
I know that this is not just a requirement for the course but one for pursuing any sort of career in the arts. It’s not only what you do that’s important, it’s how you present it to other people, peers, colleagues, funders….the list is endless.
My work is not particularly photogenic. It’s monotone, repetitious, mundane. It’s not going to make a big splash on a page. For me, that’s part of the work. I don’t want to do ‘show and tell’, the big ‘ta-dah’. I suppose what I’ve done by reducing my activity to making lines and grids, I’m trying to present a question about activity and how time is spent in daily life. Why choose one activity over another and how do we value our time?
I am making the same number of lines every day and recording the time it takes me to make that set number of lines.
Each day the time fluctuates. I use my iphone to record the time by using the voice memo function – the by product of getting an accurate time in minutes and seconds is a recording of each drawing.
I started to record the drawing process in the installation room at college and have continued to do this, primarily for the time accuracy. These are not specialist recordings. Of course the acoustics in my home are very different from the breeze-blocked room at colllege. What I have noticed, however, is the quality and speed of the lines I am drawing which vary quite dramatically. This may be a mood thing or (more likely) a time thing – as I said in my last post the drawings are becoming so much a part of my routine that they are slotted in across the day – much like everything else I do. I found myself completing some of the smaller daily sketchbook drawings at the kitchen table whilst my kids were getting ready for school.
This isn’t because I feel they are unimportant but I have definitely decided, particularly with the smaller, shorter activities that I’m more interested in the time they take rather than the specific outcome. Some of them are not going to be resolved as well as they would need to be for the degree show I certainly won’t be presenting everything. I want my submission to the show to be carefully considered and impactful.
The larger drawing, though, is recorded every day. It sits in my office/space at home on its trestle table – the three sections folded in on themselves, taking up almost all the floor space.
Tomorrow I am taking it into college to film and document it for our degree catalogue. Perhaps it might be interesting to take the drawing to other places and make recordings there?
Something to consider.
I haven’t drawn yet today. When I started 13.4.13 – 13.5.13 I worked on the drawings first thing in the morning, on waking, completing my daily creative task before beginning the rest of my day.
By midweek the drawing tasks were being pushed later and later into the day, crowded out by work, family commitments, daily tasks.
On Thursday, I made my drawing at 11.30pm and on Friday I’d fallen asleep early, woke in a panic and got up just after 11.30pm to complete the task. Yesterday I finished my drawing two minutes before going out for the evening.
The act of drawing and making this work has slipped quite quickly alongside the other activities that need to be completed every day.
This task I set myself as a separate act of creativy and significant part of my degree show work has become so part of everydayness that it is pushed and pulled around my waking hours alongside all the other things on my to-do-list.
I like the idea that by the end of the thirty days, the habit of drawing like this will have embedded itself into my daily life, just as the biro is being embedded into the lining paper with lines darkening and broadening as I work over them each day.
