After a couple weeks back at my two part-time jobs I realized that the time has come to give one up. It feels great to know that soon I'll have at least two days a week in the studio. The difficultly with only having one studio day a week is that if I can't make that day it means I'm not there for almost two weeks. It puts me off going into town to get materials or see a gallery – a kind of catch 22 situation!
I had to re-schedule my talk. In a way it was good for me to have to ask to re-arrange things, I'm not always good at asking for what I need. Sarah, at the gallery, was great and easily sorted things out without making me feel awkward.
Last night I sent out an email to some of the other Crystal Palace Artists' to see if they were interested in being in a specifically contemporary group show. The show will be a kind of 'show within a show' taking place as part of the Signals 5 (Crystal Palace Artists' Annual Open show). This evening I've already had very positive responses. It's the kind of thing I couldn't do when I chaired the group and it's great to have the opportunity do it now.
I took time off work last week and spent it in the studio – I'm not sure if I've ever had three consecutive days there before, which is quite an admission. Although I think of myself an artist I realise that I spend the majority of my week away from my practice – being at work (either of my part-time jobs) thinking about it isn't the same as being there doing it. I don't often see any of the other artists (there are eight of us working on the top floor of the old furniture depository), it made such a good change to be there with some of them on Friday.
It was really great to get such positive feedback about what I'm doing and the opportunities I've got coming up – thank you Jodi and Derek you've made me realise the importance of all the incidential stuff that happens when you're around other artists.
I’ve been invited to talk about my work in late March and I’m surprised at how anxious I am about it already. It’s at a friendly gallery and the audience will be mainly artists – and a few friends I’m asking too. After years of describing my practice to school children it’s exciting and a bit daunting to think about showing the work to fellow artists. The invitation came from an artist I studied with over 10 years ago who now works at the gallery- we bumped into each other a Frieze last year and now I’m going to be in an off-site project she’s curating later this summer. First though I’ve got this talk to do. . .
After three years of being very involved in establishing and running CPArtists I stepped down as Chair at last week’s AGM. I’ve really enjoyed my time as Chair/Co-ordinator and now I want to focus on developing my own projects with some of the artists I’ve met through the group. I also want to spend more time developing my own practice. Chronologically I should be mid-career but I’m nowhere near it! I’ve kept so many seperate projects running for so long that I felt a bit of consolidation was required, and this is how Project Me came about. A bit of re-branding …
