Being Found

Yesterday I was found, and what a difference that makes and will make going forward.

Being selected for the East Sussex Open at the Towner Gallery, by the distinguished judges, Jenni Lomax, Melanie Manchot and Brian Cass is a very satisfying conclusion to MA2.

Happy Families, Watercolour 58 x 78 cms

I have also been ‘found’ by a fellow Blue Monkey network member who steered me to an amazing drawing group, just when I needed direction.  I have been contemplating the work of Alberto Giacometti and his approach to form, but have been unable to connect my own endeavours with his practice.  I now have the perfect tutor in Marie-Louise Miller, http://marielouisemiller.com/fineart/drawings/index.html, who just happens to teach a few minutes from my home.  She comes from a balanced Chinese perspective, where the vocabulary for mark making is developed through association with the elements and full body movement.

Figure drawing from a model, pencil on A2 paper.

Looking back whilst selecting the journal pages for submission, I have reflected on just how far I have traveled this year.  The anguish, the confusion, the uncertainty, the trauma of letting go, not of individual outcomes, which I am happy to do, but of the bigger picture, and at times, it felt like, my sanity.  I was, however, reassured by Sarah Thornton, in her book, 7 Days in the Art World, that this feeling is normal and necessary to achieve transformation.

There are also the influences, Celia Paul, Giacometti, Marlene Dumas, Silk Otto-Knapp are all evident in Happy Families.  The lines and mark making of artists as diverse as Roy Oxlade, Paul Feiler and Kitty Sabatier are bubbling under the surface.  The emotional vigour of Frank Auerbach, Peter Lanyon and Hughie O’Donoghue is being processed.  Such an exciting time to be me.

Reaching into the darkness and trusting the process has been as essential to the outcome, as an inherent belief that all the research is ‘in there somewhere’ and will surface, when the time is right.  I came into this process with that belief, I have engaged with the work of 300 historic and contemporary artists,  I can physically feel the process working, the change is palpable.

 

 

 

 

 

Bucket List

The film Bucket List is a gentle reflection on life, the decisions we make and the risks we take.  On my list is the desire to read the eleven volumes of C P Snow’s Strangers and Brothers series, which charts the change in our society from the 40’s to the 70’s.  A strange choice but one that has traveled with me for many years, a style that echos my childhood, a world far removed from pressures the young face today.

Andrew Marr’s interview with Jeremy Iron and his new film The Man Who Knew Infinity led me to G H Hardy’s work, A Mathematician’s Apology, with a forward by C P Snow, who knew Hardy and Ramanujan, the central characters in the film.

In A Mathematician’s Apology Hardy attempts to convey the beauty he sees in pure maths, the patterns, the pleasure of a new discovery, whilst at the same time defending its usefulness to society.  A product of the age of dons, port and walnuts, the book left me reflecting on the beauty of numerical patterns and the importance pure maths has had on my life, reminding me that the aesthetic quality of life is not necessarily restricted to accepted forms of artistic endeavour.

Galleries

 

 

It is rare to find an article on the subject of gallery representation and how this most mysterious of worlds works.   James Loks’ research reveals a number of interesting points, the need to be committed to your practice, the support networks offer, the shop window available from artist led shows, the futility of trying to fake it; but more importantly, it reveals that there is no easy way to becoming an ‘overnight success’. http://www.artslant.com/ny/articles/show/45587

Shara Hughes interviews a number of artists about how their representation was achieved http://burnaway.org/feature/charmed-im-sure-get-gallery-representation/

Long ago I was warned against approaching galleries, as they like to find the artist. These articles confirm that advice.  They also confirm the need to be seen to be found.

Daniel Palmer considers the investment emphasis developed by some emerging artists and cautions against this approach.  http://www.artnews.com/2016/03/09/go-pro-the-hyper-professionalization-of-the-emerging-artist/  Admittedly writing in the US, he is also sceptical about the value of a contrived, expensive MFA qualification (average $38,000 per year) producing product-based demand fulfilling artists.

Andrew Berardini argues for the ‘amateurs, dabblers, dilettantes’ rather than the artist as financier. ‘Stripped away of institutional validation and the pressures of the market, we are free to be human, to be artists, to be unprofessional.’  http://momus.ca/how-to-be-an-unprofessional-artist/

Having reflected on all the options available to me during the preparation of my Personal Practice Plan, I still feel that the gallery, with all the issues of control, is still the best route for me.  I am currently exploring the hazardous route of the Open competition with recently produced work, testing the water.  This path is fraught with danger, a pageant.  Who are the judges?  What is their practice?  What did they have for breakfast?  There are, of course, the practicalities, am I around to deliver, to collect, is the venue a realistic distance away?  It has worked in the past with the RI and RWS, but it has equally failed more times with these august establishments.

I recently submitted three works from the series Happy Families to the East Sussex Open at the Towner in Eastbourne, and Night Workers, to the Marmite Prize.

  Watercolour on paper, 78 x 58 cms

 Watercolour on paper 38 x 38 cms

Two very different works, two very different competitions, chosen after researching the judges and visiting the Towner’s selection last year.   The outcome will be announced in the next few days.

It is all part of the process and practice of being an artist.  Finding an authentic balance between product and project is key.