Swings and Roundabouts

It has been a bit of an up and down week and I am, as a consequence, over 24 hours late with my blog.  Suffice it to say that I have spent the summer applying for a number of schemes to support emerging artists and am getting slightly depressed by rejections now!  On the other hand, I have begun talking to people about my new work and I am getting some very positive responses, including from Hothouse, the Crafts Council support scheme for graduates.  They have rejected me for this year but they took the trouble in their feedback on my application to be very positive about my work post-qualification and reminded me that I would still be eligible to apply for the scheme for next year.

So all is not lost!  I suppose . . . .

I am not so dreadfully downhearted.  It would be great to gain the encouragement of acceptance for sure but this is very early days and I cannot expect too much too soon.  On the up side, everyone who I talk to about my new work believes that it has real mileage and I am feeling extremely good about it.  In fact I have been thinking over the weekend that it makes more sense to focus on November when the Studios in which I work, in Wimbledon, are open to the public once more for a 4 day stint during which thousands of people will be flocking into the studios and might well get excited by the idea of commissioning a story vessel from me – one that tells of an important event, a memory, a place – it is up to them to approach me with their thoughts really then I will transform them into their own personal Progenic Vessels.  However, over the weekend I was approached by a gallery in central London which is holding a sculpture and ceramics exhibition in the autumn and which I might not be able to resist. It was also suggested to me that I should consider researching events such as the Country Living Christmas Fair as an outlet for my idea.  That is something which I had not thought of until now but it might be worth considering.  The important thing here is to decide where I am pitching my work – gallery or fair because I am fairly sure one should not be aiming at both.  So I need to knuckle down and make up my mind – what am I making? why am I making it? How am I selling it?

When I think about it there is loads going on and I just need to keep a level head, hold my nerve and find time to get down to the studio and make – now that would be very nice.  I also need to remember what Fred Gatley said to me towards the end of the diploma – do one thing and do it well!