Beauty and the Beast

Oh no!  Just when I thought that I knew where I was going, along comes a true fan and expresses a considerable desire for work which I no longer make and thought I was finished with!

I spent last Saturday at Klay London working a stint in the gallery with my friend and fellow artist Ranti.  I love her exciting colourful work and I respect her opinions hugely.  The gallery was quiet – everyone must have been south of the river at Wimbledon – so we got to talking about the direction in which our work is going.  She was firm with me – go in the direction that you have set yourself.  It works, it is what you want to do.  I nodded sagely.  She is so right and anyway, I have written reams about which direction to head.  I have, as my devoted readers will know, made up my mind.

Sunday came and I was back at the Open Studios in Wimbledon.  One of the early visitors to my studio was Dave.  He is a bit of a fan of mine, although he loves my rebellious side and insists on continuing to call me Frankie long after I acknowledged that I needed to conform a little bit and call myself by my given name. He has a couple of my pieces already and had made a return visit for more.  But what to choose?  To my surprise he took relatively scant notice of my new work and headed for the older pieces, the bits that I am no longer interested in.

He also expressed a wish to see the final pieces that I made for my diploma – which I had not even bothered to bring in from the car!

I am left wondering whether this level of self doubt is ever going to leave me or whether, as an artist, it is my lot never to be absolutely sure ever again.  Perhaps I just need to accept it and remember the words of architect Frank Gehry to get with my intuition.