Wimbledon Artists Studios – Page 12

maverick1[1] — Hold tight and keep your nerve.

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!

There was something missing this week. I kept feeling I should have been at City Lit but I have finished. I am a fully fledged ceramic artist. I am on my own now! Scary thought!

I have been into the studio a couple of times, in a rather listless manner. I did a bit of sorting out, I washed the floor, I threw some stuff away. I generally felt a bit lost. But now I have given myself a bit of a shake and written a To Do list – the first for at least two weeks.

1: A proper tidy up! My studio, my workspace at home, the rest of the house. They are all covered in stuff that needs to either be put somewhere appropriate or binned.

2: My sister gave me some clay a while ago from the foundations of an extension that she is having built onto her house. So far it has sat, neglected in a plastic bag awaiting my attention. Now the germ of an idea is forming – site specific art from peoples homes, in their homes. I need to know what this clay is about. What colour does it fire? What temperature does to prefer? What does it mix well with? Get testing!

3: Even longer ago I discussed a collaboration with a fellow artist from Wimbledon Artists Studios who paints in oils with a lot of texture and some fabulous colours. Now I need to do something about it!

4. Development. If I am honest I did not feel pleased with very much of my final exhibition. It seemed more like work in progress. Actually I don’t think I even liked it by the end. However, there is definite potential in both the fragile work and the more robust pieces. How extraordinarily complacent it was of me to stop making before the end of the course. This work is NOT the finished pieces. It is one small step. Now I need to get the angle grinder and the polisher out and attack this work giving it a more interesting voice. What was I thinking!

And whist I start making whatever I would like to make, without a specific deadline, without the scrutiny of my tutors, without the need to have it marked I know that I have the voices of my wonderful tutors there in the back of my mind: ‘edges!’, ‘just do it’, to name but two. So I am not alone. I just need to focus in a different way.

This week I visited the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham for the first time. Not surprisingly, given Farnham’s reputation for ceramics, they have some stunning clay work. As I walked in, the first thing I spotted was a display of work by Luke Bishop. I know that name! He was on the course before me at City Lit. So two years on he is represented by a fabulous gallery in the heart of a ceramics town – there is hope for us all! Around the corner there were several artists work which were there as a part of the Crafts Council, Hothouse scheme for emerging makers. Exciting, interesting and beautiful pieces. The application form for Hothouse is on my desk. Perhaps I can put off the tidying up for another day whilst I complete the application!

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Swings and Roundabouts

To Do