Distracted by fairy lights and glitter

            Tomorrow the run up to Christmas (otherwise know as advent) actually begins, which probably means I will be getting very little done as I am easily distracted by fairy lights and glitter.

            I was having lunch with one of my sisters the other day when she asked an interesting question; she asked me if all this creativity is exhausting. She wondered how someone could get up in the morning and everyday be able to continually be creative. Being more of an academic than me (although still very creative in many ways) she wondered if it was sometimes a struggle to be in the studio all the time and to come up with new ideas.

            The obvious answer is that yes, it is exhausting sometimes. As anyone in any kind of creative role knows, some days you have complete mental blocks and cannot create anything at all. You try and you try but anything you make or write or plan when you have these blocks simply belongs in the bin.

            I have been going through a bit of a block at the moment. These blocks can be caused by a multitude of things. Sometimes you simply are exhausted; you could be ill or have been working too hard or just be really busy. Sometimes there are things going on in other parts of your life that distract you and render you unable to function. Sometimes you have hit a turning point or a decision needs to be made on a project and you cant decide what to do or where to go next. Sometimes you just get stuck.

            The blocks that I have are never helped by my outstanding skill to procrastinate. During the block I have been going through recently I have found that I am doing much or cooking, my house has never been cleaner, I am doing plenty of extra hours at work, including unpaid ones where I helped put up all their Christmas decorations, I have caught up on TV and movies I have been meaning to watch and I have caught up with lots of friends and other bits and bobs. I like to think to myself that these ‘blocked’ times are productive in other ways, so its ok, but realistically I need to be making images.

            In our first year (and even sometimes in the second) people would claim lack of inspiration as a reason for not having produced very much work. But, as one of our tutors wisely pointed out, inspiration does not come and find you; you must go out and seek it. This is perhaps the best way to break through a block. As I said, the work you can make during a mental block may not be your best, and a lot of it may well end up in the bin, but if you continue to push and experiment and keep on slogging through, sometimes the block can lead to a fantastic new idea that you wouldn’t have tried otherwise.

            So, in answer to my sister’s question, there are days when I sit in the studio and stare at a blank page and wonder if I am fooling myself that I am an artist at all, but I have to keep going! The project I am working on at the moment would not be happening if I hadn’t tried to fight through a block, and I will keep trying and hopefully you will all be filled with awe and wonder at the result! J

Studio

In case you are all terribly worried (which I doubt) I am all better after having the flu and I am now trying to catch up on the work I had planned to do when I was off sick. I did manage to write and hand in my proposal while I was ill, and from that I have constructed a ‘question’ around which I can base my body of work. Although this question is flexible and could change dramatically before I begin making work for the degree show, at the moment it is; “How might a body of work be established that articulates my personal responses to the natural world/the beauty in the world I see around me using painting, pattern and colour?”           

            I decided to do some new painting work alongside what I have been doing for my patterns, and the result is I have done an oil painting of a bird I saw in the zoo a while ago. I haven’t painted in oils for a long time and it was nice to go back to using them, and this painting has encouraged me to go on and do some more oil paintings and perhaps create a series of bird/nature paintings. Let me know what you think…

            Also, I thought I’d give you a little insight into my world and post a photo of my studio space. As you can see it isn’t huge, and I am surrounded by 9 other artists on my course, but I have made it my own and generally it is a nice place to do my work.

            The funny thing about a studio is how it changes. On some days, I can relax quietly listening to my own awful taste in music and disappear into my own little world. On other days there are other classes going on in the studios and I get a headache from all the background noise. And on others, it is buzzing with creativity as the other people on my course are milling around creating beautiful (or not so beautiful) things and we can discuss our work or chat about the weekend and its lovely.

            

Medical update

Just so you know, I am trying my best to do some beautiful paintings, but struggling due to an awful flu virus. And as I have often been referred to as a 'big jessie' when it comes to illness, it is seriously impairing my ability to do very much but generally complain. 

However, I am kind of in a thoughtful stage of my work anyway, as I am writing a proposal for my work over the next few months for my course, so I need to decide what I am doing within my practice. I have decided this in my head, but as you can tell from this awful blog I am not great at the whole, writing thing. 

So yeah, once I am better, I will make lots more exciting work!

I Did It!

            After a few solid days of hard slog, I have finally gotten somewhere. Although I complained about Richard in my last post (the tutor who told me to push things further) it turns out he was right all along. I have spent this last week really trying to experiment with ideas and shapes and colours and techniques and I now have what looks like a quite exciting sketchbook of things that could develop into something quite good (if I do say so myself).

            So what am I actually doing? It turns out I have a bit of a fascination with birds. Over my last few projects at uni, I have incorporated birds and bird shapes and feathers and things into most of my work. You may have seen the pattern work I showed in my last exhibition which involved flowers shaped like birds. At the moment, I am playing with the shapes of birds to make repeated patterns to cover walls and things. The bird shapes are becoming kind of abstracted over time and as the patterns repeat the shapes interlock and the birds might not look like birds at all.

            What I find particularly interesting about birds is two things: the shape, and the colours. Birds are such beautiful, graceful creatures; their shape is what allows them to fly. They have really interesting heads, which is kind of a weird thing to say, but they do. Look at swans for example; the shape of a swan is almost iconic. And then the colours; if you look at exotic birds in particular, their feathers are such vivid colours, and the birds are made up of so many colours.

            I have used the shape of the birds to make the shapes for my pattern, and now I need to study the colours so that my simple shapes can come alive. Watch this space…

Also, just to give you a small taste of things to come (although the outcome I am hoping for is not much like this) here is something I have been experimenting with;