New Starts
My idea wall May 2021
I started writing a blog about eight months ago as a way to more thoroughly understand the visual work I do in the studio. To be able to verbalise my intent. When I am in the middle of making something there is no need to explain why. It just happens. Often there can be a profound revelation or even a soft quiet development but once the piece is done that sentiment just becomes another integral construct. I no longer need it. Over the last couple of years though, I am making more of an effort to understand the significance within my work. It is a dialogue not a statement. If I don’t understand what the piece is saying, how do I expect the work to change and grow?
Since starting this blog, I have realised by writing I am allowing myself to interpret the ongoing conversation with my work. It gives me insight into why I make what I do. At the same time, it is keeping me grounded in what the next piece needs to be. Putting the writing out to the public has held me accountable and forces me to be as unambiguous as possible. It has broadened my awareness and added dimension to my observations.
This writing practice has become another discipline for me. Like any other endeavour that has meaning, it most often is difficult and somewhat arduous. It is demanding because it is not about making a neat tidy product. It is about revealing the raw elusive essentialness to being human. Joy, sorrow, compassion, hate. All of it. And it is always just beyond reach. At the same time, it is always right there in front of me if I dare to look.
Last week I hung a large solo show of my work from the last couple of years. The writing wasn’t displayed but it is the underlying web holding all this work together. I came home to a completely empty studio and I haven’t written anything in weeks. In the past this might have stalled me for a long time. Even put me in an existential crisis. Haha. I feel I have a safety net though. I just need to continue the discussion I have started. Just get back to work. Be open to what that might bring. It’s exciting and I’m ready to start.