Memory

This piece is about memory, how some are set and solid and fixed, you can confirm them with dates and photos while others are floating and fragmented, snatches of something, then when you try to share that memory, someone else has a totally different perspective. I grew up by the seaside, surrounded by sea, woods and mountains, this is just a fraction of those childhood memories.

The New Studio

I may have mentioned it, but did I tell you the studio is moving? Its very exciting, to clear the new space, I had to get my old asbestos 1970's garage pulled down and had the exciting fun of men in blue suits wandering around my garden with big sledgehammers. What an ace job, smashing stuff and pulling it down....

So here are a couple of pics of the progress. I've also been researching what to put in its place which is the fun bit. Studio Dog had a practice sit down to try the space out.

Mattieu Ricard

I found Ricards talk very inspiring and relevant to my own current research, he uses the analogy of being at the bottom of the ocean, with the hard rocks as the depression and the being on top of the waves as the high mood, I have been thinking about collaborating with a friend and artist who is a film maker, to do something in a swimming pool that can relate to the halyconic feeling that swimming gives me, that weightless feeling of freedom as you settle our breathing into a rhythm and get into the flow of happiness. So hearing Ricard talk this morning as I cleaned and scrubbed the kitchen, was a welcome relevancy. Does this give the idea of filming in a pool a more critical edge because I can reference a philosopher and buddhist monk? Having never been very big on the criticalness of my own work, it makes the whole happiness project feel more exciting, and ultimately contributes to my own long term happiness.

Pursuit of Happiness or the Happiness of Pursuit?

I have been looking into Happiness, which the government is now copying me on by doing a well being study of Uk residents.... I've been interested in this since hearing Martin Seligman's Ted Talk, and consequently reading his book. I have to live with episodes of depression so this makes life incredibly hard for my family and myself at times, but between these periods of intense bad feelings about myself, I enjoy pursuing the elusive happiness.

I've taken Seligman's 3 levels of happiness and started applying them to my life, I have the short term happiness (glass of wine, decent food, the shallower things in life. I have the flow nearly sorted, I can loose myself in a book or making artwork for hours. And I've recently started on possibly the hardest, the happiness gained from longer term projects, gained from helping something outside of yourself. This has led to me volunteering at the local RSPCA as home visitor and home visitor co-ordinator. I've done the initial training (one morning in a room with very old videos, yes video...) and have a meeting with the branch manager next week to start the actual work. I'm looking forward to putting Seligmans recommendations to the test.

Lots of thinking...

I have been thinking lots, about life, happiness, what makes it all worthwhile? I keep going back to the desire to be within some sort of artistic community, I have been very isolated in my work area recently, my work doesn't feel like its challenging me and maybe I'm missing the feedback from other artists. I will probably be moving out of the purple shed at some point (the owner is selling up and moving in with his girlfriend! Very inconsiderate...) So I will not have a specific workplace. Do I build something in my own garden? Or do I look into setting up a studio space that can be shared with other artists? This is a scary prospect, as it involves money. And I have none.

I like the idea of the shared studio space, but how would it work? Seperate work areas? One big room? Would I be able to get a wage from it? I may need to do some investigating...

Playing on Scribble

I've been having a little play this morning, a bit of a break from all the serious stuff of setting myself up as an artist (business advise meetings, sustainability workshops, re-vamping websites.... all that sort of thing). I was exploring the redbubble site and came across a link to the scribble website, uploaded a photo (courtesy of AMS as I'm using his computer, so I borrowed one of his mountainous images of Japan) and what fun! Really simple, but looks ace. I think there will be more scribbles appearing in the future...

Icy January

We were out on a family walk last week, when we came across a still icy pond, so as usual, I ended up taking pictures, I'm going to experiment with them and make some prints, which I haven't done for at least five years, so feel rather excited about it.