On Tenterhooks

Playing with paper pulp possibilities for an exhibition proposal

When you are waiting for an email about the success or rejection of a project proposal/exhibition/art award, the waiting can put you on tenterhooks.

Although I am quite used to receiving rejection emails (I get 8 to every 10 applications I submit), that tense time of waiting can stop my creative flow.

I have alleviated this over he years by coming at the problem sideways. I take up cleaning or rearranging the furniture, throwing things out and decluttering to allow new energy to flow in and through the studio.

It has also been a strategy I’ve used to help with procrastination. Stuff gets done even though the action doesn’t always happen in the studio.

This week has seen a clear-out of a bookcase and some books, a hard rubbish collection, washing the curtains and even the windows. The final note was to sweep the front porch hoping for good news to arrive and be welcomed.

All to no avail. The date of the application announcement came and went. A day passed with no news. I scoured my emails – maybe a sneaky announcement had ended up in a spam folder.

A day after the date I should have heard back by, I took action. I went into the studio and tore up some artist books that I had sitting on my bench for reconsideration. I had made them while at an artist residency in July. While I liked the images and the lovely handmade paper I used, the configuration was all wrong.

Once I made the first tear and took them apart, I realised I didn’t have to ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ so to speak. I played around with the images and changed the book structures a bit then got out the glue and committed my actions to paper.

I still hadn’t heard back about the application but I now had two artist books which made the waiting more palatable. Did the proposal get accepted? I waited and waited….then suddenly the email arrived.

I was prepared for rejection.

But as I read through the first line, the second line said Congratulations!

Yes the project application was approved and it was time to celebrate!

Now the work on this passion project can begin.

Reconfiguring two artist books while waiting to see if a project application was successful.