How do you apply for an artist residency and how do you prepare to go to one? There are three key components in each application process that I use when writing my submissions. You need to articulate what you do, why you do it and how it fits the application criteria.
Take the germ of an idea that helped build a community thirty years ago and transpose it into the digital age. The Travel Art challenge has its roots in screening 16mm films in a rural library and building a socially engaged audience.
I’ve written many blogposts about having a daily practice, for experimentation, documentation and accountability. What I now realise is that it is also an important tool for reviewing your own artistic development.
What is the allure of exhibiting in a public space and what are the exhibiting options? There are numerous considerations when you are applying to exhibit, some involve cost, some money. Both group and solo exhibitions have their own benefits.
Einstein said “Everything is energy and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way.” I’ve noticed that when I choose to be happy, no matter what is going on in my life or the outside world, my energy lifts and I attract good things into my life.
Many of my early creative works involve maps or journeys of one kind or another. Maps and stamps took me around the world when I was a kid, it’s no wonder that I love them. This year I have returned to collaging maps for my 2022 daily artworks.
It’s been a year where I have happily spent probably 70% of my creative time on zoom. This was the year I became courageous, started painting again, created new and surprising artworks and leaned into my role as an arts mentor.
The greatest Christmas gift you can give yourself this year is getting confident with uncertainty. Artists and creative people in every field have led the way on adaptability. It is my key word for 2022! Merry Christmas to all my readers and supporters.
“Can I help you?” is such a powerful question. It implies assistance, service and vulnerability. Service to others was one of my parents’ core values which I have inherited. I believe this is a key ingredient to mentoring.
It’s coming up to the end of another huge year and time to start planning my Year in Review. As an artist and an entrepreneur, I think it’s really important to look back on what has happened during a year, to see the ideas, themes and events which have shaped my thinking.
Anxiety can stop you from being excited at starting a new art project, big or small. This can threaten to overwhelm your self-confidence. What to do? It’s like pulling weeds. There are two choices: strategic retreat or tackling the problem sideways.
Art as activism sends a powerful message which can speak to the emotions of people. It is one way to bear witness to the events going on around me. I realised that the new work I am making in the studio is a direct result of watching a program, Glacial Narratives presented by Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre in the Outer Hebrides.
How much do you value yourself? Do you give yourself permission to go on really wild and scary adventures? I have given myself permission to take a helicopter ride to view the active volcano in Iceland, if it is still erupting in April 2022. It is something even a year ago I wouldn’t have contemplated.
How do you promote your art? Tell a story. When the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was reopening after 10 years of renovations, a flashmob were hired to stage a recreation of the museum’s famous painting, Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. Connect stories to your art and you will never be lost for what to say or how to explain what you do and why you do it.
How do you express your stories, and how do you document your daily life, the personal and social times in which you live? If you look at the great writers and artists, their work was a product of the times. Documenting an I Was Here moment is in the patchwork squares of Victorian artist Nicole Kemp’s Covid Quilt, a visual story of 2020.
Thinking with your materials means you allow the unique quality of that material to lead you into experimentation. “What if” becomes the starting point for my experiments with abstract painting using bright coloured paper pulp.
How do you make time work for you? This might mean synchronising with your body clock to create extra time so that particular tasks are done when you are most focused and alert. When there is a big job to do, like getting ready for an exhibition, you need to create time in abundance.
The search for peace and love is ongoing, especially in the midst of worldwide chaos and upheaval. The annual lighting of the Imagine Peace Tower gives a focus to that impulse, if only for one hour on one day of the year.
The business of art is overlooked at your own peril. What if the “business” of art bores you and you would rather be creating than talking about your work? Having a business strategy is like having a plan, you fail to plan means you plan to fail. First you need to create a body of work. Then you need to know your How, What & Why and explain it.
Repurposing your old artworks releases the energy stored in your materials. When you are deep in your creative flow, the impulse that brought you to create at that time is captured in the materials. Like stones, they hold energetic vibrations of your thoughts and emotions which can be tapped into to tell a new story.
