Success is when your next project springboards off the work you’re currently making. After resolving the niggling doubts that your work would never quite ‘make the grade’, you can pause to look back on what you have achieved. Then it’s time to ‘move the goalposts’ and make new work that propels you forward again.
Experimenting can often feel like a waste of time, especially when nothing quite works out like you had hoped. Pushing your materials past their limitations can end up with a total mess. Somewhere in all the chaos there may be a glimpse of a new direction to take. Then you know that all those perceived ‘failures’ were never a waste of time.
It can be challenging to occupy a space temporarily and create a sense of home. Even more challenging to return home and realise that your old space no longer ‘fits’. Harnessing the energy of homecoming can facilitate growth, experimentation and expansion.
Adapt, experiment and survive. That’s my motto, especially when it comes to artist residencies where the unforeseen can completely derail your best laid plans. Getting sick when away from home can be very debilitating. Yet it can also give you the impetus to adapt and experiment, abandoning all measure of control, sometimes with surprising results.
Experimentation is about taking risks. Pursuing a train of thought and organising the steps to get there gives you a better chance of success, even allowing for some ‘failures’ along the way. My blueprint for success is to plan, execute then let go of any expectations. It ‘s how I can adapt and improvise when at an artist residency.
Reconnaissance is a way to ‘hit the ground running’ when you are about to embark on an artist residency. I’ve been taking preliminary photos of the Moonah trees at Point Nepean National Park to see what the pictures suggest. This has led me to consider gridding up an image of the trees dancing together which I can then draw and print over as cyanotypes.
When is it time to wave your own white flag, to surrender to circumstances beyond your control? I’ve been sick all week which has meant a surrendering of sorts, learning from the lessons of letting go and prioritising what is essential. It had me thinking about red flags and white. When and what to fight for and/or when to surrender.
Hanging onto ideas of how to draw can keep you in a strait jacket. It’s often the way we are judged as a child; if you can draw then you’ll make a good artist. If not, forget it. Leaning to scribble and muck around is a constant challenge. That’s where a drawing group can help you dare to draw. This has a flow on effect in your ability to embrace imperfection.
How do you archive your creative oeuvre? I’ve been writing weekly blogposts since 2019 and have decided to create a series of books for each of the last 6 years. It seemed like a really daunting task but once I got started the momentum kicked in. It’s about making a start and committing to the project.
Long held beliefs about your own problem solving abilities can hold you back from experimenting and moving forward. I’ve discovered that instead of meeting the problem ‘head on’, it’s easier to go around the edges of things, whittling away until a solution presents itself. Like cutting with scissors to create silhouette shapes for collage.
