working with tyvek

sews and drapes like fabric, cuts like paper. doesn't tear. can be ironed (carefully)
tyvek... where have you been?

from phone

the lovely Regan waving awkwardly in the drawing/meditation space

testing

trying something out here.

patience. hah.

too many drawings... it seems the less time i have to do them the better they turn out.

testing

i'm trying to work out how blogger works. i know the world has moved on and it's tumblr and wordpress now. but i have only just got my head around blogger. so i will wait it out here, for blogger to be the thing to use again. you know. in an ironic, retro, irritating hipster nonsense thing.

a few months ago a friend and I were pissing about, mocking hipster authenticity and cool. and we predicted that the next hipster trend would be for large, old-fashioned hearing aids. to go with the out-size plastic framed glasses. heard it here first.

creativity and...

recently I typed the words "creativity and..." into google and before I could get to my next word, google offered various suggestions.

creativity & depression

creativity & mental illness

and

creativity & madness

this connection is not news to me. but it is disheartening. Most of the articles focused on the manic side of madness. the high energy, hallucinations of seeing things that aren't there linked to artistic life. that and the actual process of making art is precarious and difficult, filled with stress.

but for me the link is something else. it is not in the high of manic depression but in the lows. to create is to make something new, something that has not been done before. beset with risk, it requires confidence, ambition and audacity to say 'I can do this...' It is something I struggle with. the voice that says 'I can't do this. who am I...?' etc. all self-hating and lacerating. I know many people, if not all, when they see themselves part of them thinks 'I'm bluffing, when am I going to caught? found out?'... the distance between confidence and fear. I don't know how other people cope, but I know they also get it. I speak about it with other artists and writers and they nod in recognition. It paralyses me. the fear and self-loathing. the critical voice. telling me I can't do it, and to destroy everything I have already made as it just isn't good enough.

at some point this fear of failure is just something I need to shrug off and step away from. acknowledge it is there but make the work anyway. use the critical voice to make the work better, to refine it and not be complacent. and hopefully the excitement of the idea will overtake the fear and it will come together.

that's the theory anyway. in the meantime, you will find me in the corner of my studio task-avoiding.

sigh

another year, another omer

last year I used the daily ritual of counting the omer, the period time between pesach and shavuot, to do a daily drawing exercise. which was more than just an exercise.... last year it was about finding the discarded, rejected detritus of life and marking each day with "I am still alive"... it was an interesting project, and whilst at the time some days it felt futile and silly, when I had the opportunity to view all 49 drawings together I realised that actually those little drawings added up to something more than the sum of their parts.

so the year rolls around. another year. another pesach is on the horizon and with it another omer count. I wanted to continue on the journey I began last year, and so I am repeating the daily drawings. but this time with a twist, and an addition. instead of focusing on the discarded, this year I am exploring the broken shards of life. gather the broken will be a shared omer counting with my friend and rebbe, Amichai Lau-Lavie. Together we will gather what is broken in our daily lives, and not rush to fix or throw away, but hope that creativity is only possible by understanding and acknowledging these imperfect fragments.

omer count starts april 8th, click on gather the broken to subscribe by email

I have no idea where this journey will take us, there are obstacles in the path - logistics and ego of sharing this with another. but you are invited to join us for the journey, we will limp along together. lets hope we will get somewhere.