Responsible Making
Finds excavated at Babylon between 1902 and 1914 in Berlin (British Museum) I have talked before, in this space and more widely, about how I am a maker who does not make things. For a number of years, it has been a sort of existential issue for me, especially since I spend my time surrounded […]
Books to inspire: Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet
This month’s book recommendation is something that has been on my radar for years and I’ve always had a ‘yeah, yeah, Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet – that’s got all sorts of insights into being an artist. I know I should read it, but…’ attitude towards it. Which, of course, was stupid. And I (wrongly) assumed it was quite long. So when it was recommended, again, by a newsletter I love and trust completely I was compelled (in the spirit of doing stuff now and not putting it off) to go out and buy a copy. And blow me if it isn’t a tiny wee slip of a book (52 pages) and this edition cost a whopping £1. That’s right, people, £1. There are NO MORE EXCUSES for you not to read this!
Now, this isn’t a life-changing book, because what writing can live up to the hype? But it is full of interesting ideas on living a creative life, and insights into the mind of a formidable creative force, and that’s really all I need on a grey autumn day when I don’t have a lot of energy to be focused and concentrate.
3 elements of your Creative Practice: nourishment
Last week I talked about a structure for thinking about your creative practice which I have borrowed from the DIY MFA writing programme and made applicable for most creative practices:
Output (Creative Work) + Input (Nourish Creativity & Skills) + Community Building = Creative Practice
In the first of 3 posts I’m going to look at Input – the things you do as a creative person to feed your creative well, to nourish your creativity.
The importance of WHY to your practice
This time of year isn’t just good for making resolutions and setting goals; it’s a really good opportunity to reflect on what’s been happening and what lies ahead. At the start of the year I encourage everyone I know to do a bit of a Creative Practice MOT and see where they’re at with the creative side of their work. There are lots of people out there offering you fantastic advice to kickstart your business in 2018 but, I suspect, fewer people asking you why you do what you do, and what it’s all about. I’d like you to challenge yourself a bit. It’s so easy for makers and other creatives who produce tangible things like objects to focus on the HOW of their work, but in this post I’d like to talk about the importance of WHY to your practice.
What is my creative practice?
Like many people, I’m using this quiet space at the beginning of the year to consider the state of things, to reflect on what went on in 2017 and to start putting together a very loose plan for 2018. I’ve been steadily working through guides and documents sent to me by people who advise and support creatives for a living, and having put together my own Creative Practice MOT course (which twenty lovely people are currently using) my head is filled with questions. Questions like ‘how do you feel about your creative practice?’ or ‘which of your services were most profitable in 2017?’ questions which may have definite answers or may lead to a vast place of unknowing…
Dealing with a dip in creative energy
This illustration by Gemma Correll could be a portrait of me in winter. By the end of Feburary it is most definitely me. Every year I struggle with this season. Sometimes I’m lucky and I only get the winter blues, but sometimes, like this year, things turn out differently and life gets really tricky. I am a greyscale version of myself, and the energy and enthusiasm for life that I have in spring and summer disappear with the daylight. It takes all my energy to look normal. I get frustrated and angry at myself for not managing to cope, for finding things hard when it seems like there’s no reason to feel so bad. This year’s extreme symptoms have led me to realise that I shouldn’t battle with myself like this. It does me no good to admonish myself; I need to be kinder and work with myself to find my own way through. So, armed with a SAD lamp that is retina-burning bright, and a will to do things differently this time, I’m going to share with you my plans for the dark months. Now, you may not struggle with the change in the seasons, but I’m guessing that everyone has times in the year when their mental health takes a bit of a dip and as a result their creative energy suffers. This post is for those times.
Books to inspire: The Art of Possibility
I love this book. It is one of the few books I know I would be very upset if I lost. It regularly makes the journey down from my bookshelf onto my desk or bedside table and I never tire of rereading passages. In some ways I feel the book houses the kind of optimism that I wish I had in greater measure. Not a Pollyanna, life is great (even when it’s not) kind of outlook, but a sense that we can affect so much in our lives if we just realised it. That the world is a place full of opportunity and possibility and we are active participants within that. It’s something I know to be true, but sometimes find hard to remember.
The authors of this book – Rosamund and Benjamin Zander – are a couple who work in very different fields. She is a family therapist and a painter, he is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and a teacher of music students. Together they bring insights from their spheres of activity; their stories and examples are inspiring and motivating.
4 tricks for writing an awesome artist’s statement in the 3rd person
It’s been a little while since we talked about writing-specific issues here on the blog, so I thought I’d return to something I’ve mentioned before and which I get asked about again and again – whether to write your artist’s statement in the 1st person or 3rd person. In my opinion it doesn’t matter which you choose so long as the writing suits the audience you are writing for and the work that you make (see my post on this topic). You can write a superb artist’s statement, that sounds professional and engaging, in either.
So, let’s assume you’ve thought about who and what the writing is for, and have decided which point of view works best for your work… and it’s the 3rd person. Now what? Here are some tips to help you get started and write that awesome artist’s statement.
Start your Creative Return – how to survive as an artist
After last week’s post contemplating the idea of la rentrée créative (a creative return to normal after the summer break) I thought I’d continue with the theme of reflection and review ready for the end of the year ahead.
I have a few book recommendations which I’ve been meaning to share and they offer opportunities for thinking holistically about your creative practice, your creative business and your work/life balance. First up:
Communicating in person: reclaim your authentic voice
When you are communicating about your work through writing, the goal is to find the voice that best expresses your ideas, a voice that sounds authentic. Usually this is your own voice – the voice that sounds like you. It’s so much easier to write in the way that you would naturally talk and it almost always sounds better to the reader. So, once you have found your voice in your writing, you would think that when it comes to communicating verbally, in person, things would be easy. But somehow confidence gets lost and the authentic voice that you’ve harnessed on the page disappears. So often this comes from the anxiety of dealing with your audience face to face (whether at a show, an interview or in a video for promotion) but often it is because we forget to use our natural speaking voices. Now, I can’t help you with the anxiety of public speaking, but I’ve found some great resources which can help you find and reclaim your authentic speaking voice, so that you can communicate clearly and confidently.