Another Turn of the Road

It seems like a good point in  the blog to write a little on 

Making Art 'Full Time':

I am now two years down a path that I had always dreamed of. I have been making art almost full time, unfettered by the concerns of a demanding job and young children. As everything else in my life, this path has been full of surprises. Making art has proved to be a much more demanding affair than I anticipated. When I was making art as a pass-time and a way to escape from work and life pressures, it was a nourishing and therapeutic activity. This sense of art being a stress-free activity, probably persisted until a year into my 'retirement' from teaching. 

What was the catalyst for the change of pace, direction, expectation...is not easy to pinpoint. I think that I became acutely aware that my art needed some kind of audience. This was not new, but what was new, was the sense that making art  every day inferred another kind of responsibility.  I turned a significant corner when I started to research the Smyrna/Izmir  (Re-imagining the Past) print for the Passion To Print Exhibition. This meant that I had to look  very carefully through many old maps, cards, archives and family photographs pre-1922.  The resulting work was physically and emotionally draining, but critically, by colleagues, at least well received. 

'Smyrna/Izmir' Re-imagining The Past. Screenprint Edition of 6 on watercolour paper. The image that forms the ageing stain is a large photograph of my family on a carefree outing in 1958,  25 years after the catastrophe, but close enough to be remembered. 

In addition,  it became important to keep financial accounts. To number and sign  editions of prints.  To frame and attempt to sell work.  To enter competitions, or create work for themed shows. Exhibitions took time and sometimes significant effort; In short, making art became demanding, if done with serious intent and if one wishes to make good work. 

Two years down the line, I find myself happy to accept that making art is time-consuming and multifaceted.  I am now grappling with meaning and thematic content, looking for strands of thought that need exploring in the work and ensuring that my research is more thorough and more meaningful. The appearance of what I make has become somewhat secondary to what I am trying to say. Aesthetics are important, but the narrative prevails and in so doing, a new kind of work is emerging. The idea of making art that is pleasing to the eye of the viewer. seems to be of secondary importance. I have become more focused on the personal meaning of what I am making.