Photo: recent sketchbook pages - enjoying all the layering up that goes on
Hello Everyone, hope you are keeping well. Another busy week goes by. Yes I have been busy but also I have been consciously taking time away from any too rigid way of working. I take breaks, I walk in the rain, I go to the secondhand bookshop to browse and eavesdrop. I’ve too many stories to share with you but am writing them all down, eventually. I am so encouraged to write - every time someone sends me a message or writes a comment that they like my stories, thank you for that.
The One Thing, or the ever-shifting map
Every so often, quite often, a kind person who has taken the time to look at my artwork will comment something like this: I like that you do so many different things. Or, they might say: I am happy to see all the different aspects to your creative work, all so different but all you!
These kinds of observations are so appreciated, welcome and encouraging. Yes, I do explore ideas in a variety of ways, in a mix of media. As you may know I have different, interconnecting lands in my creative world. They are all my little kingdoms but I cannot visit them all at the same time, so I tend to travel about in a quiet, on-foot manner. I may visit ideas/lands for a short while or stay for an extended period. I can do this because I have spent time creating a map, an ever-shifting map of my creative self. It is not something I can sketch out for you but it is a place I call home. Now and then there are big changes, boundary changes! Or, I may not visit a spot for a while. That is fine. Maybe this is like farming and leaving a field fallow for a few seasons.
Possibly all this metaphorical, metaphysical talk is a little off-putting. What I want to say is: thank you for allowing me to share my worlds with you. Thank you for seeing that it is possible to do more than one thing.
photo: recent sketchbook pages
Creative people can be made anxious about finding their ‘one true thing’. There are courses you can go on to explore what your ‘thing’ might be. I must find my focus, someone tells me, but I like a variety, different things. They tell me it helps to see my work because then they realise it is possible to live a happy, creative life without having to have a ‘one true thing’.
My thinking is this: some people need a ‘one true thing’ and others do not. Having that ‘one true thing’ is a good thing for many artists. It allows them to strive forward and develop, hone those skills and even become masterly. They can know more about their inner creative self through such focus.
Just as we all have different learning styles, so we all have different creative needs. And these are bound to change through our lifetimes.
The emphasis on having to focus with steely determination on just The One is a contemporary phenomena. It is much to do with commerce, branding and so on. These are not bad things. As a small business person as well as a creative artist I recognise the absolute need to feed myself and pay the rent! But I also see that for some people the emphasis on focus and having ‘one true thing’ can be not only too limiting but debilitating.
So, to keep this brief for now: for some having ‘one true thing’ is a great joy but for others the anxiety of not having ‘one true thing’ can be detrimental. It can lead to unhappiness and disenchantment. And what does disenchantment with your creative self look/feel like? Not good! We all know that. To be disenchanted means you have fallen out of love with your own creativity.
Knowing if you are meant to have ‘one true thing’ or not - now that is the greater/better question - one you might need to explore with yourself given time, or with the support of a mentor/life coach/therapist.
Photo: A small painting from 2015 - it was painted in August of that year but to me is very February! Let’s face it I just like black bowls with ghostly flowers. And so much else besides.
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Shop News
I am updating my shop today, Sunday 11th Feb with a selection of tiny paintings - 7pm UK time
My postcards have arrived from the printers! So from this evening I will be offering my Feb/March postcard club. If I sell out, I will restock as necessary. The postcard club is a chance to receive four postcards featuring my sketchbooks - but you don’t get to see the artwork, it is a surprise. I am reproducing sketchbooks both recent and from a while ago. Each set of postcards also comes with an original bird drawing. It’s a fine way to collect my artwork and build a small aviary.
I will also update this coming Wednesday 14th at 8pm UK time - a mix of new artworks including paintings
Note: I am still taking a break from drawing on my sewing machine. I do not make special requests or commissions, nor do I have a waiting list. Please allow me a little more time and I will let you know here when new embroidery work will be available, thanks
A few small stories
In the secondhand bookshop, I am looking for American poetry and finding very little. Such is the way, but I do remember seeing so much of it just a year, or maybe it was three years ago. It may be chance, a leaf of luck that will bring the Black Mountain poets to me… Meanwhile, a man in a Rupert Bear scarf is talking on his phone: Yes, Mother, I wrote to the doctor about your feet. I sent photos. Email Mother, yes, that's why I emailed. Yes, your feet Mother, I did not photograph anything else, it’s your feet we’re dealing with at the moment. There is a hush in the shop as we listeners-in wait to hear the next part of Mother’s feet saga. It seems she has a lot to say. The man paces about the biography and antique books sections, listening to his mother. Yes, Mother, your feet are a phonemona, the man says, though I doubt they will want to send you to London just for bunions! I’ll call in at six tomorrow, see you then Mother. He wanders into the children’s section, sits on a low wooden chair and takes a breath.
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Apples make me so hungry. Why is it that I eat an apple then just want another? They make me emotional too. I stand in the kitchen looking out the window, eating my second apple and it is then a collared dove comes and sits on the fire escape. I have not seen a collared dove here before but they were frequent visitors in my old place. Wiping a tear and laughing at myself for crying. What is it about apples? Maybe I am thinking of how my late father ate the whole apple, even the core. You will get an apple tree in your tummy, we would say with pleasure. I don’t care for the bitter tang of apple seeds and stalk. A good organic apple is a thing of wonder and magic. I will eat another right now. Granny’s apple pie. No, I am not crying again.
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The woman ahead of me in the supermarket queue turns and says: You’re not my husband with a kipper. She has kindly eyes. No, I am not your husband with a kipper, I say, smiling. He’s been a good while, the woman says, I do hope he doesn’t hold everyone up! Maybe he’s gone fishing for it, I say, and immediately I realise my mistake in this glib remark. I realise of course a kipper needs to become a kipper, I say, you don’t just catch a kipper. The woman smiles, oh he would like to go fishing for it, that’s the truth, she says. Every holiday we have he has to get in a boat of some sort. You don’t enjoy it? I ask. All that bobbing about, she says, no thank you!
The husband appears with his kipper in a plastic bag. He is a compact man with soft features and nothing like a rugged fisherman. Well goodness me, the woman says, all that fuss over a kipper and then the house will need airing for days! Yes dear, the husband says and pays for their shopping.
photo: sketchbook from 2017 - personal favourite pages
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Thank you for reading here, for all your comments and likes. If you would like to purchase a coffee to support my writing that is always much appreciated.
This topic fascinates me. I chop and change between one thing and another, knowing that to market my work I should just choose one 'thing' but I just can't - I enjoy making in so many different ways and would feel caged if I had to limit myself to only one. I've always admired you for so successfully doing it all...and here, I love how you've described the places you visit as seperate lands. I never really thought about it like that but it makes perfect sense! Thank you for sharing your art and your thoughts x
I guess I’ve got my One True Thing but am comfortable knowing the other things give me joy and add back into the One in unexpected and joyful ways. I’m so glad you pursue all of yours!
I know I say it all the time but I love your small stories so much. I always feel I’m right there, eavesdropping ☺️