It's over 3 months since I returned from the U.K. and I don't feel I've been very productive during the summer months. People will say that rest is needed after a busy residency, travel etc. But it feels like I ground to a halt. Once KFest was over, my mind kinda shut down. All thought of thinking about making, thinking about research, even thinking about thinking seemed like an almighty effort. Maybe after all the happenings I did need a break.
Having said that my mind did go into worry mode; about a studio, about money, about the work, about everything!! It always makes time for worry. So I tried to focus that worry into some kind of action. I did research into steel sheds for a studio, I got prices from a couple of suppliers. I also looked at renovating old farm buildings to see if that was more cost effective than erecting another shed. Of course all this only piled the pressure on the money worries.
Of course when spending time on this research it meant I wasn't focusing on my actual practice. Catch 22 how are ya. I started fretting about what I was making and why I as making it in the first place. The PFO (please fuck off) emails also didn't help with the negative spiral although there was some successful applications. Go me, eh?
I could keep typing like this for paragraph after paragraph, but all this to say that I had a pretty typical artist couple months. 12 months in a year means some of them can't be hell for leather and all productive. There has been wonderful positives over the last couple months. Starting with KFest, the absolute wonderful arts and music festival in Killorglin. They awarded me with the KFest Award and I'm so grateful and heart-full to have been a part of that festival. In August I sent my cast glass cushion to the U.K to Blowfish Gallery for an group exhibition as part of the International Festival of Glass programme. Another piece is due to go on display in Farnham at the U.C.A. James Hockney Gallery for Farnham Craft month in October. My little film got selected for Homeland 2024, a showcase of contemporary Irish video art which works in conjunction LOOP Film Festival in Barcelona. Yes, the film will be shown in Barcelona! Alongside all this wonderful news I have a special opportunity for next year that I'm afraid to utter aloud in case I jinx it.
Writing all this down has actual made me realise how bloody lucky I have been and that I need to tell the negative voice to shut up and feck off. I also need to tell myself to get moving and crack on with work.
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