Getting down to Business and Out of the Studio, with Parker Harris

Yesterday I attended a workshop led by Emma Parker and Penny Harris, the founders of Parker Harris.  It was held at Trinity Buoy wharf, a place I had only dropped off at once, but never explored.  I arrived about an hour early so I could see the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize.  You can read more and see some of it here: http://trinitybuoywharfdrawingprize.drawingprojects.uk/index.php/news 

I was thrilled by the diversity of approaches to drawing and the range of marks.  I lingered a long time at Cornwall-based artist Shelly Tregoning’s drawing, Distracted, Distracted. I liked the current feel of the image, the gestural quality of the work and the unusual mixture of media.  There was lots of other good stuff to inspire me at the exhibition.

There were just under ten of us, I think, at the workshop, all with a range of experience in the art world.  The focus of the session was about THE BUSINESS OF BEING AN ARTIST. After meeting each other, Penny and Emma reminded us that we are the centre of the art world, as artists and that we should 'inhabit' that space. To inhabit the space, I need to do more of all the things that I know I need to do more of in order to be more of who I am, an artist. I need to visit even more shows and openings, go to more artist talks, go to more art fairs, read more art newspapers.  Basically, engage more, but not just go, go more purposefully. For me probably the specific thing I definitely need to do more of is to read more written by artists to embody the language of the art world.  Apparently, Grayson Perry and Anthony Gormley speak about art in a way that is worth paying attention to. 

It's funny, just before the talk began I was speaking to another artist, Laura Jacobs, http://www.laurajacobsart.com who had spent time in NYC. We had touched on the NY way of asserting oneself and the purposefulness it instills. By nature, I think I am purposeful so having a plan before I go to an opening, whether it is mine or anothers' is something I do because that's the way I am.  It was good to be reminded that there is a fine line between professional and officious, though.  I still wince when I think about the first time I had work in the Pastel Society and I was a little too keen to talk to John Tookey about my work - knew I stepped over the line and have felt annoyed with myself about it ever since… and that was nearly twenty years ago! 

In general, I really love talking to people at openings and see life as an opportunity.  If I had unlimited resources, I would choose to go to everything. When I have work in opens, I spend as much time as I can at the show, go to all the gatherings and love every minute of it. I talk to people who look carefully at my work and give out cards.  I could go to more artist talks and our daughter, who writes about art says she'll come with me (although alone is ultimately better).  So… I guess more of the same!

'LISTEN' as well as read carefully was a refrain of the day. Perhaps my wonderful year as drawing scholar with the NEAC gave me an opportunity to develop the skill of listening better,  and using what I experience later, but when it comes to reading and synthesising what I need to respond to… and specifically in the context of criteria and questions when applying for residencies and bursaries;  I find, inevitably when I re-read my answers to some of the questions on applications I realise that I haven't said what I mean to say clearly enough or answered the exact question and then I need to spend lots of extra time rewriting the exact answer. That is definitely something to be aware of and something which could be streamlined for me in the future!

One of my goals this year is to find a residency, apply and win it! Not getting through the first round of the Funded 1 Month Artist Residency in Rural Northumberland - Unison Colour, a residency I read about and worked really hard at was very disappointing, but without applying to more opportunities I will never succeed in this!

Something Emma and Penny spoke about, that I have grown to be aware of, is the need to budget, plan and have a goal.  By deciding what you can afford time/money to spend on applying, paying for gallery fees, travel to London (each time I go down it costs me £28-50 for the train, underground  £10, car park  £10 - 15…) you can make better choices and waste less time and money. My resolution that I was only going to enter two things in any opens, is one of those shifts I have made that has made me happier and feel more in control. It has also helped me to make choices about what my best work is. I do ask people to help me choose, though too.  On social media people like to choose between work.  Sometimes you get lots of different responses, though.

Reading about the judges is something I do but I'm sure I could plan that more by being conscious of all of those variables as I embark on making work that might be the piece I choose for the open.  Then, my work might have better chances of success.

Emma and Penny talked about the 'elevator pitch'.  I have only just started to say I am a 'visual storyteller'.  By thinking about my work, understanding what I like to paint and draw about and giving it a name, I feel better equipped to answer questions about my work. Certainly, one of the goals I scribbled in my book yesterday was to find a way to describe my work better - reading Perry and Gormley might help! Today when I had a studio visit by a group that I will leading workshops for/showing in I learned that on my website I call myself primarily a 'pastel artist'. I hired our daughter to come and help me redo my website last night (after the talk) so hopefully I will reflect myself to the world better after that. You can see my website here: https://www.rebeccaguyverart.com and send me suggestions here: 

rebecca@rebeccaguyverart.com

As far as social media goes, I do it, but I don't do it as well as I might.  I was sorry to miss Emma's talk on that last week, but I didn't think I could afford another trip to London, so will spend some time learning about it online. ONE DAY A WEEK on BUSINESS is an appropriate amount of time!

Emma's helpful explanation that in a hashtag, 1,000 is better than 1,000,000 because the stream goes by more slowly - is a game changer! I need to link up all my online shop fronts and get some new business cards printed, and postcards.

Another thing that I learned is that IT'S NOT CHEATING to put the solo shows that took place not in galleries as solo shows on my CV. and I should put my curatorial experience on my CV as well. 

As far as 'getting a gallery' I remember the old days when Jack and Bob were represented by Kraushaur and their lives revolved around that gallery. I guess it's not like that anymore, much. I don't have to get up and think I am failing because I haven't taken my slides around to galleries like I did when I was just starting out. Having a portfolio of opportunities may suit me best anyway. But what is important is that I set a few realistic goals again this year and I promise to take part, be efficient and be nice.

Thank you Emma and Penny, it was a great workshop!

The Discerning Eye 2019!

So every time I get selected for a London exhibition I am elated. The Discerning Eye at the Mall Galleries was one of the highlights of 2019.  I went down to the exhibition with Patrick early on the Thursday of the Artists' PV.  Parker Harris had already contacted me to tell me that I had sold my opened book, We Know that Light. I hadn't know there was PV before the PV...Because of GDPR, I will probably never know who bought the piece so I won't be able to imagine it in the future, but of course I was delighted.  

What was equally exciting was finding that Kwame Kwei-Armah had chosen my piece for his wall.  You can find out more about Kwame here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_Kwei-Armah

I loved the way he curated his part of the space and felt he told a story with his choices. 

I barely spoke to anyone at the PV, which is not my usual way, but earlier in the day I met a few people who stopped and looked intently at my drawing.  I saw lots of engagement with it, which was fun. Part of the reason I didn't speak to much of anyone except a fellow artist, Cathy Cooper, (who I'd met at the drop off and whose work was in Gill Button's selection),  was because there was a fire alarm and not a practice… so we all had to file out and wait until they discovered that it had been triggered by someone vaping in the toilet. 

We didn't let it dampen our spirit.

On the train going back I read Kwame's comments in the exhibition booklet: 

This Thursday I went back to see the show another time. I wanted to look at Kwame's wall in particular and to think about what in my work made Kwame choose it.  There were still plenty of people visiting, but I did manage to find a lull to take photos of Kwame's wall.

I noticed the breadth of Kwame's choices. There was the black and white wall which was beautiful in its quiet.  It ranged from isolation to race and was strong and graphic.

To the left of the B & W grouping, and what felt like the middle of the wall,  Helen Stone's One of Many, an evocative tactile sculpture, a child's jacket with tags spoke to me of how we won't share our world with everyone. Below the jacket, three beautiful paintings of people from the asylum.

To the left, Kwame has chosen lots of people, juxtaposed to spaces. Skin, faces, expressive, Brexit, the people we share the world with, a beautiful world, a barren world, a built up world, a broken down world. 

A pair of shoes, abstracted colour , an internal landscape... 

my work 4th from left

Perhaps Kwame chose my piece because of the colour, the view and the title which seems to admit that we all share the experience of living with all the inhabitants of the earth.  And man, isn't that light amazing!