Retreat

  For a while now, I’ve been feeling a call to explore.

Explore the other ways of making art other than the canvas.

This is mainly a response to all those who have shown a great interest in my wood carvings, honestly I’ve been enjoying it too, but it has opened up a world of traditional crafts that I just need time to looking into and perfect. Gilding, Carving, Casting, all are making me retreat into myself.

  I call this a retreat not in terms that I’m running away, but in regrouping. Regrouping my resources and solidifying them for future use.

  Partially its a retreat from the art world, a world I both love and feel extremely alienated by(1).

  It’s also a retreat from the expectation that I have to be constantly on show. That my work and my presence need to be everywhere or people will forget I exist (2).

  I have to be happy merely existing, doing things that fulfil me rather than forcing people to acknowledge me. I want to make things that I’m happy to call mine rather than the sake of creating. Art is more than just galleries and champagne. Its history and beauty, with a lot of the time a combination of the two. I can’t see myself going for opportunities and networking at the moment(3).

  Rather than being an existential ‘am i a real artist if I’m not exhibiting?’, the main reason for stepping back a little is down to my interests expanding. I’m looking at what I can get from the world skill and knowledge-wise. I want to grow as an artist, not being known for one thing(4). I need to see where I can push myself in my practice, not limiting myself in paint which I have been doing for over 5 years.

  In the coming months, maybe even years, I’m going to be taking time to learning languages(5), crafts, theory and history that I can build upon. Basically I want art to be enmeshed with the world that we inhabit. We can’t forget that we are all here because of the actions of others that we choose to reject or accept. I want my art to be a continuation of those craftsman that came before us, often forgotten over time. I’m a member of the heritage crafts charity that keeps a record of the many heritage crafts that are dying out or are extinct. I feel that there is a lot to gain from exploring this.

  Going further, I’m trying to be the Uber-Brit(6). A person know knows more about the world I inhabit and call home. A place of change and tradition, folklore and myth. If what I gain from this somehow helps future generations explore history and possibilities, then I can die a happy man.

1. It’s strange, the art world is full of people meeting new people and learning from each other. On the other hand, it’s a full of people just networking. If you have nothing of value to these people, they won’t take the time to know you.

2. The truth is much harder to accept, that most don’t care. You can be part of shows and the person you were next too barely remembers you.

3. Maybe I’m just a little jaded.

4. Unlike that Jeff Koons, terrible artist. Or Kaws.

5. With a general understanding in French, Italian and Welsh (though not fluent), I want to start learning Irish, Scots Gaelic and Cornish. Britain is more diverse than you think, and that’s not taking into account the accents that are equally part of this land.

6. /North Insular European. VERY important when I'm including Irish as a lingustic interest. But in saying so, we know a lot of what was lost in Ireland due to colonialism, but we do forget the losses in Britain. Though not same, many identities in the North/not London area have been decimated due to enclosure and poor land management from landlords prioritising profit over people.