It’s been ages since I wrote up a post here. Why? Well, I wish it was filled up having to visit galleries and other exciting appointments but no. I think for many of us when we break a new habit, a week, a month, six months. A year and I’m disappointed by that. The sad truth is that I can be a bit defeatist when it comes to expressing myself through writing. I feel that I do make interesting artworks which I enjoy sharing but I do lack some confidence in sharing more than that, so I do intend to try to share more of my thoughts behind this process.
It’s no real surprise to know that we can be our worst critic, sometimes convincing ourselves that we have nothing all that spectacular to share. It’s bullshit.
Since my last post sharing my experience when I took part in a charity exhibition called No Apologies, I have been up to a few things over the last year. The most significant was when I entered into a sculptural exhibition competition, The Small Sculpture Prize. The exhibition was over a monthly period at The Community Gallery in Waiheke Island. It was pretty wrapped to have gained a place into the exhibition, so I took myself up to Auckland over the Easter Weekend to be there at the exhibition’s opening night. I highly recommend the journey there, the trip on the ferry from Auckland is really beautiful.
It was the third time I gained a place in this exhibition. There is a desire to want to win the prize, I think that is pretty normal, yet this isn’t my entire focus of entering. I enjoy the social aspect from being able to chat with other artists which I find pretty unifying and also to get some further exposure to my work.
This time I went up on my own and decided to stay with someone from a website community called Couch Surfing. Years ago I used to be an active member as a host, so this was my first time being a guest. My host Jeff was great. The exhibition was a paid event, so it was nice to be able to invite him as a guest. He was really interesting by the fact that he was also an artist and shared his time living in a Yurt at Waiheke in and summer and travelling overseas to create an endless sense of summer. I was a little envious of his lifestyle despite it really wouldn’t work for me. I did think it was pretty awesome being able to have an endless summer. We pretty much hung out the entire time I was there. I had a pretty memorable time on the beach playing Frisbee as that’s something I hadn’t done since I was a kid with my Dad.
Since then I have had a relapse with my depression due to many external factors happening simultaneously, which at the time, had to take precedence over anything else. I’m happy to have got back on track and making art again.
What I’m working on now? I’m currently working on a piece to add to create a series with Containment Overflow. What makes the piece different is it’s made up or based on hexagons. This piece is also going to be a large, 60cm but I have the intention of making smaller pieces as well. I plan to have this finished in a couple of weeks and so I’ll put up another post to so you the overall piece.