No remedy for memory
Tonight I am very tired and not actually compelled to write anything in particular here at all, which is unusual! I think last time I posted I had a million ideas swirling around and it's funny how you can go to the other extreme so quickly. I'm really excited to make paintings right now, and I do feel as though maybe like, if I'm craving painting I'm not craving writing or vice versa. I think the medium is specific to what I want to get out. Painting lends itself to more abstract feelings and ideas, whereas I find if I'm writing I'm trying to give solidity to and identify those abstract ideas.
I met up with a writer on Monday on the grass out the front of the State Library for an interview. Usually if people I don't know ask to interview me, I'll ask them to send questions over email and that way I avoid the whole talking thing that I can muck up so easily. Anyway for some reason I decided to bite the bullet and go "IRL" and it went so well. It was the second time I've really legitimately enjoyed giving an interview, where I've felt like both me and the person interviewing me got something out of it. And, that through talking I discover things further about myself and my practice. I was proud of myself.
I've been to a few openings in the past week, been in the office, in the studio, went out for hotdogs with Brodie, Georgia and some new friends. It was nice. No longer being in a relationship has been a really hard thing to come to terms with, and actually it is something I'm still coming to terms with. It's something I'm not entirely comfortable discussing here - it's something that needs time, space, privacy and retrospect. I guess what I'm saying is that it's been helpful for me to hang out with new people and expand myself socially over the past week. Keeping busy is never the definitive answer to one's problems, but personally I find that it does help, as long as it's not CRAZY busy, which is something I kept up last year, just like, busy enough but able to go home and watch TV in bed a couple of nights a week without having to think about work. Keeping busy in conjunction with writing down and acknowledging your feelings in a journal, letting yourself feel them and letting them exist, while at the same time not dwelling on them - that's the best combo.
Tomorrow night I'm going to the opening of an exhibition I'm in, which will be fun. I was asked to make a miniature version of a painting I made last year: 'See you on a dark night'. It was really hard actually, and I was a bit at odds with the idea of trying to replicate something I'd already made, but it turned out really well, and it's different in enough ways that I can see it as a new work and something that stands alone. I called it 'See you on a dark night in miniature' and here is a picture of it:
Anyway, it's going to be displayed along with a bunch of other miniature works in a heritage listed mailbox on Flinders Lane. The details are at the website here: http://mailboxartspace.com/upcoming/
It'll be fun and I think it's a neat idea. Since working in miniature I kind of want to make more small works, they are so easy to transport in comparison to my usual 1.5m x 1.5m bigger than me paintings - miniature paintings I just chuck in my backpack. Very convenient. These are some more miniature works that I made:
Aaaand that's all for now.