Looking Back to Move Forward
I decided a few weeks back that I needed to spruce up my website.
This was mostly spurred on because I had just put in an Arts Council England application and was writing a joint application for a commission and realised my portfolio was looking a bit unkempt. It was like inviting over someone important who you wanted to impress over to your house and realising there were toys all over the floor and dog hair everywhere.
Also I wanted to give Squarespace 7.1 a go, especially after a friend had been using it to design her portfolio and it looked fun.
It took a lot of time and effort to get everything looking good and A LOT of copying and pasting.
But the real joy was looking back at my past work and seeing what I have made and accomplished over the years. I think it’s been hard, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic and particularly as I had to focus on my mental health last year, to see what other people have been doing with their time in lockdown. It’s been far too easy to compare what others have achieved. The lockdowns have offered too many moments to reflect on the shape of a career. I was wondering if I hadn't;t been doing enough to call myself an artist.
Watching my work pile up as I made individual portfolio pages has made me see the scope of my work. The times I have been more productive. The times when I hadn’t. The gaps I want to fill. What has been missing and what has been present throughout. The projects I loved and the projects I wanted another crack at.
I was reminded how interested I became in digital performance during my MA with Waterloobridge, how much I loved doing research and writing about puppetry, how I started off doing more work for adults but have found myself doing more work for children.
I’ve been able to ask myself questions of what I am doing, who i am as an artist, what I want to focus on.
I realised i just want to create more and share more and write more. And get my moneys worth from a Squarespace subscription. I hope that i can share more of my work and really show you all what I do love to do.
Also I apologise for the relentless use of gifs.
But I believe when you’re work is mostly animating things you want to show off their moves.
