I haven’t written a post for a while as I’ve been otherwise distracted, for many reasons. Sometimes life takes a few twists and turns and it takes a while to assimilate direction. Demobilised by lack of car and having been ill, I’ve had lots of thinking time!
January 2017 saw me taking up drawing again and resulted in many exhibitions, some sales and much happiness. The River Severn research took me back in time and made me consider the future too – the drawings and musings about that will eventually come out later in the form of a book.
My renewed pleasure from drawing has now become viral and spreading to others. A few people asked me if I would consider leading drawing workshops (or looking classes, which is a more accurate description), mostly using charcoal. Several workshops later, they are gaining momentum and keeping me on the ball too, encouraging me to stay with my creative practice, as well as sustain my work as a producer. So my art practice and my producer practice are acting like river banks, and I and I flow between them…………
Last year a lot of thinking time and meetings was taken up with Creative Canopy,* which has gone quiet for a while while it gains momentum again – I look forward to the next wave of action with that.
The village in which I live is undergoing some rather depressing changes as austerity and general decline in economy results in many closures of shops and businesses. So I am looking into the formation of Social Enterprises. Create Gloucestershire hosted an excellent event last week about them at the wonderful Gloucester Services . They have an excellent social enterprise ethos to consider, which will prove to be very helpful. These models can be used both in the creative art sector and beyond. Here’s a little pic I took during Ruth Davey’s presentation about Look Again.
I’m working with some very interesting artists too, working up projects that both relate to the Severn (no surprises there then!). As someone who has spent my life commissioning works in different places from diverse artists, I have come full circle, returning to my own practice and, literally, turning full circle in front of a 360 degree camera as part of my inquiry into romantic landscape history. You can see more on my Instagram account, where they get a huge amount of positive comments.
the hub at the centre of everything I do is
place-making
See several ‘walking in circles’ videos on my youtube channel.
Here is a word cloud of the feedback I got from people on Saturday, it’s a good feeling to start the week with.
And if you don’t believe them, come and see for yourself! Prices going up next term….grab one while you can….
*A group for sharing and discussing a vision for arts and culture in the Forest of Dean in response to Arts Council England’s designation of the District as a ‘Priority Place’.
Carolyn Black 