Things I have learnt this weekend…

• Sometimes (OK, most times) it is worthwhile to put a bit of effort into something if you want it to work out. I know, I know, it sounds completely obvious when I put it like that but I have come to realise that up until now, I have expected my art to just ‘happen’. I have always worked by sitting down in front of the paper/ canvas/ board/ whatever and painting or drawing whatever I felt like at that moment. So, a teapot,  some tomatoes, a person. Hence, my work until now have been mainly figurative and, while I like some of my stuff quite a lot, it hasn’t really lit me up from inside. The pieces I truly love have been either the life drawings and paintings i have done over the past few months in class or the memory/ archives collage and printed pieces I have been working on and showed at my first assessment hanging a couple of weeks ago. 
• If you do put the effort in upfront, life gets better later on in the process. By which I mean, if you think of a concept, a question, an idea to explore and THEN put brush to board, you end up creating something a bit more interesting and original because you are communicating your (hopefully) intellectual thoughts as well as your visual references. Stop me if I’m starting to sound overly, well, arty, will you? 
• On that basis, I can see why some say that there is no such thing as a truly original idea. The piece I have produced this weekend (block) while different for me, is born out of the ideas and approach Mondrian slaved over his entire career. It is a humble effort and I like it, but it is not original in that it was created in the shadow of Mondrian’s practice. I did not think of the grid. 
• I understand the tenet that no idea is new , but I do not agree. I cannot agree. Firstly because it feels like giving up. Like resigning ourselves to a world of gradual progression rather than one illuminated by sudden flashes of brilliance. How boring. And secondly, because I cannot reconcile this belief with wonders such as Alexander McQueen, da Vinci, Cezanne, Vezelay (more on her to follow,love the woman) and of course Mondrian himself. Yes, most of us will not create something completely new, but a lucky, talented few will. Hurrah!
• I am inherently messy and I hate tidying up. No surprise there then. Less said the better.
• Doing this MA is an absolute trip. It’s as if I have been driving across the moors in the middle of a pea souper of a fog and the wind is starting to blow the mist away, slowly, lazily but steadily. Ideas are starting to come out of the gloom, take shape. My fog lights are on and working. Let’s just hope I stay on the road, eh?
• Finally, a weekend away is lovely but I miss the madness that is my family too. I’m typing this en route to them. I can’t wait. Thank goodness.

Hope your weekend was as good for you as this one was/is for me. Surprise I store for tomorrow guys…..watch this space.