Well, 2023 was a difficult year for me, a year filled with grief, heartache and loss leaving me rather battered and bruised as I enter 2024. It was a year also filled with support, love and laughter from the people I love best and the arrival of a wonderful new baby.
I feel I’ve covered the whole range of human emotions in a very intense year indeed. I have discovered a vulnerability I didn’t know I had and also the strength to be found in close relationships.
I have been frozen and struggled to make art at times, and also frantically creative at other times. Interestingly my work, which tends to lean towards dark and creepy has been tending towards lighter and dare I say it….pretty at times. Wierd…. but who am I to question the creativity gods.
I made a lot of humorous birds.
I made some dragonflies and spent some time exploring the qualities and capabilities of air-dry clays. I love the shadow play with these wall-hung pieces.
I took the wall hung ideas further with some dragonish, lizard-like pieces.
There was a lot I wanted to achieve, get better at photography, up my computer skills and promote my work more, I made a half-hearted effort but now that’s been added to this year’s list.
There’s a comfort in the process of creating and I suppose it’s what I have turned to, the familiarity of planning and the physical process of making art. I’ve always thought of it as an almost meditative process, there is no room for thoughts and the outside work to intrude and the focus is on one thing.
I’ve made quite a few of fun little floofs..
I’ve made a lot of masks, refining ideas and techniques.
I’ve got a couple of art shows coming up this year, so I have been working towards them, and I’ve a few new ideas to explore as well so it’s feeling like a busy year coming up. No doubt the studio will need another tidy (I managed to make some floor space by shoving everything haphazardly in the cupboards so now still can’t find anything.) Oh, and I’ll be whipping off for a few tramps and a trip or two in the caravan too.