Home Studio, Entry 1.

It's a strange time.

Focusing on the positives, I have created a little home studio to work from, and have been busy using some of this new found time to plan and prepare for a new project that will be taking shape over the next few months.

Myself and three other Fine Artists, under our collective name Quarry House Collective, will be renovating a disused quarry building near Penryn, Cornwall into a shared studio space for the four of us as well as a creative hub for artist residencies, workshops and lo-fi exhibitions. Having this shared, creative goal has helped me get through this strange time with a positive outlook.

I have found that I have been writing more recently and below I will leave some sections of this writing, detailing some of my thoughts and feelings both towards my current situation and artistic practice, as a little insight into my process.

22.03.20

Work's been slow recently but that's been nice.

I've set up my home studio to work in and I'm finding my pace. It's a lot of adjustment but a slight break from the rush and pressure of looming deadlines has given me some peace and calm. It never should have been about the end grade but it's been impossible to push that thought from my mind until now. Now more than ever it's about the work and about learning to be human again. Switching off and switching back on again, tuning in to the birds singing, appreciating the breeze on your face. Wanting to just be. In my work and out of it. Appreciating the haptic realness and presence in my making.

25.03.20

Collaging to explore ideas and edits in a more sculptural way. Film stills as a full film? Interconnecting hands, sculpting, mapping, excavating, material, process, culture and heritage and geographies all overlapping as they do in my practice. As they do in moving film. Here they are motion shown in stillness.

27.03.20

I'm not sure I've ever felt calmer and more connected to myself. It almost feels wrong saying this.

Maybe I can't go to my shared studio and maybe I can't use workshops to make things. But it feels like there's a air of acceptance - whatever I do or don't manage to do is okay, it's enough. Reading a book about someone else bashing granite about whilst I'm sat on a camping chair in the Spring sun feels empoweringly good enough. I feel like I have all the time in the world to get everything I need to done, all whilst taking things at a slower pace.

I thought I'd feel cooped up and restricted inside but maybe it's the knowing that simply by staying at home I'm doing a good thing that's keeping me positive? Despite being outdoors much less I feel more connected to nature than ever. When I go outside it's to be outside. Not to get to another indoor location. And knowing everyone else I see outside is doing the same makes this whole thing much more beautiful.

28.03.20

Sky silence, road silence and birds singing.

The awe and curiosity of a child

Everything seems to have gone back in time, despite increased reliance on technology to connect from a distance. Maybe that puts into perspective that it's not all the phones and computers making us to modern and disconnected from one another and nature, but the rushing and scheduling that the pace of our world has come to cause. If we take away the need to rush, we immediately bring back and nurture the connections we have with each other and nature. Kindness.