carole cluer

Art, hope and self acceptance

Tag: art career

October 9, 2012

A Blank Piece Of Paper

Yesterday I started my first ‘proper’ drawing since my degree show.

My summer had been filled with making photograms for a couple of exhibitions and so I hadn’t really drawn for a couple of months. Okay I had been to life drawing and doodled a little bit but not really drawn. My drawings can take a long time, somewhere along the process  I always forget to record how long but about fifty plus hours, that’s a long time to spend on something that you might be disappointed with.

I have been deciding on the subject and pose for a few weeks now, looking at photos, choosing and discarding but now that I have started my MA I felt I had to commit to actually doing something.

Yesterday was the day of reckoning, I got up early and taped my paper to the board … then I took it down, it didn’t look right.  I lined my board … and took it down, it was creased. By midday I was ready to go, no, I needed to recheck my plans for another hour before I placed my pencil on the paper and made my first mark.

Why do I find a blank piece of paper so scary?

Its because I know that my work will never be as perfect as it is the moment before I actually start. In my imagination I draw with a talent that I can never replicate in reality.

I think a lot of us are afraid of failure and it can sometimes feel safer to find excuses to not try rather than risk discovering that we just aren’t good enough, but you know if we do that we will never discover that we are good enough.

It took me a long time to try at what I really wanted to do with my life, to believe I was worth the effort of trying, I am not sure yet if I have succeeded.

But you know, just like with my drawing, I can always try again.

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October 3, 2012

New Exhibition, New Journey

Well I know I am never going to get an award for the most updated blog, hats off to those who manage to fit in regular updates in their busy lives!

The summer has flown by, filled with family, but now with my son back at uni and my daughter beginning a new life with her first job in Cornwall I need to focus on my own work.

My summer hasn’t been completely devoid of art however and that is my first piece of news, last Thursday air arts launched their 2012/13 season with an exhibition in The Royal Derby Hospital and I am lucky enough to be part of it.

I am showing seven of my solar photograms, the theme is light relief and so fits perfectly with this part of my practice that explores how we use objects to comfort and reassure us during difficult times and is obviously completely dependent on sunlight for its creation. Interestingly each artist was given an object from Derby Hospital’s archives that linked with their work as part of the Hidden Histories project.

This exhibition is especially important for me because ultimately it is where i want my work to be seen, by the public, in their everyday life to hopefully connect with them during times of uncertainty.

The exhibition has been beautifully curated by Antoinette Burchill with a wide variety of work by other very talented artists and will be on display in the hospital until March, if you are in the area go and have a look, you will find my work on level 1 near  maternity.

You can read more about the work of air art at http://airarts.net/  and the Hidden Histories project http://hiddenhistories.tumblr.com/

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My other news is that I am about to start my Masters in Fine Art, I am excited, scared, nervous and disbelieving, who would have thought that when I went to that small informal outreach lesson comfortingly called ‘Drawing for the Terrified’  that I could have got a degree never mind been accepted on a masters course.  I think if someone had told me then that that was a possibility I would have been too overwhelmed to continue but I have been incredibly lucky to have had really supportive tutors, each encouraging me on to the next step.

I think that is the wonderful thing about life, you never know what it holds for you, there was a time when I worried whether I would see my children grow up, I worked in an office to fit around family life and wondered if I could draw.

I am doing what I dreamed of when I was fifteen, it s a little late but perhaps sweeter for it, and shines brighter because it is a consequence of the darkest time of my life.

I know now that no one has any guarantees in life but also that if you look there are always new and wonderful things to see and experience, although sometimes these may be small and fleeting they are precious and glorious.

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August 14, 2012

Exhibition

I am currently exhibiting in a gallery in the village Stoke Mandeville at Obsidian Art.

The theme is the Four Seasons and when I first read the invite to apply it felt like the ideal opportunity for me, close enough to one arm of my current practice using photograms to feel relevant but with enough movement to allow me to create new work.  As I think I have said before I have been experimenting with a new method to save my photograms that preserves the original colours and have begun to digital manipulate them to intensify the image. This is the first time that I have  inverted and changed them in order to hopefully better portray the mood of the image.

I hope you like them

http://www.obsidianart.co.uk/exhibitions/seasons.html

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June 20, 2012

Waiting and working and news

Life is odd at the moment, I have that feeling I have forgotten something or left the iron on, a kind of out of sorts feeling that you can’t quite catch to consider.

I am waiting for my degree results, after three years of pressure and stress my life is weirdly empty, real life has rushed in to fill the void, how did I ever manage to clean the house, shop, cook, meet people before when it takes all day now? My mind is full of what will be my next step, the MA, teacher training, life as an artist, I will have to make a decision very soon, up until now I have been nudged along step by step without really thinking of what I will do in the future. The future has arrived and I need to decide.

I am forever searching for opportunities and that is my news.

I have been accepted for an exhibtion at Royal Derby Hospital in September, the theme is light and I will be showing some photograms. I have 7.3 m of wall by the maternity ward, it thrills me to think that my work might be seen by people who are going through such a momentous time in their lives.

I have developed my process so that they are more vibrant than previously and am experimenting with digital inversion. I have put a few of my experiments below. I am pretty pleased with them and very excited about showing in a ‘proper’ (non university) show.

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June 3, 2012

Degree Show Open!

Last Friday evening, our degree show opened for its private view, after three years of hard work, soul searching and challenges it was over. Looking back at the fifteen year old who was persuaded to give up on her dreams of art college it seems at once like yesterday and a life time ago. I can’t quite believe I have finally done it. There is a saying that trying one new thing a day keeps you young, well it feels like I have been doing that for the last five years, ever since I stepped into my first class, aptly named ‘Drawing for the Terrified’ determined to see ‘if I could draw’ and petrified that I would find that I couldn’t. Thanks to some great tutors I have been encouraged  and nudged on to each new step right up to now when hopefully I will soon graduate.

One of the best things about being on the course has been the other students, I am not sure what they think about having older colleagues but they have always been supportive and encouraging and they have opened up my world and made me feel just like another student. At a time when my views could have narrowed and hardened they have made me see things through younger eyes, they are funny, clever and inspiring.

Anyway, Friday night was great, I talked to lots of interesting people,saw great art, drank a little too much and got an award!  The award for lifelong learning, a complete surprise and I am thrilled because if nothing else (and there is loads more) the course has taught it is never too late to start and you should always keep trying – and learning.

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I will write a post about my plates and book over the next couple of days

Our exhibition is part of Sheffield Hallam’s Creative Sparks 2012 and runs between 6-23  June, 10-4, Mon to Sat.

I am exhibiting at the S1 Artspace Gallery, 120 Trafalar Street, Sheffield,S1 4JT.

If you are nearby please pop in.

http://www.shu.ac.uk/creativespark/visit.html


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May 15, 2012

Self Portrait

For the last eighteen months I have been drawing portraits of people with scars. I have wanted them to be a celebration of imperfection and a counter to what sometimes gets mistaken for society, you know the magazines and films where the already surgically perfected get airbrushed into impossible proportions. There is a unique and geniune beauty about someone who has lived a life and who has come to accept what that life has made them, who accepts all the physical and emotional scars that life has drawn across their body and soul as proof of a journey taken.  I have always known that I am interested in this because of the many scars I have and how difficult I find applying this philosophy personally – I find I am always less tolerant with myself than others.

Anyway, I soon began to realise that each portrait I drew had an element of self portrait in it, I was circling around something I was too scared to execute.  All those wonderful people who agreed to let me draw them were so much braver than me.

At Christmas I drew my first self portrait, it was for my Jan assessment so when it came to having to display it I chose a dark corner in the basement of our studios and hoped no one would notice it. It made me feel physically sick to show it.  I  soon realised it was a pretty bad drawing, I was so scared of  actually looking at myself Ihad rushed it so when it came to deciding what to do for my final degree show I knew I had to redraw it – properly this time.

I have taken twice as long to draw this picture than I usually do, really focusing on each centimetre. In the next few days I have got to hang it in the gallery, that is going to be the toughest bit and I am  not sure how late I will leave it.  A scar isn’t just a mark  on your skin it is the story of a moment in your life. For me, my scar represents what I hate the most about myself, the fear that keeps me awake at night and is the thing that somehow makes me feel ashamed, I can’t quite believe I am going to stick it on a wall and let people see it – let people judge me.  I have to remind myself that it also represents what I feel most proud about myself, what I have endured and survived and the example I want to show my daughter and son.

If I feel like this it might seem weird to you that I am posting this, but I am just sitting in my study typing, alone, this is me just dipping my toe into the water, any reactions are distant and removed. Real life begins on the 1st of June when the exhibition opens.

Its not the best photo but I hope you can see it well enough,it’s a little over life sized and I have framed it with glass so that the viewer can see their reflection over the drawing

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May 15, 2012

Degree Show Nerves

Writing a blog is still pretty new to me, I tend to write about things that have already happened, that I have had time to process. For the last few weeks the build up to my degree show has been hotting up and I have found it difficult to find the words about what I am going to show. Most of my work is pretty personal so it feels like its me not just my art being judged. Anyway, since in a weeks time I am going to be assessed on it and on the 1st of June loads of people (hopefully!) are going to come and see I thought I had better start easing myself into the fact by talking and showing it to you. I have three pieces that I am going to show – two are definite and one a maybe at the moment, as they are ready I will post them

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February 19, 2012

How old is too old?

Last week I sat through a four day conference designed to help us plan our future. I try to be a pretty positive person but as the week progressed I began to despair. Out of the nine or so speakers eight of them repeatedly spoke of our USP – our youth, that is what we had to offer our future employers, its what gave us time to travel, work in Tesco or go on the dole (yes that was a career choice) whilst we built up our art career.

That’s great but I am a mature student, I wasn’t hard to spot as I was sitting on the front row with three other mature students – when you get to my age you have to sit on the front row due to failing sight and hearing.

How old am I? Forty eight (okay I admit it I’m nearly forty nine), now I realise at this point some of you have made a sharp intake of breath but there may be others who have managed to stagger from their recliner chair that think I could have a few good years left.

On line opportunities seem full of young artist groups and competitions for new artists under thirty five. Why should new artist mean young artist? Surely its self limiting  there may be less of us but don’t we deserve a go?

I have to say now that the staff and students at my uni have never been other than supportive. My peers who are in the main in their very early twenties have always treated me as an equal, encouraged and helped me.

I think I have a lot to offer, hopefully I can show you when I have figured out how to upload my images with a watermark. I know I have my own limitations, some of which are age related, but they are mine for me to overcome, I don’t need others putting limitations on me.

Now I am off to organize my Turner Prize submission – you have to be under fifty to be nominated.

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