Developing through shared experience

Chosing to work as an artist can be a lonely experience, of course it can. But there's another side to working in a creative industry, and that is the number of shared connections that we build along the way.

This year alone, I have taken part in online challenges, attended an in-person 4 day workshop, joined events with art groups that bring together artists from all over the world, taken part in exhibitions and made new connections through social media.

It would not be an overstatement to say that I have met more like minded people in my time as an artist than in the many years before in my previous role as a creative director.

My new series, see 'Far from 2' above, came to life because of a wonderful online course, and I will work on it surrounded by artists and visitors at the art collective gallery that I belong to.

Ironically, this series explores a long held preoccupation with the idea that we can never truly be alone in modern society. A sense of nostalgia for a past that I didn't know, in a time in which we can never be entirely alone but in which paradoxically, social loneliness prevails. Glimpses of written word echo life’s chatter, and scraps of maps show through gestural marks that form a landscape through which an illusive figure moves.

Do we feel happy with the constant noise of 21^st century life or do we wish for the freedom that would have been taken for granted only a century ago? Do we need a break from the constant ‘noise’; to remove ourselves from the stress of modern living.

I'm fully aware that this post poses more questions than answers. How do I square the fact that I can meet so many wonderful art lovers, collectors and other artists only because of this society full of chatter? How can I love the sense of connections made, and yet wish for a silence that is unattainable.

I'd love to hear what you think? Do any of these musings resonate with you?