network

Firstly, I got some poetry published, i think i mentioned it one of the earlier works. It's an online magazine at Blank media, here's a link to it, it's the 20th issue if you read this when the next ones come out... - http://www.blankmediacollective.org/blankpages - it feels to good to have someone think your work is good enough to be published like that, and to give you 4 of their pages up for it. I'm not sure of the quality of the poems, i dont think the 'raging fox' one is so good, but i like the others, and it's nice that they mentioned me in the same sentence as e.e. cummings, he's one of the people i was referring to about the time i wrote them, ever since i saw his poem featured in Hannah And Her Sisters by Woody Allen. And Bukowski of course, he's really influential, reminds me a bit of Baselitz, in some way.

I'm starting to see how important it is to have a network of artists around you. I've been working in relative isolation, and after uni, where i was placed into this constant and ready-made environment, a network of fellow students and professors to comment on your work and suggest different things to look at and ways of working. I never thought that would be one of the most important things about uni, not until i've moved back to dudley and started painting in greenhouse, surrounded by trees and squirrels and my dad. There's people to comment on my work, people who 'like' it on facebook, but there aren't any other painters to talk to. This is pretty much ruining me, i have no compass, no outside, objective help, and as a result i end up taking many diversions.

I suppose if i'm honest i do have a lot of people to give me advice, but no-one i trust enough to take it. I cross examine them, like my dad, i think, "well, you've never made a painting... you want me to make money, you want me to do portraits of dogs and babies, and you'd have them hanging in the neighbours front room, have them fit in with the decor".

So, lately this is what i've been trying to do, gain a bit of exposure, exhibit a lot more, comment on other peoples work and hopefully they'll do the same for me. And i think an artist residency would really be useful, in this country or abroad, whatever i can get, but i'd get paid for it, and i'd be around other artists, i'd have to produce work, and at the end most probably give a talk about it. So that's what i'm looking out for.