Future Projects

This section is going to appear very disjointed for a time _ I'm going to use it as a repository for images and quotes which will be informing my work for the next few months, and BOY is there a ton of stuff to work on through. First up, Wez and Helen at the revamped/relaunched Bullpen have announced a series of new pours for cast iron to take place in February, then I have a series of projects which have been tickling the back of my mind for ages now and which I'm beating myself up for not having realised sooner.

SO - much of the notation and linked here might appear disjointed or part of an apparently meaningless riddle - but they all fit together (at least to some extent) within the Robson brain. If anyone passes by and has a question, feel free, as frankly I could do with some checks and challenges to keep this meandering path on course ;).

In the meantime, I'm feeling very inspired by some wise words from the lovely Sioban Coppinger on next steps in my pseudo artists career (ie the time I have left after the bits of marketing and the heritage conservation.) I'm also keeping my thoughts and best wishes with Pam Brown - the woman who has the very dubious distinction of having set this whole crazy train of activity in motion. This summer is the tenth anniversary of the first time I set foot at Moss House... As they say, the rest is history!

There are of course some darker aspects of the processes which are leading to what I hope comes to pass - but what can you do about the aspects of fate which shadow your path, both behind and ahead? Its a typical artists cliché to react against things all the time. I'm hoping to absorb those feelings and naturally reflect them rather than wallow and indulge in them. Experiences create a thread through your life which is inescapable - and the knots in it can either be treated as a weakness and flaw, cut out repaired maybe, or hopefully, absorbed, incorporated and accepted and made stronger for having had them. That seems to be where I'm aimed at the moment: its not what happened or happens or will happen, its about determining the fake from the real, and to being able to judge who's and whats merely damaged and who is overtly malign. It means this blog is essentially a very personal journey from here on in and I have to put objectivity out of the picture for the time being: I have learnt the hard way that what ever you think you know about anyone is only ever going to be seen through the lens of your own hopes and fears. That, dear reader, means I've got to stop thinking about you at all. So if things become indistinct from now on, that's why.

And so it is with the creative process, I guess. There's going to be a branching in the path - some work will be created with no other intent but to sell to enable me to continue my practice - that'll be the stuff 'looking out'. Others will be for me and me alone. The looking inwards. I've learned I can't trust those I believed in, so its time to try and learn to trust the only person I know. I've always previously felt as though that kind of logic is an indulgence - but I've lost important reference points within the last couple of years.

That's the waffle - the attempt at self justification and the typical artists rationalisation. Its a process which makes me deeply uncomfortable, given the contempt I've learned to hold so many conventionally arts-educated artists and their collegiate spout, but deeds without thoughts or words are empty, even if so many use them to obfuscate the fact that saying and doing are two entirely different things...

So, the following is a scrapbook/diary/reference resourse of images and thoughts as they come. No apologies. here's hoping they make sense in the long run when seen in the context of the pieces they inspire.