I have just found an artist’s blog that has really piqued my interest. Ivan Pope in the UK does multimedia installation work that is very different from my printmaking, but his clear descriptions of his life as an artist who blogs, mirror much of my own. I like this Dear Diary:

“It occurs to me that this blog is like a Diary […] purely a look at the stuff that I do, the work that I make and the things that surround me.[…] I’ve spent the last week recoiling from making work. I think I burn myself out in phases, then some consolidation. Plus, there is always a lot of other stuff around to get on with, paperwork, kids, work, school.[…] My mind goes on making work, but my body sort of abdicates. It tries to get back to it, but there are too many things in the way. And some big fears.”

And Doing the art thing :

“This blog is supposed to get me thinking about, considering, the minutae of my life as an artist.[…] I intend to have a career in art myself,[…], I know the value of the market, the PR expert, the phone-pickerupper, the booster. Up to a point artists have to be all of these things to themselves, and its a very hard trick to play. Almost the best that you can hope is that you have such a belief in your work that boosting it, telling the world about it is easy and first nature. If this is true and it works, then someone will come along to pick up the job. Oh, and to do the paperwork. Please.”