Ready to have fun in The Art World

Sealife is always inspiring for its beautiful colours and shapes.

I bought myself a cute sketchbook. Sometimes I wonder what my friends would say about buying such a ‘feminine’ item. But then I think, “fuck what they think :-D”.

I created a couple more sketches around the modern-day memento mori theme. I was sketching and it came to me to create a pixel version of the skull and hourglass. With my 80s gaming influences, it seemed apt.

I wanted to add GAME OVER, playing on the iconic video game phrase when you lose, akin to our mortality. More development on this during the next week.

I’ve decided to start implementing Brainard Carey’s book:

It’s been sitting on my Kindle bookshelf for a while. I did sign up for his useful course, praxiscenterforaestheticstudies.com. I got support for rewriting my artist statement and bio, but the vast content in the vault became overwhelming. I cancelled at the start of this year and I may go back. But before that, I’m starting afresh, revamping my website and pondering the next steps.

Interspersed with doing these exercises, I’ve been reading Brainard’s other book:

There are great anecdotes and interviews with curators such as Laura Hoptman, who gives great insight into the Art World. I keep seeing recurring themes around what curators want to see. It’s not just about the art, it’s the ideas behind it and the artist’s personality interwoven with the current culture.

Brainard shares some great advice in offering your services for talks and education pieces for Art Museums. I’ve emailed the NGMA in India and we’ll see what comes from the connection. My idea is to create an educational talk around my medical journal article “Art as Psychological Support in My Kidney Disease Journey”.

The knowledge of the nuances of the art world is very much appreciated from reading this book. When you are starting, it’s overwhelming. But as Brainard says, it’s all about relationship building. Learning these nuances has allowed me to chill a bit and enjoy the journey, but this doesn’t mean I won’t approach things with the same velocity.

I’ve been drawn to artist interviews podcasts recently, I go through periods where I listen to a load of them, then I don’t for a while. Here are a couple of them that I most enjoyed recently.

Karla Knight: I was very intrigued by her influences from her writer father and grandfather. Her son learning to write was her biggest inspiration.

One of her pieces:

Podcast episode:

Sophie Von Hellerman: I was mesmerised by her work at The Turner Contemporary in Margate last summer. Look at this angelic and ethereal huge art piece!

Podcast episode:

I noticed a lovely abstract piece in our hotel lobby while awaiting our transfer to the airport.

When I went to step off the bus, I hadn’t noticed that the last step off of the coach was quite high. I lost my balance and fell to my knees. I heard the noise of a coin tinkling on the floor, it was my MEMENTO MORI coin. You have to laugh at the cosmic joke! I didn’t even have the coin in my pocket or anything, it was in my wallet, zipped up in my bag! I was fine by the way, I am a good faller after many years of play wrestling with friends as a kid 😀

After entering Malaga Airport, I saw these beautiful murals in the Pablo Ruiz Picasso Terminal:

Let’s leave it at that for this week. I am deeply craving studio time so there’ll be sure to be some next week.

My favourite complimentary colour combo, Orange and blue in my day-to-day life this week:

My artwork printed on a t-shirt:

Thank you for joining me in my art practice for this week.

If any of my art moves and inspires you and you’d like to make a purchase. All you need to do is get in touch via steve@slart.me

Best wishes,

SLART

P.S. If you have any questions, please comment below.

P.P.S. Please kindly share this post, positive Karma and Blessings to you!

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