I Moved...

I've moved to a brand new blog. 

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So Recently...

I've been bogged down with writing some applications. It's been stressful and it has taken me away from any thoughts about practice altogether, but its been good in that I have been forced to rebuild some of the momentum that I created during the MA.

It is easy to let life get in the way once you aren't in the college 'bubble'. It really is a discipline that I don't seem to posses. 

Now that the application is done with all of my hope behind it I am determined to get my practice going again. I am literally squirming, aching and itching to be working on a new project... I just am trying far too hard. Everything that I think might be good enough isn't, I don't have any thing worth saying, can't settle on themes or topics... this form of procrastination is familiar to me and something that really affected me during my MA. I should really just learn to not panic so much. 

So, to try and combat this I have contacted a few people that I met in the crystal palace artists group and through the Leroy Street Exhibition that Harriet and I took part in, to have regular meetings in a local pub. We've only had one so far (there is another one tomorrow) but I think that it is a positive step. Already we are discussing the possibility of showing work together in CP, discussing ideas, swapping references - all the kind of things which are vital for me to remain productive and creative.

What I find most encouraging is that we all have very different practices, yet seem to be able to find cross overs and issues that are important to us, just represented or dealt with in very different ways.

T.A.T.T at Southwark

Most of the pictures that were taken for my documentation aren't really usable - but thought that I would stick them up here anyway...

They don't really show what the set was like or the changes that were made which is a real shame. Most of the feed back from people that had seen it before at college was that they preferred the set here as it was more eclectic and suited the feel of the piece. People also seemed to like the bar setting for the work. I was initially really worried that I didn't have any lighting to punctuate the piece, but it turned out not to matter - no body noticed that it was missing which can only be a good thing.

An old friend of mine from when I was in Sixth Form College came to see it which was amazing. She is an actress now and gave me some really great feedback about things that I think I have been neglecting without realising. 

My friend said that what she noticed most was that my performance skills have slipped since she saw me performing as a teenager! Really basic things like using and controlling my breathing to punctuate and create phrases in the work, I struggled with stillness and silences, my posture and gestures aren't as clear or as held as they should be. Her comments really struck a cord with me as I realised that she was right and that it was great to have someone there to look at it from a technical point of view. 

It's so easy to when you are creating, writing, and directing your own work to get so caught up with the content and the 'art' behind it, that it is so easy to overlook your practical skills. Performing techniques aren't really easy and are things that need constantly working on. I've rewritten the beginning of T.A.T.T again and will be working on my performance skills when I get to perform it again. 

I think that I still have a lot to learn about documentation and how to control it when I'm not taking the pictures.