Self-care in Creativity & Wellbeing Week 2022

The Self-care Learning Curve.

Self-care is often understood as a support package that we manage and construct for ourselves. When it's treated as a luxury, we may reward ourselves for our hard work by spending money on ourselves with a meal out, an expensive treat or a holiday. At least, that's how I viewed it until my world changed with three events that redefined my life. 

Fallen tree, 2020. (Black ink on paper)

Firstly, my part-time job with a local charity came to an end, due to funding cuts. As I'd been using that role to pay my bills, whilst I figured out a way to support myself from arts work and plan flexible breaks to support my health, that was disappointing. Most part-time jobs appeared to be mainly geared around working parents, which wasn't the arrangement I was hoping for, so I wasn't feeling optimistic about finding a replacement easily. 

Soon after, I became an unpaid carer when it became apparent that my mum needed help to look after herself. That, in itself, is a long story for another time. As a result I started to look for support for carers and ways to maintain my mental health as I adjusted to my new role. Locally I registered with Carers MK and went to Age UK Milton Keynes for legal advice. At this point I was still hopeful that I could learn how to balance a care role with some freelance arts work, though I wasn't clear how to make that happen.

Finally, the COVID19 pandemic hit the UK, just as my most recent sketchbooks went on display in the MK Calling 2020 exhibition at MK Gallery. The increased risk to my health and upheaval, together with a lack of funding support for freelancers, upset all my plans for urban sketching and community events, as we collectively locked down and readjusted to pandemic life. Whilst some people threw themselves into home baking, I started an occasional sketch journal over on Instagram.

Two years of learning how to live in a changed world. personally and professionally, have given me a new perspective on self-care. This includes day to day support and a new attitude to paid and unpaid work commitments. Here are my revised top tips for self-care ...

My top 4 tips for self-care:

1. Self-care is an essential, not a luxury. If you pass up early opportunities to care for yourself when you have minor health or welfare concerns, they will eventually grow into major problems. At its most basic, it can be as simple as remembering to give yourself breaks, drink some more water and have an early night. At the networking level, it could involve seeking out help and information from charities, support groups and professionals.
2. Ask for help. No-one is going to know you need support if you struggle on in silence. If you leave it until you're in a major crisis before you speak up then you may not get the help in time. Ask for help from friends, family, support groups or services. For example, carers (especially live-in carers) are advised to plan 'respite breaks' - these can be anything from a couple of hours to see a friend and relax away from their caring role, or it may be a week away, if they can get the support for that long. 
3. It takes a village. The saying "It takes a village to raise a child" also applies to public avenues for support - in the community, from your employers/collaborators and from public bodies. If you're trying to carry the whole world on your shoulders, continuous work without a break will drain you until you make yourself ill. Better to learn to spread the load early on and say 'no' a few people or situations that no longer support your aims, than collapse suddenly from the strain of trying to please everyone all of the time. 
4. Know your worth. Potential clients or employers may want you to work for a lower price, more hours or for exposure but you need to value yourself more highly. You have unique skills, experience and perspectives. If you are still learning how to negotiate and market yourself, look on social media for tips and active support groups. There's lots of free advice that's tailored to freelancers and artists, just take the time to find the best fit for your situation. E.g. art opps on Instagram - I share some in my Stories

Creative Respite?

This week I was reminded that it's "Creativity & Wellbeing Week 2022" when my request to join a related Facebook group was approved. If you're looking for creative events or ideas for activities in the UK, this may be a good place to start. If you can't make any of these activities, it's still worth using them as inspiration for days out or breaks when you've more time to spare.

The week's theme, according to their website - 

"Creativity and Wellbeing week is a partnership between London Arts in Health Forum and the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance. It is an open festival where we encourage anyone who wants to host an event focused on culture, arts and wellbeing to join us in the programme."

Creativity & Wellbeing project events web page: https://creativityandwellbeing.org.uk/all-events/ 
Search on Twitter for #CreativityandWellbeingWeek

See more of my art on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/srfirehorseart/

March 2021

 A Brave New World

Installation view of the 'Garfield Weston' gallery,
 MK Calling 2020, with the vitrine my art was displayed in (right)
Picture credit: MK Gallery. 

Contemporary Drama

MK Calling 2020 is the longest-running exhibition I've been in so far. This group exhibition, at MK Gallery, opened in February 2020, temporarily closed for lockdown late in March and finally re-opened with an extension until November 2020. In all that time, I managed just two visits in person, as I've being at home every since the first lockdown. 

Of course, like many other people, I was hoping the COVID-19 pandemic would be over quickly and wondering when, or if, we would get back to 'normal' life. Initially I was optimistic that I'd catch up with my reading, make art, maybe start designing an online arts course. The reality was that my productivity ground to a halt. Instead of breaking new ground online, my broadband struggled as everyone around me logged on at home. Eventually my creative outlook re-emerged to focus on drawing nearer to home, as I've done in the past.

Installation view during MK Calling 2020,
including the vitrine with my art display
Picture credit: MK Gallery. 

Creating New Pathways

However, I was heartened to see lots of other people launch online art clubs and events, making the most of people's extra spare time as they worked from home and spent less time travelling. The availability of events, using Zoom and other online resources, has hopefully squashed a lot of arguments against flexible access, where travelling distance, time and costs have meant that some events have been inaccessible to many. The ability to screen and record events for sharing online, engage with communities via social media, run live interactive events on various platforms and even set up 'stalls' and promote work in international online events, mean that a lot of invisible access barriers have been flattened in the last year. If the arts want to support diversity, then this is one step closer to equal access for all.

In 2021, the availability of vaccinations and the natural optimism of Spring, is bringing hope to everyone. Whilst there is a temptation to simply return fixed locations to share art from, I'm hoping that some of the more distance-learning methods of sharing the arts will be here to stay. Here's to a more fluid and flexible access path to arts and crafts in the future.

Artists are always innovating and a more accessible approach to participatory arts and associated funding could be the start of a more connected era in the arts. If our brave new world has learnt some useful tricks from this pandemic, maybe some long-lasting benefit will have come out of it after all.

Installation view of my artwork 
 in the vitrine display of MK Calling 2020.
Picture credit: MK Galley / S. Raymond

MK Calling 2020

The MK Calling 2020 show, opens this weekend at MK Gallery​, with over 130 amazing artists. This exhibition includes two framed drawings of community events and four of my sketchbooks. The sketches on show cover the period from roughly mid-2017 to the present, many featuring scenes in Milton Keynes. These look at public and community spaces, and how they are used. More recently I have started to focus on how these spaces are used to provide peer support.

Saturday 15 February- Sunday 17 May 2020

FREE ENTRY

Gallery blurb:

Featuring over 130 artists across five world class gallery spaces, MK Calling is MK Gallery’s first open call submission exhibition in the majorly developed and extended building that reopened in March 2019. The exhibition will showcase a range of established and up and coming artists, very much celebrating what is happening today in contemporary art.

MK Calling will be showcasing the most dynamic work being made today including work by Royal Academicians, and alumni of The British Art Show, John Moores Painting Prize and New Contemporaries.

The show features numerous pieces that address and challenge many contemporary issues such as the environment and the political climate, as well as a number of playful and performance works. With the exhibition taking place in the new town of Milton Keynes and with a third of artists local to the area, a lot of the work also looks at cities and architecture.

Artists:

Ikran Abdille | Miraj Ahmed | Saint Akua | Giuseppe Alfano & Roisin Callaghan | Chris Alton | Bronya Arcsizewska | Artist I. Relevant | Astrid Baerndal | Bill Balaskas | Bianca Barandun | Pietro Bardini | Charlie Barkus | Namen Basil | Anna Berry | Daniel Blumberg | Boyd & Evans | Eleanor Breeze | Melanie Bush | Lil Cahill | Nathan Caldecott | Ciara Callaghan | Phil Carney | Priya Chohan-Padia | Sarawut Chutiwongpeti | Jonny Clapham | Dovile Dagiene-Doda | Shona Davies | Dave Monaghan & Jon Klein | Charlie Denning | Edward Durdey | Lee Farmer | French & Mottershead | Doug Foster | Archie Franks | Abi Freckleton | Emi Fujisawa | John Garrad | GLRGNYNK | Fiona Grady | Garth Gratrix | Thomas Gray | Lucy Gregory | Habib Hajallie | Emily Hawes | Aaron Head | Rebecca Herbert | Fabienne Hess | Dave Hilliard | Len Hollman | Gareth Horner | Will Hurt | Dawn Iles | Hannah Jean Moulds | Permindar Kaur | Judy Kendrick-Simonsen | Neil Kilby | Adam King | Jane King | Kyle Kirkpatrick | Anna Lann & Jonathan Tritcher | Penthouss | Karolina Lebek | Fei Li | Dasha Loyko | Andrew Macdermott | Henrietta MacPhee | Rachel Magdeburg | Nick Malone | Morag McInnes | Sean Michael Pearce | Verity Millest | Elisabeth Molin | Callum Monteith | Stuart Moore | Nazanin Moradi | Adam Neal | Raymond O'Daly | Kate Parrott | Jam Patel | Sharda Patel | Marion Piper | Lisa-Marie Price | Jonathan Purnell | Paul B Rainey | Suzanna Raymond | Thom Rees | Dorothea Reid | Yande Ren | Graeme Roach | Dave Ronalds | Linnet Panashe Rubaya | Rekha Sameer | Mark Scammell | Abbie Schug | Christina Shelagh Mongelli | Martyn Simpson | Cecilia Sjoholm | Rebecca Smart | Ritu Sood | Stephanie Spindler | Bob Spriggs | Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck | James Tebbutt | Tracing the Pathway | Sebastian Thomas | James Owen Thomas | Elizabeth Tomos | Roxy Topia & Paddy Gould | Anna Townley | Dina Tses | Anna Turner | Miles Umney | Guillaume Vandame | Wai Wai Pang | Vilas | Elizabeth Walker | Lufeianna Wang | Sally Waterman | Emma Wilde | Mark Wilsher | Arianne Wilson | Iain Woods | Josh Wright | Rachel Wright | Cherilyn Yeates | Henry Yeomans

Sketchy Plans 2019

My first sketching event was outside the newly refurbished MK Gallery

A Short History of Drawing Around Milton Keynes

It turns out that 2019 became the year I started running events for a Milton Keynes sketch group. This is a Facebook group that I initially took over from local artist Dave Hilliard, who had run a few events before I showed up. As another local group had ground to a halt after three events, I knew that if I wanted to see more events in the area I had better start running them myself. So I took the opportunity to try and create my first local arts programme for sketching in urban spaces.

My intention was to run a few events using my community engagement experience. I was also aiming to shed more light on the benefits of urban sketching, activities that were proven in more established groups in Bedford, Northampton, London and other areas. Taking a  few pointers from Dave, who had been part of the Northampton group, we made a start around the time that the refurbished Milton Keynes Gallery was due to re-launch.

Our first event took place in Margaret Powell Square, which sits just outside MK Theatre and the art gallery. Our second event was inside the galleries, taking advantage of the first exhibition called "Lie Of the Land", which seemed quite appropriate for an urban landscape sketch group.. In August we made it to our landmark fifth event. This means that I have now run more urban sketching events in MK than any other local organiser. I've taken a short break, to attend to other matters, but I hope to get back to scheduling more local events soon.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Suzanna Raymond (@srfirehorseart) on Jul 21, 2019 at 1:44pm PDT

A Day Trip to Regents Park

To make sure I understood the basic model for sketching events, I joined the Urban Sketchers London group in July for an all-day sketch trip around Regents Park. This was a fun, informative event and I even got one of their badges! Their 'Draw London' event ran from 11:00 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. These sketch gatherings were run as free events with no booking required.

As I arrived in Regents Park a little late, due to misjudging how long it'd take me to get to the start point, I was worried I'd miss the group. However, the group leader had stayed by the inner circle gates long past the start time to direct latecomers. As a bonus, I also ended up meeting local contact Sophie, who had started the Bedford urban sketchers group, and she gave me a few pointers. We formed a small group with a guy visiting from Hamburg and London member Elvin, who knew the group leader.

Our group went looking for a spot to sketch from and ended up diving into the Benugo cafe when it started to rain. We had two other sketchers join us at our table. As I wanted to know why everyone was there and what kind of sketchers they were, I was keen to chat to everyone. In the end we learnt a lot about each other while were sketching. After lunch, when we relocated to the next meeting point, I had a similar experience seated next to another sketcher on a bench facing a fountain.

Sitting in a central public space also turned out to be a good way to meet up with people you know, as I spotted graphic novel legends Paul Gravett and Peter from Comica London and Escape books taking a stroll around the Triton Fountain. We had a bit of a catch-up chat before they continued on their way.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Suzanna Raymond (@srfirehorseart) on Jul 23, 2019 at 11:32am PDT

In the end I stayed for the whole thing, including sketchbook throw-downs and group photos. From my point of view the event was a success, as I found out that my events are run in a similar format to that of a more established group. I also found out a lot about how and why these groups are run and what else may work for drawing sessions in my own area.

It turned out, from speaking to others with more experience, that becoming an official urban sketchers group is something that'll have to wait until we have more active members. Otherwise, we seem to be doing fine, albeit with less strict guidelines about what members post to the MK group. I look forward to hopefully enticing more people out of their homes with a sketchbook to explore their local area.



Links:

Drawing Around Milton Keynes (Facebook)
Urban Sketchers London chapter

Drawing Breath in 2019

Sketchy Plans

Bit of a slow start to the year but it's one of those times in life where apparently no-one has a clue what is going on, so we can be forgiven for winging it.

MK sketch group outside the new MK Gallery (Feb 2019)

Milton Keynes Sketchers

A couple of years ago I discussed the idea of setting up an new MK sketching group, as the one I'd joined had ground to a halt after three events. A neighbour gave me space on her Meetup account and I was also invited to take over a Facebook drawing group. Both of these sat relatively dormant until this year when I started to run events in February.

We had our first sketching social event in February, during a few days of unseasonably warm weather. This made for a lovely, sunny first event, where we sketched outside the new Milton Keynes gallery, which was in its final run up to opening in March.

The next event for the group will return to the gallery on 24th March, so that we can have a group tour of the building, catch the first exhibition and socialise in the new cafe.

If you like to join us you can find out more about the group and event details here:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1451140798544828/
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Milton-Keynes-Sketching-Meetup/

The New MK Gallery

The MK Gallery has had a fab, shiny new £12m makeover and I'm looking forward to seeing in on its open day on Saturday 16th March. There was a private view on Thursday, which seems to have been very well attended. I'm buzzing for the official open day, which will have lots of free activities to indulge in from 11 am onward. I love free stuff.

The first exhibition looks like it'll be fantastic for fans of urban landscape, like myself.

"#TheLieoftheLand charts how British landscape has been radically transformed through changing attitudes to free time, culture and leisure." - MKG publicity . 

There are tons of articles about how the gallery has been redesigned by 6a architects with input from artists Gareth Jones and Nils Norman to create a City Club harking back to the early days of Milton Keynes. Also, the new building incorporates a much-needed cinema and performance space, a stylish new cafe and a refreshed paint job inside and out.

"artists Gareth Jones and Nils Norman have collaborated with 6a architects and graphic designer Mark El-khatib to create City Club, a sequence of new public spaces in and around the new gallery. This includes the foyer and café, plus a playscape, garden and a new façade for the existing gallery building." - a-n News

So pleased to be @MK_Gallery for the opening - what a fabulous space and a brilliant #exhibition ... great signage too! @MKComFoundation @ace_national pic.twitter.com/BsesWqkLNw

— CultureMK (@CultureMK) March 14, 2019

Eventful sketching

MK Lit Fest 2018

MK Lit Fest 2018 announcement

Residency

It is the second year of the new literary festival for Milton Keynes and this year the organisers have selected me to be their artist in residence. This will be a new experience for both of us, so I'm excited to see how it'll work out. I'm always happy to sketch indoors with tea and books on tap, so it should be fun.

Last year I went to MK Litfest mainly to see how the event represented diversity and I was pleasantly surprised. I ended up enjoying the talks more than I expected and took some sketch notes at the event which I shared on Instagram, tagging in the event's authors and publishers.

The organisers liked my drawings so much that they've asked me back as their artist in residence. I'm looking forward to sharing my best sketches with everyone via Facebook and Instagram. I've already shared a sketch I made at one of their 'taster' events at MK Gallery.

I'm also looking forward to seeing a print copy of 'MinK, their new 52-page literary zine, at the launch event on the 21st September. There should be an online version too for those unable to attend the festival.

This year's event runs from Friday 21st through to Monday 24th September at the Holiday Inn in central Milton Keynes. You can find out more about it here: https://www.mklitfest.org/

Location sketching

If you want to see examples of other people sketching on location I'd recommend Dutch illustrator Maaike Hartjes for a cartoon (comics) based style, Canadian journalist and war artist Richard Johnson's line drawings, artist and author James Gurney for painting on location, plus a whole raft of urban sketchers.

MK Calling 2017

Celebrating the urban landscape of Milton Keynes.

The next MK Calling exhibition at Milton Keynes gallery previews on April 20th. This show was an open call for artists interested in architecture, construction and links to Milton Keynes. I'll be showing my urban sketches as part of this event, which fits in well with my current work. You can read more about my urban sketching in MK on my new page: https://srfirehorseart.blogspot.co.uk/p/gallery.html

MK is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and the gallery is opening the space again for this show before the site is re-developed over the next two years. When the refurbished gallery re-opens it should have more space and facilities like a cafe.

This spring, MK Gallery showcases new and exciting work by over 70 emerging and established artists in MK Calling 2017. This exhibition is designed to celebrate the breadth of creativity around Milton Keynes and will include a wide range of art forms alongside a dynamic programme of events and participatory sessions.

- from the MK Gallery website http://www.mkgallery.org/exhibitions/mk_calling_2017/

It's great to be showing at the gallery again, with a theme that I'm currently exploring. Everyone is invited and MK Gallery are promising music, food and drink (as well as the art of course) at the preview.

The exhibition runs until 27 May 2017.

Tarting About

A post shared by Suzanna Raymond | (@srfirehorseart) on Oct 13, 2016 at 9:49am PDT

T'Art Zine

The T'Art show for International Women's Day 2017 has opened at Bones & Pearl Studios, in London. It's a group exhibition celebrating International Women’s Day with participatory zine making!

Following the Sweet 'Art group on Instagram led to me spotting an opportunity to contribute to the T'Art zine that forms part of this year's event. The page I submitted is the same one that has appeared in Girl Frenzy to Crone Frenzy but it will hopefully get a new audience at this event.

The T'Art show runs 7th - 9th March, with an opening event in the evening on the 8th March. See more about what they do at http://www.wearesweetart.com/

The CAS PostIt Exchange

Following up a link I saw on Facebook, I'm pleased to say I have been selected up to take part in the Chapel Arts Studios Post It Exchange. The CAS project, based in Andover, is about putting together artists to collaborate on items they post to each other. The results will be shared on Instagram with the #CASpostitexchange tag. My Instagram name is @srfirehorseart.

The project has just launched in pilot and they're still open to including more artists. More info on the project is on their website:  http://www.chapelartsstudios.co.uk/events/event/pilot-cas-postit/

Seventy Percent Admin

As has been observed elsewhere, an artist's life is only somewhat about creating wonderful things, the bulk of it is everything else. That means working to pay the bills, filing, submitting your tax return, DBS updates, insurance, networking and so on. After all that you may be able to squeeze the creativity into the last 30% of your time.

Likewise with my own life. So I've just updated my CV and artist's statement and have applied to another MK Calling exhibition at MK Gallery, this time with some of my urban sketches. Wish me luck!

Pecha Kucha MK

A photo posted by Suzanna Raymond | Artist | (@srfirehorseart) on Sep 6, 2016 at 11:05am PDT

Creatives Talking

Since recovering from a bout of illness, I've dived back to the fast-flowing stream that is 2016. Last week I attended the local gathering for comics and zine creators and indie publishers hosted by Milton Keynes Gallery.

It was great to have such a buzzing session where everyone seemed to find someone to swap ideas and stories with. The idea was to have a space where the kind of creatives that attended MKomix in 2012 could meet up. We're making use of the existing MKomix Facebook group to keep the conversations going after the event and a similar opportunity to get together should happen again early in 2017.

Pecha Kucha MK

Even though I thought I knew what Pecha Kucha was, having heard the term applied to a couple of gallery events, I didn't realise it had an international and licensed format. Milton Keynes now has an official license to hold Pecha Kucha events, with the interesting twist that the creator of this format and platform used to live in Wolverton, Milton Keynes, where the first talk will be held.

The first event will be free to attend and I will be one of its speakers. My slide show (20 slides, 20 seconds each) will talk about my experience as a new emerging artist. The presentation will cover my creative interests in urban & social landscapes, contemporary art. urban sketching, comics and zines.

The first PK event will be on Wednesday 19th from 7pm, see this link for more details.

Back to Sketching

A photo posted by Suzanna Raymond | Artist | (@srfirehorseart) on Aug 10, 2016 at 2:42pm PDT

A Return to the Drawing Board

My plans for 2016 were many and varied but tackling problems this year has turned out to like wrestling a many-tentacled octopus - as fast as you tackle one arm another appears. As such I have been short of time and energy, so I had to focus more on opportunities as they presented themselves rather than chasing more ambitious plans. Learning to be more focused and efficient with my time could be a good thing in the long run.

So, here's what has actually happened with my work in 2016:

I've spent a lot more time on Instagram - it's a quick way for visual artists to share their work on social media, if you don't need to edit your images much first. Although the site lends itself better to high-impact images rather than conceptual projects, if you can tick both boxes you're onto a winner for promoting your work. Whilst people can and do comment on pictures, if you want a longer discussion you may be better off on Facebook.

Instagram has inspired me to return to sketching and, as my interest is in the urban landscape, this has meant urban sketching. Urban sketching is quite a big thing it seems, with international groups (chapters), so I'm enjoying dipping my toe into this new world.

One of my urban sketches became the basis of a page of comics artwork for the GirlFrenzy to CroneFrenzy zine, which was published online and the artwork was printed for an exhibition with Rachael House's event at the Supernormal arts festival in Oxfordshire. Girl Frenzy editor Erica Smith created the event's online zine https://issuu.com/ericawordsmith/docs/gftocfissuu

The same page of artwork is now heading off to show in an open call exhibition at Winchester Gallery, Winchester School of Art as part of the Small Press : Independent Comics and Self Publishing event 24th - 28th October 2016.

My foray back into comics also led to a conversation with Milton Keynes Gallery about running another comics-based event. The last one, the MKomix event, was linked to their show of Pushwagner's comic book inspired work in 2012. The gallery agreed and the Thursday Scratch Nights MK Zine, Comic and Indie Publishers Meet up is happening on Thursday 13th October from 7pm.

Exhibition - MK Calling at Milton Keynes Gallery

"MK Calling (28 June – 8 September 2013) is the Gallery’s summer programme of exhibitions and performances, featuring 100 artists, musicians and performers from Milton Keynes. This dynamic season of painting, video, dance, music, poetry and much, much more will showcase MK’s finest emerging and established talent."

- See more at: http://www.mkgallery.org/exhibitions/mk_calling

My work Path (2012) was selected for inclusion in the first full open exhibition at Milton Keynes Gallery. Nearly 100 creatives were picked from around 300 applicants, to show work at the main gallery and over at Artworks-MK in Great Linford. My artwork will remain on show in the main gallery space for the duration of the programme. There's a full-colour catalogue to accompany the exhibition and these are for sale at the reception desk. Reception also has a price list for the artworks, if you feel inspired to take some home.

Path, 2012. Installation at Milton Keynes Gallery.

Path was created from two of the images used in a triptych (see image below) of A4 inkjet prints, an image which you'll also see with my bio in the catalogue. Path was conceived as an installation piece, with each inkjet print to be hung opposite the other. I'm glad to see that they look just as good hung together on the same wall in the Middle Gallery space. Each print is on semi-matte paper, which makes a feature of the velvety darkness in the images.



Untitled, 2012. Triptych of inkjet prints on paper.

Suzanna Raymond on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sraymond.artworks
MK Calling launch and Summer Party official photos.