Creativity in the Year of the Snake

Boosting Your Creativity in the Year of the Snake

Two cow sculptures from an art installation by Liz Leyh.
Photo by S. Raymond.

Making art is never about the equipment, it is always about the artist. 

Without intention and action there is nothing. 

A New Hope

As the 2025 Year of the Snake is associated with the Wood element, it symbolises a return to creativity, growth, and renewal. Yet, many of us are on a limited budget after funding cuts and 'cost of living' savings, so how do we move forward again?

As artists, we are frequently buying better equipment, going on courses for new techniques, having to buy tickets to exhibitions.* All of that is valuable to update our skills, or when old equipment needs replacing. Yet, none of this is an act of creation. We often don't always need to use something expensive to create great work. 

Consider this: Liz Leyh's cow sculptures (and a replica by Bill Billings) were made with concrete and chicken wire, as part of a community art project. They became a symbol of the new city of Milton Keynes (see photo above). Would they have made as much of an impact if they'd been made in bronze or marble?

Artists Are Natural Hoarders

Many arts and crafts people have a studio space, spare room, a shed, or even just a cupboard, full of art equipment they aren't using. Added to which, we often store our old work there too, as an archive or until we exhibit or sell it. 

For example, last year a friend 3D printed a mini press, by the Open Press Project, as a birthday gift for me. I was delighted and would have liked to try it straight away. However, last year was quite chaotic on a personal level, so I eventually put it aside, unused, into a drawer. 

Recycle, Reuse, Reduce 

There are alternatives though. The 'Recycle, Reuse, Reduce' approach to life can also apply to our arts practice. It's also helpful when funds are low. So here's a quick list of ideas for how we can all make more from less in the year of the Snake. 

- Reuse your old print art and magazines - print works can be printed or painted over, used in collage, or in craft projects such as as book covers, or to make cards

- Many b/w photographs or prints can be transferred to other surfaces, to be painted over or made into print blocks

- Photographers: join a 'shitty camera challenge' and reuse your old cameras that have seen better days

- Recycle your old art materials and magazines by offering them to your local art clubs and community services. Libraries and charity shops will accept books and magazines in good condition. Charities that offer art therapy may accept materials, as may children's play groups. 

- Give your old art to your friends, family, or a library. Now it's both a gift and also someone else's problem to store or display. Tell them "it'll be worth a fortune in the future", which may even be true! The central library was loaned paintings by internationally-exhibited contemporary artists Boyd & Evans, which made it more accessible for many as well as helping the artists free up some workspace. 

- Get inspired by the Arte Povera movement - making great art out of unconventional materials 


What do you think of these art tips - do any resonate for you?


* HMRC self-employment expenses

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

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

Season's Greetings 2015!

Merry Christmas Fair! View from a #tatemodern balcony. #urban #urbanlife #citylife #lookdownlondon #urbanexploration #cityscapes #urbanlandscape #architecture #london #londonlife #londonist #tatemodernmuseum #igerslondon #ig_london

A photo posted by Suzanna Raymond (@srfirehorseart) on Dec 24, 2015 at 2:02pm PST

Here's hoping you're having a Merry Christmas, or at least good day or two to relax a bit and take stock of how your year has gone. If, like me, you're taking a day to do nothing much than eat, browse the internet and sleep, then good on you.

Last weekend I visited London and had a chance to drop into a one-day arts event in South London and The World Goes Pop exhibition (until 24th Jan 2016) at the Tate Modern. The latter did say a lot about how much exposure and recognition artists get when they are on the periphery of an art movement because of gender or geography. To put it another way, if you aren't in the spotlight or closely connected to the key players, at the time when the art you're making is fashionable, it appears that you may have to wait for revised editions of art history before you get the support you deserve.

This year I have had fun experimenting with using my camera-phone to photograph urban and social landscapes, such as 'new town' developments and arts events, and sharing these on Instagram. In this spirit I'm posting up one of my snaps (from a Tate Modern balcony) to send you festive greetings.

All the best!

Disma Life and The Emerging Artist

Sign for the closed Madcap arts venue, Wolverton, Milton Keynes.

Business Development Opportunities

Business Development Officers at art galleries and museums were probably on tenterhooks watching the public’s reaction to Banksy’s 5-week Dismaland in Weston-super- Mare. The event slash mass-installation has been a hit to the tune of an extra £20m of business to the seaside town. That may be enough to reassure the galleries that are banking on big names to draw in enough visitors to shore up their funding deficits.

In a Spiked article Brendan O’Neill (who also writes for the Spectator) says "Banksy is modern capitalism’s loss of faith in itself made flesh." Yet, however much Mr O’Neill and various critics might like to lambast this particular vein, they seem to miss some key points when they pause to mock. This successful graffiti artist with art world links is simply on the money about what the public want to see right now - Banksy has become the validated Jack Vettriano of street art-meets-fine-art. Key figures in the contemporary art establishment have embraced Banksy's work, as he bridges the gap between popular art and in-your-face 90's contemporary art bling. It makes sense that Damien Hirst, a past master of monetizing the art statement piece, was in the Dismaland show. Yet it’s not all about showmanship, as Banksy represents a socially-aware sentiment with Pop Art overtones that is acknowledged by noted artists like Sir Peter Blake. Emerging artists who are currently weeping into their student loan statements could do well to note where public sentiment and art world interests overlap. The verdict of the average man on the Clapham omnibus carries more weight in an art world returning to holding its cap out for private investment.

Cult Cottage Industry 

Jonathan Jones (The Guardian, 2006), arguing against Banky's media-savvy public profile, told us that “Art needs layers of meaning. It needs ambiguity and a bit of mystery.”  That statement makes sense for most artists, providing you’re looking for depth in fine art. If you think that it also still means that buyers still prefer landscapes, Pop Art and abstracts then you’re only partly right. My recent quick survey (I asked the sales assistant), at a local art gallery popular with wedding parties looking for gifts and art to take home, had the response that what most of their customers want to buy right now contains a large element of fantasy or something to make them smile. Thus it makes perfect sense that David Shrigley’s tongue-in-cheek work was also featured at Dismaland.

The current economic crisis has everyone running scared, such that edgy art sells well now if it’s also immediately funny, loaded with irony or comforting in some perverse way.  One of my non-art friends would rather buy prints of blue-sky beach huts and cute cottages than art reminding her of the gritty realities of daily life. Even wealthy art buyers want the reassurance that they’re cared about when they visit the arts or make an investment. It is with those nervous and affluent buyers in mind that two entrepreneurs have launched an exclusive arts club. The Cultivist offers a service to handhold “people who are affluent and realise they need to do something with art”. This service includes fast-track VIP access to everything arts-related, a bargain at just £1,900 a year with no waiting in line with those who have merely obtained middle-income wealth. It’s a marriage of convenience that many arts business development officers must wish they’d thought of it first.

Arts Emergency

At the other end of the spectrum there are artists banding together to create a community conscience and bring back political comment into art, such as Bob and Roberta Smith’s Art Party campaign. Or you could support access to education for young emerging artists via the Arts Emergency mentoring scheme. If you are an artist frustrated with the skewed economics of austerity Britain, then you could also join a public group like the Manchester-based ‘Artists Against Austerity’, a grass-roots artist led collective, who aim to “come together as a community of artists and creatives to stage a series of events/exhibitions … to engage, reconnect and empower communities to join forces and oppose austerity”.  The AAA certainly got their wish when the leading political parties decided to rally their forces in Manchester this October.

The role of protest and representation of the poor is one that some artists have always occupied, one that is easy to sympathise with given the tendency for artists to take on part-time low paid work to support themselves if they spurn more commercial themes in their output. A quick survey of modern art history suggests that artists who highlight the plight of the poor, like Vincent Van Gogh, Gustave Courbet and Käthe Kollwitz, can produce work that gives us beautiful and moving accounts of the human condition. Certainly it is easier to deliver an ugly message when it is presented in an attractive wrapping. Whether these works initiate social change is a separate matter, but they do tend to provoke controversy and that leads to probing conversations on issues, discussions that must be better than just more political whitewash on unwelcome changes in society. If the UK’s recent surge of support for a return to traditional Socialist politics is any indicator of a change of direction, the time of the socially-aware artist may have come round again.

On Being An Emerging Artist

Untitled (Triptych), 2012.

What New Artists Need But Their Art College Rarely Explains

Whatever kind of 'emerging'* artist you are at the moment, you probably went through some long moments wondering how on earth you were going to make a living and still practise your art. If you were lucky enough to jump straight from graduation into the spotlight of a showcase that supports your development, then well done. There are a few showcases that talent-spot and help show your work to galleries interested in new contemporary artists, you may even be spotted by a speculating collector or gallery owner keen to snap up a bargain an early exhibition of your work.

For most new artists, having studied studied Fine Art or painting and drawing at an art college, life after academia encompasses a period where they came out of it realising that, even though their contemporary art sensibilities had been polished to a shine, they were nevertheless ill-equipped for forging a career in the arts. They may not have realised there were showcases graduating students could apply for and they may have subsequently found out too late to meet those deadlines. The new artist may even be told after graduating that their last three (or four) years of degree work have little value and that post-grad work was where it started. Or they may hear from more experienced folk that an artist needs to get an MA to be taken seriously.

If that's what you experienced, this situation probably came as a bit of a shock for those of you that hadn't noted the lessons of art history or missed the confusingly vague slideshow on arts jobs offered by your university careers' advice service. If you made an appointment with a careers service advisor you probably were given the suggestion to get a job in graphic design or the like, or your tutors said you could create your work in the evenings and weekends like they did. They are probably studying for their PhD and you may wonder what that has to do with your art practice, given that it may be a requirement of their teaching position.

If you took your career seriously then you may have already invested in studio space, or started exhibiting your work at local venues. Some of you may have created your own websites, social media, business cards ready for enquiries but, unless you had a rush of visitors from some timely press coverage, you're probably still waiting for enough custom to pay your studio rent.

You should probably learn to pace yourself, as your glory days may take a while in arriving. If you're feeling frustrated by the slow rate of perceivable progress then take heart from Jeremy Deller's assessment of his own progress towards becoming a contemporary art star:

.. becoming an artist took some time. “I had no idea what I was doing basically,” he says about his twenties, when he took an MA in art history at Sussex University
  - Lunch with the FT: Jeremy Deller

What Are Your Options?

So what are the realities for most artists? Art history shows that a lot of well-known artists  have had to start by grafting in jobs that weren't art-related in order to pay the bills. Maybe they went back to live with their parents for a while - Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller hosted his first exhibition at his parents' house. Perhaps they ran workshops or got their post-grad teaching diploma and went back into academia.

Taking a look at the emerging artists I know locally, many have arts-based roles work as technicians or become support staff at galleries and other local arts organizations. They may practise 'portfolio working' (a useful phrase I spotted in my university's careers slideshow), which basically means having several part-time jobs in freelance or permanent roles. You'll find that flexible part-time jobs are in demand amongst artists who want an income whilst still having a bit of time to work on their practice.

Beware the comfort of becoming someone's employee, especially in a full-time role. That's not to say you shouldn't do take a secure job, rather a warning that it can become a trap of sorts once you become dependent on the benefits of your role. One artist warned me off taking up a (temporary) council arts officer role I was applying for, saying that it would distract me from my art work. I put my tender application in anyway, hopeful of a living wage and a way of networking but, even though I felt fairly well-qualified with my prior work experience, it seems that I didn't meet their criteria.

There are lots of unpaid roles about, some disguised as volunteer roles (you're only truly a volunteer if you don't have to work fixed regular hours or aren't a substitute for a paid employee), some roles are boldly advertised as unpaid internships, some work is on offer for artists that (once you've paid the admin fees and for your own travel, etc.) may cost you more than the token fee offered. Prepare yourself by reading Alistair Gentry's 'Career Suicide' blog for advice on how to avoid getting ripped off by fake opportunities, check out the AIR - Paying Artists campaign and the handy a-n Signposts publication.

The Business of Being an Artist

Still you may wonder where your career as an artist fits into these options and rightly so. At some point you have to concede that you, as an artist, are self-employed. Regardless of which shows you do, who supports you, which groups you join, and what else you study, you are the only one driving your practise forward now.

You are a small business and you now need to learn some small business skills.

There are plenty of resources on offer, once you accept the situation. Groups like a-n  and ArtQuest can advise you on best practise, business tips and cheap insurance, HMRC offers free small business courses and so on. You'll need to register yourself as self-employed once you're ready (I felt that I'd wait until I had my first freelance paid role).

I'll admit that I've been slow to take these up as I was initially fighting against being self-employed but knowing the help is out there is reassuring. Bear in mind though that, as a small business, your job as an artist will probably mean up to 70% of your time could be taken up with the machinery of running a business and so only part of your time  will be left for developing your practice.

In Conclusion

The general drift of what I've seen so far is that you do need to have a 'day job' to pay the bills. Ideally you'll also avoid jobs that offer you lots of 'experience' but so little money, unless you really are learning something useful. However it seems that you must be prepared to be self-employed, or at least flexibly employed, embrace a certain amount of risk and possibly give up the day job at some point in order to have the art career you hoped for.


Notes

* Of course there is the whole question of what is an 'emerging' artist anyway and when can it be determined that we have stopped emerging, but that topic probably warrants its own article.



-----

Some Famous Artists and The Jobs They Started In

On that note, here's a reminder that you're not on your own in your winding path for recognition:

• Andy Warhol was a very successful illustrator before he moved into fine art. 1
• Francis Bacon supplemented his early income with interior design.
• Jeremy Deller, who used one of his jobs to design slogan-covered t-shirts as conceptual art, "worked at jobs including postman, driver and shop assistant at Sign of the Times, a Covent Garden clothing shop for which he designed T-shirts featuring lyrics by Philip Larkin" 2
• Jeff Koons worked in sales and finally as a commodities trader in Wall Street before he hit his stride selling flashy art to wealthy patrons.
• Richard Serra's first job was working in the steel mills, to support his studies at Yale. 3
• At different points in his life, Duchamp was the following: professional chess player, self-publisher, painter, volunteer for military service, art dealer, gambler, inventor, librarian, secretary to a French war mission in the second world war. He also dabbled in cleaning and fabric-dying businesses, thought of becoming a professional cameraman and was eager to market self-designed chess sets, optical machines and scientific toys. 4

Many of these artists incorporated the skills they gained in their early jobs into their arts practice, which only seems to have aided them in developing their ideas.

Notes

1. Warhol:early work http://www.warhol.org/collection/art/earlywork/
2  Lunch with the FT: Jeremy Deller www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1e3fbcca-f9c4-11e2-b8ef-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Gmus5iM1
3. Man of Steel http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/oct/05/serra.art
4 Marcel Duhamp: A riotous A-Z of his secret life http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/apr/07/marcel-duchamp-artist-a-z-dictionary