On the bright side ….
I spend a lot of time researching and writing about my work and my practice, especially at the beginning of the year when I am applying for grants, shows and publications. It can be a daunting task as you are pitching your work, ideas and worth as an artist, and what makes that even harder is that you are so close to your work. It is impossible not to be - it is what you eat, drink and breathe, it can drop you to your knees and pick you up. So I’m sure you can imagine that it’s easy to over think everything and underestimate everything at once, and in most cases you are given only an A4 sheet or 500 words to explain what you may be able to write 500 pages about. That is often the tricky part, it’s not like a school paper when you would be relieved if it only had to be a page long essay for an exam. It actually becomes a real trial because you want to explain how great you are, why you deserve a show, an article or few pounds. However then you have to be more critical and objective about what goes in, what goes out and what you emphasise. Then of course once you finish everything you get to worry about “but what if it doesn’t make sense” or “what if I should have included that bit but not the other bit” and of course “what did I forget?”
Something I learned a long time ago is it is ok to ask for help, ask people to read it and ask for brutal honesty, because remember you are always too close to your work. What makes complete and total sense in your mind could sound like absolute art speak insanity to someone else, and honestly it probably is art speak, but it’s best to keep the insanity to a minimum! In my case I am very lucky to have two people who I trust without (well, mostly without) question. My wife Carole who I call my editor in chief who has the amazing ability for proper grammar, sentence structure and technical writing, and my friend John McDougall who is an excellent art critic, writer and is great for sound boarding ideas and concepts.
And at the end of all that, sometimes it pays off, and you know you’ve got your point across. So the main reason for tonight’s rant is I want to give a huge thank you to The Richard and Siobhan Coward Foundation and their trustees for accepting my application for funding this year. It means a lot more film, paper and chemistry to make my ideas a reality. And, ultimately, to share them with all of you.
https://www.cowardphotography.org/