MOMENTUM
A few months ago my friend Liz Copland invited me to participate in a group show opening at Shift Gallery in February 2024. Liz is a ceramicist, and her latest work explores themes of memory and caregiving. She’s invited artist Genny Costin as well, so the three of us have been meeting every couple of weeks to prep for the show and talk about our work in progress. These informal get togethers help move us out of the “creating in a vacuum” space we so often inhabit.
The three of us have family and work commitments that almost always take precedence over making art. We’re trying to fit in all the things: working, parenting, adulting, caregiving, administering, living, being.
It takes a concerted effort to make space and time for creating new work, and also for the critique that’s necessary in order to push the work forward. We’re working on a title for the show, and a short description, and a plan for installation. And I still need to create a coherent body of work. How will this all happen? It often feels impossible because… there are only so many hours in the day. Lightning bolts of inspiration are few and far between.
But when Liz texted me the other day to ask for an image to use for our promo materials, I had something ready. It didn’t seem possible because most of my art-making time is spent trying to figure out what I’m actually doing. And yet…I have been doing something. I’ve been creating different grounds on surfaces to describe landscape. Maybe it’s a type of groundskeeping…tending, weeding, and trimming areas for aesthetic purposes?
Groundskeeping II, acrylic on panel, 8” x 16”, 2024.
With these groundskeeping pieces in progress, I’ll keep working on multiples and rotating through differently-formatted surfaces. I’m not 100% sure how this will end up, but I’ll take the momentum I’ve built so far and use it to carry the work forward - or sideways, or whatever way it’s going to go.
The show (titled Keepsakes) opens on Feb 1. Stay tuned for more details - I’ll link to the show info as soon as it’s up on the gallery site.
