Meaning-before-art is cart-before-horse? Reflection on "Jordan Peterson on art"

I've not come across Peterson before, but someone has pointed out that he's got some views I do NOT agree with. Keeping this here because I find the snippet below interesting, but please do not take it as an endorsement of any of his wider views.

Was pointed to Jordan Peterson by a reflection on another student's blog - but I can't now find it :( I found this interesting extract from "Jordan Peterson on art":

The artist shouldn’t be able exactly to say what he or she is doing. If you can say what you’re doing, you’re not producing art. Art is … well, you can say, art bears the same relation to culture that the dream does to mental stability. Your dream doesn’t say what it’s about, it just is. You can interpret it, and that’s helpful sometimes, just like movie criticism is helpful, but the dream is something that extends you beyond where you already are. That’s why it isn’t verbal thought, it’s something else. It’s like a pseudopod that’s going out into the unknown. That’s what art is. And the artist who subsumes the artistic vision to the ideological framework is putting the cart before the horse. It’s actually a sin, I would say, it’s the ultimate of creative sins to do that, because you’re harnessing the greater to the lesser. It’s like, yeah, you understand things, and you tell a story about what you understand. No, no, you tell a story about what you don’t understand. And then you pull everyone into the story. The story’s an exploration in that way.

Which makes me uncomfortable in a 'good' way because it resonates with my worry that I am maybe making art the 'wrong way around' - instead of producing non-verbal communication, I am actually producing a verbal statement and then 'illustrating it'... I'm shocking myself by saying I think I agree with him in most part, but with strong emphasis on the 'exactly' in 'able exactly to say" - I think the "I don't understand my own art" camp need to make sure they are at least trying to understand it, and at least trying to express something consciously - just producing random shit and expecting other people to see value in it seems VERY indulgent to me... But maybe that's just me! 

I think trying to answer these things for anyone else is, at best, pointless, and at worse, likely to leave you carrying your teeth home in a paper bag... For me then, I do think I need to set out to express something, the 'unknown' is then how that expression happens, and the meaning that gets pulled-in, consciously and sub-consciously along the way. The 'magic' will happen whether you are watching or not. For me, perhaps, Tathos needs to make, Tomgos needs to challenge. 

One thing I need to take away from this and REALLY think about (need to go for a walk!) is the idea of telling a story about something you don't understand. I really really like that (yeah, two 'really's). I wonder if that's part of where my practice is stalling at the moment? I'm trying to tell stories about things I do understand?

Walking is not an alternative to making art

 I've stopped walking, in part because I'm using the time to make art... Rush rush... But I think my art is suffering. Or maybe the art is the same, but I'm suffering more in making it? Either way, I think walking is a critical part of my art practice, not a distraction from it.

Lego

 I love Lego... I love the lego store... I love all the colours, and the shapes, and the possibilities. I wonder if I could use Lego to make some sort of art? There's an online tool - https://www.mecabricks.com/ which lets you design stuff and (presumably) order the bricks. Alternatively, I could experiment with making things in code and creating a 'shopping' list that way... Probably not one for now, but I was after doing some experiments with creating 'eroded' 3d mazes in Blender... Not really relevant to my MA (I think!), so I guess I should leave it (although I'm tempted to JFDI - I'm not a complete servent to being concept led!)

Mask progress - beyond Kiss, but where now?

Avid readers will recall you last left me bemoaning the fact that my mask looked like it was more 'glam rock' than 'gothic horror', let alone respectable fine art... I therefore decided to embrace the process and paint the whole thing gloss black, but then wipe away from the 'highlights' of the 'skull' to let the silver shine through:

Much better again! I think decided to buy some gold and silver paint, and picked out the surface decoration in gold, and added a silver tear:

I also got around to finally adding elastic so I didn't have to hold it the whole time! I added black fabric over the eye holes (fittingly from a project Carolyn was working on a few weeks before she died). I might need to tone down the 'tear' a bit as it's quite distracting. 

Meanwhile I want to make a crown to give better balance and to transform the mask into 'regret', the first of a series of different emotions related to loss. I think the crown should be made from barbed wire, so I've been experimenting with making fake barbed wire from string soaked in PVA:

So far, so good! I've actually started on the crown using garden wire to stiffen everything. I think I might add some dried ivy painted gold as it looks a bit 'bare' at the moment...

Ai Weiwei on AI in art

Interesting read in the Guardian, I've only just got around to reading properly :- "Take in a sunset, a snowstorm or a baby’s cry, and see why AI is no threat to art" by Ai Weiwei. The central premise seems to be one I agree with:

Art grapples with issues transcending rationality. Consequently, the advent of AI does not present a challenge to art itself; instead, it challenges the traditional understanding of how humans acquire artistic skills, which posits that art must be cultivated through training to master techniques. Such techniques typically demand an artist’s lifelong exploration and dedication, while the driving force behind this exploration is rooted in artists’ perennial sense of discontent and an unending aspiration for perfection in their craft.

Essentially AI is undermining the 'technique' of art, but not the 'point' of art. Put another way, art is not about pretty pictures, it's about a communication of being human. The discomfort comes from the way AI 'cheats' all the years of effort needed to create such work technically, plus that it steals from the work of artists who DID have to do that work. For me though, the fact remains - the best way to 'beat' AI is to use it as an artist and demonstrate what art is ACTUALLY about.

Another great quote on modern life in general:

Less effort does not lead to greater fulfilment, and the liberation of artistic acts from attainable effort cannot alter the reality of spiritual enslavement.

In this complex landscape, art once again assumes the role of a guardian – safeguarding the inexpressible dignity of life, resisting mental enslavement, dissolving tyranny and countering ideological purges. If freedom exists, it must emanate from resistance.

Maybe put another way: if you think AI makes it 'easy' to create art, you don't understand what it means to create art.

Call for contributors for my interim show entry at Central St Martins in March

 For my entry into the MA Fine Art Interim Show at Central St Martins, I've made a set of 8 postcards, with messages relating to mental health, which I plan to give away at the show. 

However, I'd also like to incorporate a set of contributions from other people, sharing (anonymously) some 'secret' or message about their mental health on one of the five postcards with 'blanks'. To do this, I'm looking for volunteers to fill in a postcard of their choice, and send me a photo of their hand, holding the completed postcard. I will print a set of the photos to exhibit during the show, but I will not share the identities of the contributors directly (only your handwriting, your completed postcard, and your hand will be visible).

If you want to take part (or you think you might want to), please complete the following form, and I will mail you a set of eight cards.

https://forms.gle/nondmo7n9KZWoCRM9

Thank you!

Update: Added 'entry' to the title to make it clear it's not MY interim show! :)

Why I put my face in my art (I think!)

 I'm been sort of troubled on some level about the fact that my face keeps popping up in my art. Contra to all my assertions, I couldn't actually explain this aspect of my art. However, I think I have cracked it - I was thinking about how I can't/shouldn't produce art that suggests a 'correct' way to grieve. And, of course, that's the answer, I think, I can only show MY grief in my art - I can't show anyone else's.

It has a neat implication - it makes it clearer when I start to move towards more participatory art - I need to find forms of art that allow people to express THEIR grief/emotions/etc, not somehow incorporate them into my own. I think the postcards do that well - I create the 'canvas', other's add the punch, the masks might be more problematic.

Why was I pissed off?! Value, process, and whether something is 'art'

 Cool exercise today - the original six MA Fine Art Digital students came back to do a guest lecture - it was really interesting to meet them, and to hear about their practice. We did an interesting exercise where we using 'found' objects in the room around us to make art. I was initially bewildered as it's so far from my practice, but then started to look around, and my brain started to work. I made a couple of things:

Of the three, the first was my favourite, assembled from my daughter's (clean) washing. Someone said they liked it, and, rather than being pleased, I felt strangely pissed off! Not pissed off with them, but pissed off with art... I spent a lot of the evening wondering why, and came to the conclusion that I was pissed off because it was too 'easy' to be 'art' :-/ I think it comes back to a few conflicts I am grappling with:

• If something is 'easy' does it have value? It's the (stupid) stereotype of the genius artist walking into the gallery and stubbing their cigerette out against the wall, and suddenly it's 'art'
• If art I make 'easily' is 'good', why do I bother spending so long making art that is 'hard'? Why do my 'easiest' pieces often turn out to be the most successful? Do I get in my own way?
• Someone pointed out that the end 'art' is the culmination of a lot of thinking that happens up to then
• I was angry because my 'piece' had no meaning - it was grabbed from things to hand - but that's actually completely untrue - I thought a lot (relatively speaking) about how it related to grief, how it could show a child's grief in an approachable way etc
• Having more time would allow more meaning to permeate the work - I often start off with a good idea, but as time goes on, it matures and gets better - the act of making the work over an extended time helps me to reflect and ponder and connect

So why was I pissed off? Maybe I was pissed off with myself for making something that proved my beliefs about art to be wrong? For making something that made me into the thing I reject?

Dunno

International Manly Crying World Championships

 Bit of fun to celebrate finishing my study statement. It only took one evening:

Exploring using humour and pastiche to make a serious point in an accessible way. Direct feedback was good in that it hit it's mark, and people got the serious point but liked the humour - someone liked the Big-Boi tissues, and someone liked the presence of a beer tent ;)

I used my 'weapons of choice' for quick and dirty stuff - Google Slides for layout, Dream Studio to create images, and GIMP to adjust them. Like anything I do with AI, there's a bunch of images composited together - four in this case - one for each head, one for the trophy, and one for the globe. The trophy came out with writing on, which is asemic, but which is hard to see. I was pleasantly surprised that the globe came out with realistic landmasses on it, but I ended up placing it in such a way you can't see them anyhow - the original plan was to put it (rather cheekily) behind the trophy like a halo, but it proved to hard to make that work with the other elements, so I went for a more conventional placement.

I was unsure if it would come over 'right' - it's broadly meant to satirise the way we make a big deal out of men crying, and how, when they do, they have to do so in a clean, noble, and socially acceptable way (women do too). Could it be seen as being 'anti' male crying? Worse, could it be seen as belittling men who cry? I tested it with a couple of people who assured me it was ok. I also posted it on Insta saying I was "thinking of entering" which hopefully made it clear that I have no issue with crying (quite the opposite) and therefore sign-posting the intended interpretation.

Thomas J Price on changing minds through art

Good read in the Guardian this morning - "Black British artists can no longer be ignored, says sculptor Thomas J Price". I wish I shared his belief in change, scepticism is the disease of my generation, but I seem to have it worse when it comes to believing in change? So many things feel like they should change, but self-interest, power, and the tragedy of the commons keeps it from doing so... Carolyn wouldn't be impressed, she believed in people and in change. And history shows things can change, although history also shows they rarely do so because ordinary people want them to... ANYWAY...

I thought this quote was worth pulling out:

“In art, if you can get people thinking, they’re then inclined to ask questions. I hope they bring that into their daily lives, so when they’re told something or a lazy trope is used they now question it”.

I hope that's true.

Unit 1

 Learning Outcome 1:

Formulate, describe and implement a challenging and self-directed programme of study, relating to your Study Statement.
(Assessment Criteria: Enquiry)

I have created a programme of self-study to investigate how art can be used to challenge social taboos around death and mental health, as documented in my study statement. I have already begun work on reading the books I have identified as relevant, and creating relevant artworks e.g:

• Mental Health Postcards for the interim show, which explores participatory art

• Rivers of Silver which builds on earlier use of my face in my art, but also starts to explore physical artworks as well as digital ones

• A month in my head which explores creating a piece as a series over an extended period with elements of performance art

I have also managed to get my work exhibited twice at the Bill of Health exhibition and the WYF exhibition (in pursuit of my objective of building an audience).

Learning Outcome 2:

Implement appropriate working methods for building an independent and effective self-organisation that enables the critical engagement with practice-based research.
(Assessment Criteria: Process)

I have attempted to document my practice and how it feeds my art - I feel my practice is supported by developing three skills 1) the ability to notice things, research them, and uncover the connections between them 2) the ability to create art pieces with a wide range of tools and 3) the reflective skills to curate and refine the art I create

Some examples of these skills in action:

• Noticing things from my own life

• Noticing things from another student’s (awesome) work

• Noticing things in books I read - this example led ultimately to the idea of creating a book as the output of my MA

• Daydreaming led to funny connection, an experiment with humour, and a fun fake book.

• I am expanding the range of tools I have to make art to include new digital tools (e.g. 3d scanning, AI), as well as physical skills like papier mache and casting.

• Reflecting on the idea of art as a non-physical thing, and exploring different ways that could manifest in my own word, others work, and the world in general

I also have some examples of reflecting on finished works and how I could improve them, but that feels like something I need to work on… How do I reflect on how successful a piece of art was when I don’t really get any feedback? How could I get feedback? What feedback do I need? Huh…

Learning Outcome 3:

Communicate a critical understanding of your developing practice.
(Assessment Criteria: Knowledge, Communication)

• I am quite ‘young’ in my practice, and so it is developing quickly and occasionally chaotically.

• I am creating a very diverse range of ‘stuff’ from fake books, to digital prints, to masks… 

• I am making art with a diverse range of styles from quite ‘formal’, to pastiche, to photo manipulation. I am now attracted to other forms of visual art like performance, and participatory art. 

• I was worried by this at first, but I think it’s a feature, not a bug (as we’d say in my old job) - given a lot of my art is ‘concept led’, I think it’s natural to experiment and abuse different mechanisms for making that art real.

• I am evolving my understanding of what ‘art’ is for me, and moving away from the idea of art as ‘things’ and towards the idea of art as the action/event/experience e.g. from early awareness of performance art, to my more formed thoughts on Aura, Spectacle and conceptual art

• I am also exploring meaning in art, which I find fascinating and unsettling - meaning is very important to me, but I am attracted by the obscure, but I am also frustrated by the seeming lack of meaning in some artworks e.g. Early musing, to context and calling things out as meaningful, and now Pope.L and the limitations of meaning

I am exploring the way conflicting emotions can be used to help people digest and process difficult messages e.g. humour with horror, sadness with creepiness. E.g. humour in the work of Pope.L, layers of meaning in art, and the virtues of populist art  

Meaning, intention, and expression in art... Reflections from group tutorial

 JK got us doing into threes to do a "group tutorial" - essentially a group coaching session, where you take it in turns to present a problem and have the other two people ask open-ended questions.

I was lucky enough to be in a group with Ben and Bethany! I presented (perhaps foolishly) on my current conundrum of meaning and intention in art. Broadly:

• I asserted that art requires intention, and that the artist needs to make meaning and intention clear, or at least encode it knowingly in their work
• I pushed against process art and somewhat against abstract art as needing to meet a high bar not to be happy accidents
• I conceded that meaning is in the eye of the beholder

It was a bit of a daze, so I can't remember exactly who said what, but some of my 'take away' question/statements were:

• Meaning and intention are slippery ideas! Intention is a lower bar than meaning... Meaning could imply a message, whereas intention just implies the urge to communicate something
• But what does 'meaning' mean anyhow? I think I just mean that there's something to consider beyond the object itself - that it is a proxy for something greater (huh!) - in the language of my previous post, it is a proxy for an intangible thing that is the art
• Nature makes amazing art, so why do people have to have intention but nature doesn't? Actually, maybe the need for intention is related to saying something is 'art' - that implies intention and meaning - this is exactly why nature does NOT make art, nature makes stuff, people interpret it and add meaning, and make it INTO art. The same argument could be made of ready-mades
• Art is therefore (for me) a social construct and a social contract - it's the art of noticing and pointing things out to others to notice - by asserting something as art, I think we are saying there's layers of meaning to be gained
• All forms of recording involve choices and so are subjective and expressive - you can't NOT make art when you share something - the things you decide NOT to do are a reflection of your subjective experience/values and encode some meaning into the output
• Bethany expressed the opinion that she wants to make art that is bigger than her own subjective experience - I think that's a noble goal - good art expresses something for the artist, great art expresses something for humanity
• Art is non-verbal expression, so is my being 'concept-driven' actually a short-coming - am I actually creating VERBAL ideas and then turning them into non-verbal idea RETROSPECTIVELY? What am I loosing as a result? Wouldn't a non-verbal medium have non-verbal mechanisms for encoding meaning?

I think I come again to the point of art is NOT objects, art is an intangible thing to be communicated, the objects are the medium for that 'message' - when I write a love poem, the art is the feeling of love, the poem is just a bunch of sounds that carry that art. Nature doesn't make art, because nature doesn't have the intention to convey a message. Craft is not art, nor is technique, because they are (in my opinion) physical acts, not acts of communication.

I  woke up thinking this not so sure now how useful it is - personal experience to human experience, passive to immersive:

I'm not sure what this means, nor how useful it is, but crudely I think I want to push my art up and to the right ;) I think the bottom right quadrant is a bad place of self-indulgence. 

Mask progress - trouble at mill

 Lots of progress on the mask to catch-up on. First I painted it black:

And that went pretty well... So I rushed (yeah, I rushed) on to add the silver leaf:

And that didn't go great - lots of patches and holes :( It looked good in the places where the leaf had stuck properly... So I decided to go ahead and distress it:

Which should have been great, but actually made it a bit... colourful... and didn't really disguise the holes. Getting a bit panicky (but trying to remember it's an experiment), I added tears in black...

Oh dear... For some reason all I can see now is:

And the like... So I toyed with added barbed wire like a crown, or using sculpting mesh to add a veil, or adding oak leafs as a crown... Anything to go less gram rock, more gothic horror.... But after a lot of angst I realised I am in a blind avenue... So I bought some gloss black paint, and I'll paint over it and try again!

Tutorial 2 with Jonathan 5 Feb 2024

 Awesome tutorial with JK today. We talked about a lot of stuff very quickly but broadly I think we covered:

• My study statement: JK had just read it, which was cool. He was interested in my decision to write it as two people. I said I thought I was perhaps outgrowing that already, which he said was funny because he thought I would eventually but not so soon! He talked about how restrictions in art can be powerful ways to get started, but can then be discarded once they have 'launched' you. I agreed and said I had done it for fun, and because I was conflicted about which statement to do, but that actually now it felt like the statement no longer needed it. I talked also about my interest in potential selves, Carl Rogers, and my interest in the idea of the selves you could have been if death hadn't intervened.
• Physical art and aura: JK was amused to see me making physical art, and I said I was appalled and didn't know what had come over me ;) I talked about aura, and how I rejected still the idea that the process was 'magic' but admitted that making things lends them a quality and character that they wouldn't otherwise have. I confessed I was probably on a journey to accept the power of the process to imbue things with meaning that the artist doesn't fully realise they are adding. I said that for me, the flaws and oddities introduced by process, was like scars on the body - they add character and history, but are not art or meaningful in themselves. JK pointed out that by physically making something with my hands, I am making something unique to me, that nobody else could make, that literally and figuratively has my finger prints all over it. I like that a lot, and I had to admit that perhaps there's more to this whole process thing than I care to admit. I talked about my conversations with Chelsea, who makes amazing art, but denies the idea that it has intent, and I said I thought perhaps she and I were arriving at similar places from diametrically opposite directions!
• Meaning in art: The discussion on aura naturally evolved into a discussion on meaning. I riled against the idea of making art that looks like it carries meaning, but does not. I said that I felt art had to have deliberate meaning to be art. JK found me a quote by Richard L. Anderson, an American anthropologist who wrote in Calliope’s Sisters that "Art is culturally significant meaning, skillfully encoded in an affecting, sensuous medium.” I said I really liked this meaning, and JK said it was interesting and valuable, but that non-practitioners often create these meanings and that it's almost the job of artists to both reinforce but also simultaneously refute these meanings. I riled about art vs art therapy, and in indulgence of making things that are only mean something to the artist and that naming something as art was a social contract - JK smiled indulgently, and my words did sound a little hollow to me, but I do think there's something buried there... He also shared a quote that art "harbours the same turbulent storm of potential meaning", the attribution of which I missed, but which appears to be part of a quote " If something is a practical object, it rarely harbours the same turbulent storm of potential meaning that distinguishes any worthwhile work of art." by Jonathan Jones. I said I had explored some of this thinking about pope.l's words on the limitations of meaning - art is not a puzzle, and needs to leave space for interpretation. I persisted that meaning had to be intended and that if I 'thew a pot of paint out of a window and someone found it meaningful, then...' at which point I laughed because I realised the retort would be "but there's meaning in the act of throwing it"... I need to think more deeply about this, and JK agreed the thinking and questing was good.
• Art books: Somehow we talked about art books, and my desire to write one as my final output. JK shared that the Saturday of the low residency would be about art books, and so I think I need to really try and get to that...

All in all, I talked a LOT, but JK seemed to think I was on the right track, which is encouraging. Talking to JK 1:1 is always really encouraging for me :)

Update: Reflected on this, I was reminded of something Harry said - that artists have a responsibility to curate and interpret their work before sharing it, and I like that more and more - you can't control what people will think or how they will interpret your work, but you do have a responsibility to try and ensure it means something to you before stepping back and allowing the viewer to make their own interpretation

WhatsApp thoughts on Flyers

[22:12, 03/02/2024] Tom: Interesting - I do like the postcard format!
[22:12, 03/02/2024] Tom: I was thinking a flyer - I also love flyers... So weird, I had no idea I would make art like this
[22:12, 03/02/2024] Tom: There's something sort of honestly naff about a flyer
[22:13, 03/02/2024] Tom: Or naffly honest perhaps
[22:13, 03/02/2024] Tom: I guess because they are little pleas, designed in the knowledge that most of them will end up as litter
[22:14, 03/02/2024] Tom: Like a votive offering
[22:14, 03/02/2024] Tom: Huh

Sanding and Surface Decoration on my mask

 Spend a bunch of this morning sanding and sanding... The wood filler did a GREAT job of being sandable, but the sandpaper hated it... I think I need to get something that can cope with curved surfaces e.g. a sanding cloth. The surface is still a bit uneven, and if I was a better person, I'd fill it and sand it again, but alas I am not that good of a person...

Having filled my lungs with dust (to compound the cheese wax already inhaled), I set about experimenting with surface decoration. I thought of using string, but I thought it would be hard to do the branching design, plus I thought it would be too think and too textured, so I tried extruding wood filler and also PVC through a small syringe. I convinced myself to try the wood filler on the mask itself, but it looked terrible - blobby and smeary and gappy... All the 'y's... So I ended up scraping it all off (which was so easy that I suspect it would have fallen off anyhow) and going back to string. 

I cut it into two matching sets of lengths of parcel string and heavily smeared each length in PVA. I then applied it to the mask, and it worked really well! Firstly it was very easy to position and adjust, and by pressing it down I was able to make it flatter, and by carefully abutting lengths and giving some tender loving care to the joints, I was able to make it look almost like one branching piece!

Pretty crappy photo, but you get the idea... Again if I was a better person I would probably re-do the design slightly - I like the idea of putting it in the hollows of the skull so it catches the darker washes, but the straight-down main stem looks a bit naff, it should really have curved and branched... Hey ho.

Next up I was going to paint it a base coat of black to make the silver leaf pop, but discovered I have no black paint, so I ordered some from the evil empire - they have made good money from me for this project! My silver leaf arrived today - gave it a quick go - looks lovely and works as expected! Annoyed about the enforced hiatus while I wait for paint, but probably good for me to have a break - getting very obsessive.

Art Process Map/Reflection v1(!)

Often I find a good way to think is through documentation - typically writing. It can seem a bit dry, but I find it forces me to organise my ideas and helps me capture my reflections. I've been reflecting a lot on my 'process' so I thought I'd try to 'document' that. 

Click on the image if you want to be able to read it! Obviously it's not as neat in real-life as the diagram makes it look, but I'd say these are the major steps I go through. This is the 'shape' of how I engage with ideas and turn them into art - it's not a production line (alas?)

To expand on each:

• Inspiration: Some initial idea that I 'notice'. That might be an idea that floats into my brain and I think 'huh', or it might be a physical thing I notice, and notice my noticing... Following some very early advice from JK, I've been paying a lot of attention to noticing, and it's really helpful. One of the things I've really noticed since I started making art, and since I started the course especially, is that I'm constantly thinking and looking and noticing and wondering...
• Motivation: I notice a lot of stuff, some of which I forget again almost as quickly... Some of which I can't stop thinking about, but only idly, and some of which makes me go "YES! I really want to do that!". If I'm not really excited (dare I say 'compelled') to do something, it goes into the backlog (a bunch of emails in my alter-ego's inbox) to mature. Sometimes these ideas pop back up, often they slowly sink deeper and deeper... It's amazing how something that seemed like a great idea on Monday can seem boring or trite by Wednesday!
• Creation: This is where the rubber hits the road (as they say in certain types of corporate circle). Within this area, there are three types of activity - 1) planning and researching 2) experimentation either directly or using separate 'doodles' and 3) active making of stuff
• Reflection: Sooner of later, I either run out of time that day, or need to do some more focused research, or occasionally run out of energy. I use this to think about how it's going, notice flaws, think of new connections etc
• Final Reflection: Eventually I think I am 'done' with a piece [how do I know?] and I'll then typically let it sit for a couple of days to give me some distance from it. I'll then decide if I am really done. If I am not, I'll go back to doing more cycles of creating and reflecting. If I am, I'll move to 'close' the piece
• Closure: For me to feel like a piece is finished, I go through a 'ritual' - I'll post it somewhere (usually instagram) and then I'll move the files to the 'finished' folder and also back them up to Google Drive
• Revisit: Occasionally I'll consider a piece to be 'done' but then decide I want to do something more with it. Occasionally this will be to further refine it, but most often it will be to create some sort of new work derived from it e.g. by incorporating AI, or reusing some elements in a new way
• Backlog: As mentioned, this is where potentially good, but not very exciting ideas go to mature... Typically they will end-up being remixed with something new which suddenly makes them more exciting! Most of these ideas are just emails in my alter-ego's inbox (I mail him/me when i have an idea) but some are half-finished on my inbox

I am very motivated by ideas, but not always so motivated by finishing things ;) I try to have a rule that I don't start a new idea until I have finished some of the old ones... But I've started to let that slip - because 1) I'm getting more confident that good ideas have enduring appeal to me and 2) I'm doing more physical stuff that take TIME and it's fun to be adding layers to a mask while I'm waiting for more cheese wax, and making 3d renders while I'm waiting for the mask to dry etc

Further progress on mask - on newspaper, wood filler that smells like cat wee, and the joy of making physical things

 Made a bunch of progress on my mask today - getting a bit obsessed I think :-/ In the old days, Mrs G would be there to remind me that I have other jobs to do, but without her I need to exercise more self-control :-(

Gave the whole puppy a very gentle sand, and then applied a layer of newspaper soaked in diluted PVA glue, which took several hours :( However, the finish is looking good, and I love the patchwork effect - I picked the travel section of the Guardian, donated by a relative, because I thought it would have nicer colours!

Once again I had to shove it in the oven as it was seriously wet :-/ I think the sculpting mesh has saved my butt - without it I think the whole thing would have collapsed :(

Once it was dry, I applied a layer of wood filler which smelt like cat wee (in my daughter's opinion) but which was very nice to smear on... Once that's dry tomorrow I'll sand it back down and apply a layer of some sort of paint ready for the silver foil when it turns up...

I'd forgotten how much I like making things with my hands, and how nice it is to have something you can pick up and weigh in your hands and say "I made that!"