20th May 2013
Personal Practice Plan
Professional Context
MA Fine Art
Open College of the Arts
Eleanor MacFarlane
November 2011
2000 words
Reviewed May 2013
Tutorial with Caroline Wright 20th May 2013
My overall personal practice plan over the next few years is mainly attitudinal. It is about a philosophy and strategy of continuing to seek out and build up qualifications and experience, and allowing my artistic ambition to propel my confidence towards making a body of work, a reputation and a living.
Since starting the MA, I have worked through some other professional qualifications:
• Manual Notetaker Training City Lit
• Maths Champion Facilitating functional numeracy skills
• Peer Mentoring Skills OCN Level 2
• Arts Award Adviser Bronze & Silver
• Facilitating Adult Financial Capability OCN Level 3
• Customer Service NCFE Level 2
• Mentoring Training Koestler Arts Trust
• IT User Skills CLAiT Plus OCR Level 2
• Business and Administration NCFE Level 2
Quite a lot, and mostly free, all towards improving my CV, and making it more likely to get the teaching jobs, etc, when they do turn up. I also have more practical experience through the Koestler trust, now as an Arts Mentor, and with the Cubitt Gallery, as part of their drawing collective, devising and delivering drawing workshops. With these and other things I see I have become a lot more involved with various aspects of the artworld, and equipped myself for future developments. However, most of what I do is unpaid or very low paid, and that stress is burdensome.
Talked with Caroline about freelancers having to hit the ground running, training yourself in continual Professional Development, and showing you can do the job without additional training. For teaching, she advised the PGCE qualification may be essential, even for the kind of associate lecturer teaching I am aiming to do. I have been trying to avoid that, and the investment in time and expense in an area that doesn’t really interest me, but I can see the point that it could be looked on more favourably in applications. It can be done as an art and design speciality. I’m not keen – I have friends who did PGCEs and found the work onerous. Still, I will think about it in due course. I was hoping to build up teaching qualifications by the PTLLS, CTLLS and DTTLS route, and I would still do the next CTLLS if I had the teaching hours.
It’s good to look back and see how much more practical experience I have to back up those qualifications – theViewergallery covers a lot of that. I have a lot of examples with evidence to put on application forms.
Like most artists, I multi task. I have various career strands which for me add up to my practice. Not all activities are equal at all times, and achieving equilibrium is fleeting. However, progressing in different areas is the moving goal, and some objective measurable goals can exist as well as more abstract and subjective aims. I aim to continue in several parallel occupations, and have divided my practice into different areas, all of which I am active in, or plan to increase or establish activity. All of these require continual development, and crucially, all of them for me are essential and interlinked, and here in no particular order:
Reviewing/Assessing
Fiction Writing
Gallery Projects
Teaching
Moving Image/Artwork
Selling Work
Reviewing/Assessing
My current role with the Arts Council as Artistic Assessor in Visual Arts is finite, and last year the publication for which I review books nearly collapsed. These circumstances remind me of the precariousness of such employment, and the need to secure more appointments. This is partly a question of confidence, or making multiple submissions and approaches to magazines and newspapers, and not ceasing until I have found sustainable reviewing opportunities. I have put off proactivity in this area recently, but will pursue this throughout the New Year. I realise that I have built up considerable experience and credibility in this area over the years, having reviewed hundreds of books in cultural areas, from art to music and photography, and more recently poetry.
There are many publications which review books and exhibitions, and I have listed and identified the appropriate contacts – a list which needs continual updating. I do not wish to make use of the multitude of unpaid blogging and social media reviewing, although I may reconsider putting some on selected sites – perhaps Reviews Unedited on the Artists Newsletter site:
http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews
or the members reviews on the Art Review site:
http://artreview.com/reviews/
I think there is a danger of spreading one’s words thin, and devaluing them by giving them away. If I can convince myself of the value of reviewing on such sites, and how I could use that to develop further paid reviewing, then I may proceed. Otherwise, it seems a little backwards for me, when I should be thinking more ambitiously and professionally.
Sometimes I doubt my ability for quick recall and access to facts in reviewing – specific names of other artists, dates and movements to refer to, but the reviewing I have done specialises in referring to itself – in analysing the actual exhibition or book rather than what else it may reference. I personally also find the other type of review – the academic and knowledgeable, often off-putting and too expert. Perhaps this is a positive – my Unique Selling Point as a reviewer, that it is experiential and considered, but not written exclusively for experts.
Visiting and assessing exhibitions for the Arts Council has been a highlight of this year for me, giving me diverse experiences and perspectives on the gallery experience. Perhaps I see now that my next task is to define my role as reviewer, to summarise that, so that I can easily communicate what viewpoint I bring to reviewing work.
In a few years time, my plan is that I will have built up and established more reviewing roles, writing about books, exhibitions and other cultural events.
I have done a lot more reviewing, and have been able to branch out as well as books and exhibitions, into film, theatre and other things. I have also put several review on the AN site. I really enjoy reviewing and all the events I get to see and think about, but again, most is not paid, and in fact costs me in tube fares. I have built up a great reviewing portfolio and practice, which has led me to a new review site being set up, The Alternative Art Review, TAAR, for which I have already been paid for reviewing.
Getting paid to review and building up my reviewing portfolio is progress, and in time I would aim to have more freelance reviewing positions in publications.
Fiction Writing
Writing fiction, and especially now novels, is integral to exploring and expressing my ideas. It takes a good year of commitment to write a novel, and more to edit and process it. It has been unfeasible to write one while starting the MA and other commitments, but things change, and I may prioritise writing at some point over the next couple of years.
As to getting published, I have many finished and nearly finished projects, some of which I have previously submitted to agents and publishers. I have gained some idea of how the world of publishing works, and in some ways, am still waiting for my lucky break. I have gained some useful feedback and developing relationships, and at least know how to submit work properly. I occasionally attend events for aspiring novelists, and also writers’ talks. When it comes to it, there is no substitute in this area for getting on with it, applying rigorous self editing, and consistent proactivity.
I have a friend who has a long established book group of nearly 25 years, and who has offered to read with her group my most recent novel of 2010, Einstein Symphony No 1. That is arranged for the New Year, and is a great opportunity to gain considered critique.
It’s important for me to write, and develop my ideas which link with my art practice – notions of time as it is experienced, the legacy of having lived, ideas about music and movies. I have plans swirling around for my next novel which concerns the reality of fictional characters. Although I may plan over the next few years to write another novel, and to get one published and distributed, what is really within my power to enact is the will power to write, to get involved and commit to the thinking process and what it takes to list and send out. That at least I will do.
Nothing much here, except an involvement with a publishing venture for dyslexic writers. It’s just emails so far, and no, they’re not going to publish my novels, but there may be workshops and other writers to meet.
Not fiction, but other writing work – it may be unlikely and ironic for a dyslexic person, but I have recently spent a weekend training in notetaking with a view to working as a manual Notetaker for disabled students – there is a further qualification to take. I’m quite drawn to it, and have found I am capable. It’s not the best paid job in the world, but is interesting, flexible and suitable.
I recently went to a workshop of the Dyslexia writers publishers. It was…okay, and still a useful connection – but at this stage they seem more interested in writers writing about the experience of being dyslexic, a subject which doesn’t really interest me much. A back burner.
Gallery Projects
I have given myself recently a platform for development, spurred on by the MA, in the Breaking Boundaries task. Through theViewergallery, I plan to create many different projects. I feel it gives me license to set up, to experiment, to sell, to approach. I can link to other organisations and events, involve other artists, and create all sorts of contexts around my own work.
http://theviewergallery.blogspot.co.uk/
I am thinking through projects I’d like to do with theViewergallery – as well as similar and repeating events like those initiated at the launch, it is an ideal imaginary space to try out more conceptual ideas, to make use of free space, office space, any resources that may be had. It is not my intention to overload myself with commitments and debt, since even negotiated space requires some financing, but I feel somehow liberated to set up and try out art and exhibitions I would like to see happen. In time I would like theViewergallery to have a more concrete basis, to pay for itself and to have a studio/premises/storage space, but this is not its current priority.
I have had about four theViewergallery / theLongLine events, and have built up items and ideas. I aim to arrange one or two events a year. I have applied for a couple of things with it – venues, and so on, but have not quite been successful yet. I’ll keep going, and hope for some more invites to show, and ways of setting up that don’t take too much time and resources.
Talked about not being that successful as yet this year with my applications for exhibitions, etc. I have applied for a couple of hosting projects for theViewergallery. Caroline suggested I ask people to read through my proposals for clarity and to reveal assumptions, etc. Good idea. I know my proposal writing is much better than it used to be, but I am always learning more about what is needed. It’s a difficult balance of hedging bets by giving a broad proposal which aims to cover all bases, and delivering an exciting summary idea that grabs their imagination. Often I find that my work is not a great fit for the proposal, but I try to make it so – often the call for work is quite narrow.
I need to get some exhibitions on my CV for 2013, and so if nothing turns up, I will certainly be initiating something – perhaps theViewergallery. It would be great to get some help / hosting / funding for that, because even though I have built up both concepts and equipment for theViewergallery, low budget still takes resources of time and money. I aim to have theViewergallery do something at least once or twice a year. I have been able to add theLongLine onto other things, thus making them theViewergallery events, but also look forward to organizing another moving image screening.
Caroline is right that there may be new areas of opportunities for me now that I am working more in sound – sound, structure, composition. I need to assess what is appropriate for the new work – also the longer moving image pieces, which is what I seem to be producing and planning.
Caroline also mentioned about another postcard MA project – well, I can only agree with that, and have talked to Sarah. This is the next thing for the MA students to organise. We will make it so. Reminder of Angela’s suggestion to publish in the Art Newspaper – ideas of online, but especially a physical show.
Teaching
One of my main reasons for studying for an MA was to make myself more qualified to teach, in a very qualified and shrinking market. I have proactively gained various experience and qualifications in teaching in recent years, and still add to that and continually apply for the kind of jobs I would like. My CV has become more specific and credible, and so I hope it is only a matter of time before I gain the right job. Whenever I see vacancies for Associate Lecturers in Fine Art somewhere in England that I could travel to and from within a working day, I apply.
I have had plans to devise and organise classes, which I occasionally revise and add to. Throughout next year, if I do not gain appropriate employment, I will volunteer for more relevant experience, and work on setting up my own classes.
There are two places who have indicated they might ask me to do an artist talk next year – Newcastle University and Oxford Brookes University. I may be able to combine these with some tutorials for students, which again adds up to credible experience.
Nothing more here, except qualifications and experience that add up towards my teaching CV. I still think an ideal job for me would be an associate lecturer in Fine Art colleges. The MA will help in that!
Moving Image and Artwork
I am surprised at how I have moved away slightly from making work this year, but it feels like a natural pause and preparation for much more work. Preparation for an exhibition in the New Year has dominated – Vessels, with a delayed deadline it spread out for longer, but I feel, benefited from even more consideration and deciding of details.
http://eleanormacfarlane.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/vessels-secret-portraits-visual.html
I have not felt a great deal of artistic satisfaction in the visual work I produced for the MA, but feel it has been really valuable, and added to my stable of ideas to develop, especially the use of layers of empty frames. There is much to explore there in projected and subtle images and Moving Image.
It has been an artistically active year, but over the next few years I hope to be more productive in Moving Image terms, to make work for its own sake, and to continue to develop my own style and ideas in Moving Image. I have an aim in my life and my practice to create a body of work which manifests my vision and ideas. This whole idea propels me and connects all my activities and aspirations together.
Approaching galleries, working with curators and organizations, submitting proposals and gaining funding all still seem to be rather more a question of luck than decision, but are things I continually try to learn about and participate in. More reliable is what I actually make sure to do myself.
I am happy artistically with the work I am making and planning in the MA, now that projects are more self directed and larger. I see how to connect what I have learned with my previous work, and feel it deepens the whole body.
Selling Work
I have not concentrated on this aspect for some time. I have produced work which has, if not been unsellable, has at least been unsellable by me, despite aspirations otherwise. Plans and ideas are one thing – actually producing works and multiples to sell, and creating the arena and market for them is what I am now ready for.
I have previously made and sold arty and creative items, and heartily wanted to avoid some of the pitfalls of that – selling sale or return, having leftover stock, not really knowing how to price and basically not really being equal in business. Now, courses and experiences later, I am ready to relaunch selling products. Thank goodness for the internet and the practice I have had selling excess review books and items for my son on eBay and Amazon. I used to feel that everything must be anticipated and thoroughly thought through, and while it is efficient to prepare for eventualities, and to start off well, it can be immobilising to activity and experimentation.
I have always enjoyed making things. Often my artwork becomes contraptions, or objects, or art inventions. I delight in coming up with practical solutions which also convey my ideas, and I have had rewarding experiences in showing these publically. Through theViewergallery, I will present and sell a range of my handmade art products. I have already made a start in this area in my handmade corporate items – theViewergallery badges, magnets, stones, cards, etc. I have some ideas and prototypes and models which I have devised. I don’t know what I have been waiting for – things to come together perhaps, but I have found a way to start now, without having everything already paved towards the V&A shop or other ultimate goals.
Again, I find the persona afforded me through theViewergallery somehow liberating in acting as an agency to sell, rather than dealing with any dilemmas about selling through my own name, giving me a workable solution.
It’s all about getting involved – you just never know. As part of the Cubitt Gallery Drawing Collective, I have been asked to participate in a charity art fair at a big solicitors’ near the Barbican. In fact, I went there today to look at the space and meet the team. It’s a great opportunity to show and sell work – I feel rather lucky and am making some prints upon skeleton leaves for it. I’ll be blogging all about it!
I am currently making work for this art fair. I consider this a great opportunity to get this part of my practice going. Before I studied art, I made objects which I sold in shops and stalls, but had to rein it in – I was getting overwhelmed with objects, materials, stuff, and was not businesslike. I put that energy into meaning and discovering art, and still like making batches of objects.
Now I can make more consciously meaningful objects, and have a solution to what to do with it all – there is nothing like a deadline and an outlet!
For me, it’s a chance for a crash course in pricing, taking orders, organising time, materials, commissions and setting up production. It’s going well so far.
Where I am in the Context of Contemporary Art
I am in a position of potential. I have experience and a body of work which now means that although I must maintain my proactivity to ensure progress towards a sustaining practice, I no longer have to pounce on everything that moves, and follow through every slight opportunity. I can create a context around what I would like to happen, whether or not the world of contemporary art fits itself around me. I like being involved in current practice, and plan to continue exhibiting and reviewing, and would also like to get more involved in cross media Fine Art teaching.
I mentioned to Caroline I was rather enlightened towards PhDs by going to the conference at Farnham. I’ve not really considered doing one before, but am beginning to entertain the germ of an idea. I see at least, the point of having a defining question or sentence about art practice, a very specific articulated thought about the quest. Caroline reminded to keep in mind resolved work for the end of the MA, but with further deeper questions to ask. I also saw that there are different types of PhD question – some are open, never to be resolved, some require a great deal of answering and research, and some always refer back to the question, and never expect anything near a definitive ‘solution’.
There is an area of moving image in between aspects of time – real and reel time it is known as, and also in between still and moving images, between where art images become objects – these crossover areas interest me. I’ve said all along in my artist statement that my quest is to translate nebulous ideas into form.
Of course, PhDs are a long, lonely self-directed pathway – should suit me fine.
Five Year Aims:
• Having done brilliantly well in my MA, I have embarked upon further study – either a PhD, or the Postgraduate drawing year at the Prince’s School, or possible even an MA in Art History. I will have extended my professional qualifications and have more teaching qualifications.
• I have a spacious and suitable studio (next to my gorgeous house and garden) where I can fruitfully work on my various creative projects, have art guests, and thoroughly explore my practice.
• I have a variety of interesting reviewing, teaching and project work which keeps me involved in art society and allows me to contribute to the great creative exchange.
• I have good relationships with galleries in exhibiting and selling work, and creative control over my practice. I have an art practice that exhibits. I extend theViewergallery with experimental projects once or twice a year.
• I write another novel and actually get it published.
• I make the art I love.
20th May 2013
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