The weather inside
mizzle and fog, sunshine later
Hello friends
The sky today is flat and white, an almost entirely featureless field of thick Stratocumulus. A mizzle of water droplets can’t even be bothered to fall. They just hang in the air, frizzing my hair and misting my glasses.
I confess, my brain feels much the same today, featureless, sluggish and foggy. There’s a feeling of hiatus, like a held breath.
This has been a year of non-stop painting for me, for one show after another. Actually longer, more like two solid years of not going anywhere much but cleaving close to home and the quiet daily discipline of studio practice. It has been a largely introspective, but intensely productive and creative time, although perhaps not in ways I can fully articulate yet.
But all that is about to change. In a week’s time I will be trailing my suitcase through airports, navigating the no-longer-familiar processes of check-ins and transfers and passport control, making the long trip from my home in Orkney to Japan for a month-long residency at Aomori Contemporary Art Centre. It’s the start of a new exchange between the Pier Art Centre and ACAC that will see a Japanese artist coming here early next year.
It’s exciting, a bit daunting, and something a walk into the fog, as I’ve never been to Japan before and hardly know quite what to expect, although I’ve been boning up on some Japanese phrases so I can at least say hello and thank you.
As I gather my wits and my bits, making final arrangements for the trip and the work I’ll be doing while I am in Japan, I find myself staring at the blank white page today just as I have the blank white sky, feeling empty, waiting, anticipating something that I’m preparing for as best I can, but not quite knowing how it will all unfold.
A few last jobs include wrapping up just completed paintings, ready for delivery to galleries while I’m away. Here’s one I just finished on a final push at the weekend, ‘Winter Sun’. It seems like a wish for the sun to break through this bank of cloud.
There won’t be any Life Boat next week as I will be in transit, but expect updates soon from Aomori once I get settled in and the fog clears away.
The Life Raft Co-Creating Community
Our weekly creative co-working session will be pausing while I am in Japan, so this will be our last one for a wee while. If you haven’t joined us before, our meetings are a little Life Raft of shared creativity in these stormy times. Since this will be the last one for a while, maybe we’ll do a bit more conversation than usual, with some breakout rooms, so I won’t record this one. We start at 3pm UK time and finish around 4.30pm. Just click the link below to join us. If you can’t make it live I usually share a recording to the paid subscriber chat each week.
That’s all for this week! Jaa, mata! じゃあ、また
Sam
Such an exciting adventure, enjoy every minute, well maybe sleep though the flight:)
Just been reading about Japanese hospitality and bathing in warm springs...sounds wonderful. Hope you find time for a soak....dont envy you airport bit...take a nice book