Home again, home again, jiggity jig
Hello everyone,
I’m finally home - I’m lying down on my couch, a cool change is rolling through and gosh it’s so nice being back in my space - comfortable and unfussed.
Since getting home from Taiwan I’ve actually been a bit busy, though there’s been lots of rest. In fact I think I’ve napped almost every day I’ve been home. It’s also been hot, which is just not my speed.
So what’s been going on, apart from sleeping?
Over the weekend I taught my last workshop for the year. This was to a group of 11-12 people and, to be honest, that’s probably a touch too many. However I think it went really well and the feedback from participants was that the only thing they wanted more of was more time together, more feedback more to learn. That’s a good sign. I’ve developed a fairly ambitious and robust workshop program for 2025 and, if things go to my modest plan, I should earn about 50% of my income from these workshops - and I see really great potential to continue to grow these moving forward.
I’ve also been going through the steps to do some fill in teaching work. December, January and February are quiet months in the publishing and art world. It’s not a time one sells many books, not a time where one can host workshops (I guess I could do a summer school but that’s a bit more involved than I would like to organise things) so I need to use some of the spare time to earn an income so it’s back to the classroom I go. I think Friday will be my first teaching day and I’ll report back to you all next week about how it went.
I think if, by Christmas, I can do 6-9 days of fill in work that’d be great.
But there’s been a lot of more interesting stuff that I’ve been doing! Here’s a small taster:
I’ve been working on a re-brand for Tall Poppy Press. Most of what people see when they see TPP is done by me - I’ve made the website, I do the book photos, I write the newsletters, etc - as the business has grown and the quality of what we do has become more consistent it’s clear that what I show the world online is lower quality than the products I sell. Perhaps this is always inevitable, but the gap is simply too large. Additionally, there are a few things I want to do with the business - some merch, present more professionally to organisations/festivals/institutions and having more consistent and curated branding is essential there.
So earlier this year I started working with someone to help me re-brand. That involves completely remaking our website, and this week I’ve been sweating away in the garage taking painstaking photos of all of our books, then spending time on the computer editing each one diligently. It took about 3 hours of photographing and, so far, about 4 hours of editing, and we’re not done yet.I’ve been managing our Open Call - we received 100 entries which is staggering and someone overwhelming. From these myself and Morganna have to choose 2 entries to award - and we spent some time today discussing which we think should go ahead and what might make sense there. There’s a ton to think about: quality of the work, likelihood it will sell, support we can offer the artist, ways the artist can help us, etc.
I’ve also been getting a lot of Dingo work done - spending time in archives and scanning old books, chatting to a designer about the work and talking with some exhibition venues about upcoming shows. I think this week I will try and draft the entire body of work - 3 years of work coming together for the first time. For those who don’t work in creative or art fields, I think it’s fairly comparable to pulling together three years of something for a pitch/review/etc - you have so much you could say, could include, could explore - but inevitably you have to find a way to get the best out of all the material, inevitably some will be left behind.
I think I’ll do a somewhat focused road trip in January to get some more photos, doing the thing I’ve been avoiding doing: going to the desert in summer. But for a lot of reasons it just needs to be done, so AC blasting we’ll get it done.
I’ve also been looking for a studio - I’m trying to find a space I can run workshops from in 2025. While I love working from home, the reality is with boxes of books, a growing book collection, etc, hosting people here will be hard - there’s only so much space and, of course, I’m not the only person who lives here. If I want to host workshops at home, I need to store the books I’m selling someone else, and do a bunch of work to the garage so it’s more comfortable, well lit, etc. So, ideally I’m hoping to tee up a studio I can use from February 2025 and, if not, I guess I’ll do the best with the garage here :)
This week I’m visiting three studios and there’s a fourth I think could be the best fit but I have to wait a few more days/weeks to go visit.
Finally, I’ve been spending a lot of time planning 2025 - where I want to be, what travel I do and don’t want to do, where I’ll need to earn money and where I should be ok. It’s looking like a nice big, bustling year, with a bit less travel and a lot more targeted. I’m getting closer to thinking ‘what do I really need to get done in 2025 to get to where I want to go?’, and I’m looking forward to sharing.
Building on all those more complex reactions to exhibiting in Singapore, Paris and Taipei - I think I’m coming out of that time a more driven and knowledgeable person. I think I know where to go next and I know I want to do it really well.
I’m edging closer to the end of the year where I can sit back and think ‘ok, can I keep working for myself in 2025?’ - I think you can probably guess the answer from reading where I’m putting my energy, but I’m looking forward to a longish review before Christmas.
Anyway - there’s always a lot on my plate but I actually feel fairly calm, I’ve had lots of time to potter about, tend to my garden, lay down and take it easy - and that’s really what December and January are for.
Till next week,
Matt