Studio Update: December/January (lots lots lots)
Some people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder where the winter darkness means they feel a bit more depressed and lethargic. Well, it's summer in Melbourne so I don't get that, but I do absolutely suffer from a disorder I've made up: December Depression.
Each time December rolls round I am just absolutely SPENT. Exhausted and unable to do much more than put in the bare minimum. Mostly, this doesn't matter too much because everything at work is on cruise control. This year my boss went to COP and my job was to get ready for 2024 and make sure all the students I work with (who were on summer break) were ok. However, I was just so run down that a lot of the things I do with people were a really tough struggle.
I've always been introverted and I'm also someone that feels obligated to put other people first and think a lot about their needs. It's a combination that works well but runs me down, so December was just a mess of me cancelling, avoiding friends and trying to gain some recovery here and there.
A big part of recovery, for me, is thinking and planning.
All up, 2023 was a year of bigger bets in my life.
With Tall Poppy Press I published 4 books, two of which were in really large (for us) editions. I visited two international book fairs (Singapore and Paris), and had a pop up in London.
I taught two workshops, changed jobs, was hospitalised, remade my website twice, went to Vietnam for an in law trip, visited friends in Laos, spent a month pretending to be a full time artist and FINALLY got some personal work moving.
....and when I got to December (or, if we're being truthful, halfway through November) my god was the well dry. Honestly, the feeling of weariness was too much and spilled into feeling depressed and angry. Not good.
Alongside that, the 6 weeks of November-to-Christmas was like just a run of bad news. USPS destroyed $1000 worth of books, I got rejected from three grants, I got rejected from two book fairs, I had one customer that was just very difficult, etc, etc. Each day felt like another big loss. REALLY not good.
I had to spend a few weeks thinking about 'how am I going to guard against this happening again?' and 'what am I doing too much of?' and 'what's 2024 going to look like and will I get too worn out again?'
Looking forward, then, I'm excited about 2024, there's a lot that I'm working on and a lot that I'm keen to do, I'd like to share a few things with you.
Personal art work
My girlfriend and my business partner were both chiding me for letting my personal art practice take a back seat, and were both very consistent and caring in reminding me I experience a lot of joy in making.
I will continue to work in the desert - pushing this project further. The work is basically about HOW we've been excluding dingos for two hundred years and WHAT that costs us. I have three trips planned: two to wildlife conservancies and one to the desert to focus on landscape.
I will also visit the dingoes again, and spend some time in arid areas in summer to try and find some reptiles to photograph!
Additionally, I wanted to do something a bit closer to home, so I've teamed up with two local botanists and we're doing a survey of Merri Creek together, working on making something collaborative, playful and interesting. I just wanted an appetiser along with the big desert main course.
I also will have one exhibition in 2024, and it'll be a big one :)
Woodworking
I've wanted to get into woodworking for ages (years) and finally got started. My friend Gus helped me and now once a week I drive to my parents' place and make a mess. Nothing I've made is very good, but it's getting more functional.
The purpose of wood working is to build things for exhibitions: display tables, frames, sculptures. I really want my practice to be more multi-sensory/multi-modal than it has been, so building structures for people to move through, touch, etc, is key. And I like doing it myself.
I also would like to build a new dining table by the end of the year. That's a big project that requires a lot of fine control and precision. Currently I'm like building workbenches that work, but look so ugly, so we're a ways off.
Tall Poppy
I think the aim with TPP this year is to have another good year but with less travel. I was unfortunately knocked back from the largest Australian book event (NGV book fair) which still is quite upsetting. That's a weekend where I'd usually sell $2000 or so of books, which was great. No idea why this year was a no, it made me super sad.
But we have some great books coming out and I think I'll head back to Singapore. I also am going to try and have a few locals man the stall at a few fairs overseas so I don't have to travel (and don't have to spend on travel). I think that is a good experiment to run.
I think Tall Poppy is really about making books that are a bit pretty and a bit weird, and I want to build on that more. I would like to make as many of the books we publish this year really nice packages that are delightful. But that's hard to do for each book so we'll see how we go.
We have our first books coming out in February/March and that'll be a really fun period. I'm looking forward to those immensely.
I should attach some photos of the dodgy woodwork I've made. Currently my in-laws are staying with me and I feel very self-conscious every time they see the shoe rack I built. It's like a 5/10!
I hope you are all having a decent rest. Some links:
a) I'm teaching a day at this workshop in February
b) Two of the books I recently published were recognised as some of the best from Australia/NZ in 2023, read about one here