A step back; to look at where I am so far

Yesterday I gave a short informal presentation to my Practice and Placement group and heard about what they had done in their placements which was really interesting.  The people in my group had organised exhibitions, shadowed a professional artist and worked with a community project in a local park. 

Some really useful pointers came out around being aspirational in terms of what you set to achieve and building confidence through the process. We'd all pushed our comfort zones but all got loads out of this approach.

So - if you're reading this ahead of writing your own proposal, go big- go be a sparkly supernova and smash out what you want to do. You'll thank yourself for it.  It made me think about my own experience.  When I was writing the proposal, I'd put myself in the mindset of a professional artist. How would they approach a proposal?  How would they negotiate circumstances that deliver their own objectives? I'd recognised that I needed a reciprocal arrangement and really considered how to approach the placement - right down to how I should present on the day.  I think this is why I felt like a bit of an imposter on the first day in my pop up studio space. "Fake it to make it" alludes to you pretending that you can do something and then when you land in that space, you have to deliver what you said.  Don't let your confidence take a nosedive when this happens - I remembered that everything I wrote in the proposal was deliverable.  I am an artist.  I just don't have experience of working as an artist in residence. 

When I took some time to reflect on the mediums I was using and how interactive I could be with visitors, it changed how I approached things and everything felt more achievable.  My past career and use of SMART targets really helped here.

• Specific. - what exactly are you going to do?
• Measurable - how will you measure that you did this?
• Achievable - how realistic is your goal in the timeframe and circumstances?
• Relevant - keep it focused around your objectives
• Timebound- Set goals to achieve by set times

I'm now going to create signage for my next placement day.  I'm going to make accessible art by offering prints to visitors for a suggested donation in the PMAG foyer and I'm going to put some of my research in my space to actually attract visitors to the narrative behind the art that I'm looking at.

I've had a think about the scope of my project whilst on the placement - the fact that I've done this means that it's falling into place. I'm not just turning up and aiming to create a piece of art. I've got a framework around some chosen subject areas.

I may only be able to focus on responding to John Curries' portraits of Dolly from the Art gallery, rather than a selection of artists,  but I'm hoping to also create a print of the character from the Staffordshire Hoard exhibition. 

I'm thinking about leaving a lino print with the PMAG for schools to access. It has sensory properties because the lino is cut and textured and engaging attributes because soft cut can be washed and reused repeatedly to make more prints.

My tutor asked if this was a production residency or a research residency and my initial reaction is that it's research and I'm really quite enjoying sharing my findings with visitors to the museum.. but I'm off to dig into this terminology to check that I'm on the right path.