Sunday 14 July 2013

7 weeks to go...

There's only 7 weeks left until I go to Iceland for my residency! I can't explain how excited I am and how much I'm looking forward to it.
I really cannot wait to have some time to focus purely on art, with no distractions. This is something I've really missed since graduating, so it'll be amazing to have that, even if only for a month. I've bought all the materials I'll need now, and have a solid plan of what I want to do and how I want to work. I'm going very prepared so that I waste as little time as possible. I think this residency could be a huge benefit for me and my work, so I want to take advantage.
As well as already having a plan for my studio work whilst I'm there, I've managed to sort out most of the practical things already; I'm actually quite impressed with myself! I've arranged somewhere to stay in Reykjavik, and just need to send some stuff ahead of me, and do a couple of other things before everything is ready to go!
I'm also so excited to be travelling somewhere new, somewhere that I've heard a lot of positive comments about. This is part of the appeal of residency programmes to me, and one of the major reasons that I started looking into residencies in the first place. I'm going to a very remote place, so it'll be a big change for me, and I'm looking forward to seeing what that's like. My trip is going to be a very exciting time.
I'm really so proud that I'm going to do this. Getting accepted in the first place, working and saving so that I could go ahead with it, and being able to do what I really want, even on a temporary basis, makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere with my career. It's a brilliant opportunity, and getting to this point hasn't all been straightforward. I'm sure it's going to be a brilliant experience, and that it will have a real effect on my work and career. Can't wait to go!