Yesterday I hosted my first Art Market at Bath Contemporary Art Fair, the first time I’ve put all my work up for people to see since my Grad Show in February. It was still a learning curve but such a pleasant one, an enjoyable contrast to preparing for the grad show. As I was getting new prints, zines, and paintings ready for the fair I had a good reflect on what I’d learned from putting my work on a wall this year. Here are the 9 things:
Handing in work to a tutor to be marked = a doddle.
Putting it on a wall in a London Gallery for the whole world (including the children’s publishing industry) to look at = a little bit trickier.
Welcome to a behind the scenes tour of my emotions that resulted in the most awesome grad show experience I could have ever hoped for.
1. Second-degree fun is still fun
First-degree fun is fun in the actual moment. Second-degree fun is fun after the event. The memory of the thing is fun, even though at the time the thing was very much NOT fun.
I had a big dose of second-degree fun with the London grad show. I got in such a tiz about putting my work up on a wall for people to see (and judge?!) that I was very much not my usual positive and optimistic self.
It was amazing to observe the paradox in my brain of the conscious part of me knowing that of course I am proud of what I have made and I really like it, which is all that really matters. But the subconscious part of me was having a field day thinking up all sorts of horror stories about no-one liking it, and me making bad choices about what to show and therefore not making myself proud.
The whole week of (and 2 months preceding) the grad show was such a rollercoaster of emotion, both epic and disastrous. But do you know what? I don’t regret a single thing and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I learned SO much from that process - how all the dread was over nothing, and that I an really trust myself with my work and my artistic direction.
And I’m super proud of how I got scared and did it anyway.
Epic second-degree fun.
2. It pays to take risks
I took some big creative risks with my MA work. I took an image-led approach with my books, trusting that a story would emerge that might draw everything together at the last minute (which it did!)
I chose super bold colour palettes, and sort of felt fearless with colour. And this was the source of the majority of my positive feedback at the show.
I decided early on I would complete all the artwork for all 4 of the books I made on the MA and present all of them at the show. This was a BIG task but gleaned lots of great feedback on how much I evidently care about the book as a whole. It also let me play to my strength of storytelling through colour.
3. Ask for help
I got my knickers in a twist about how I was going to hang everything on the wall, as I’m no pro when it comes to DIY. Or that I would forget to take a really important nail or tool on the install day.
Turns out that obviously we all worked together to put up the show and everyone was helping everyone to hold up shelves and get pictures straight and trade opinions on what was looking good or not.
Because humans are great. Duh.
4. Enjoy looking at people looking at my work
The highlight of the show for me was spying on people picking up my books. It was fascinating to see what people were drawn towards and what they chose to look at first.
Usually illustrators beaver away by themselves and we rarely get to see people actually enjoying our work. So I decided to really relish this opportunity!
So it’s highly likely that if you went to see the show and looked at my work then I was probably looking at you doing that. How creepy am I?
5. It’s ok to be really really really tired.
Because there’s probably some Mum somewhere who’s more tired than me. So really it’s no big deal. And I can still do stuff when I’m tired. I just look like a hamster.
6. Let people love you
When I was on my way to the private view I got in a real pickle because I had an attack of the ‘not good enoughs’ and the ‘could I have done mores?’ and the ‘should have gone to the hairdressers’.
On the train I found the strength in me to reach out to my girlfriends whatsapp group and share my struggle…I was NOT going to let these naughty thoughts spoil my evening.
And I have never been bombarded with so much love! Within 10 minutes I’d received about 10 messages from girlfriends from all around the world with lovely ‘you got this’ and ‘go get ‘em tiger’ advice.
The best advice was from my lovely friend Derya who instructed me to skip down the platform at Paddington and scoop up the most extravagant bunch of colourful flowers from M&S and boogie my way to the private view in an energy of ‘this is my book party and everyone is here to celebrate me!’
It worked a treat and I had an absolute ball. What a lucky woman I am to have such wonderful girlfriends.
7. Less is (often) more
I spent a lot of time faffing about making more/extra/last minute stuff to go in the show which I really didn’t need.
I see now how I can trust in my work as a whole and it’s the big picture that matters.
8. Follow your heart
I’m so glad I followed my tutors’ advice to make books that speak to me and my interests and that were fun for me to make. Because of this my artwork is filled with so much joy. And it’s this joy that attracted my fabulous agent Jessica Hare to my work at the show.
I’ve always wanted to make books that make people feel things. And I see now how the best way to do that is to make the work that makes me feel things, and trust that we as humans underneath it all are pretty much the same.
I felt it in my colleagues work as well - there’s something very attractive about people openly daring to be themselves, in all their colours (and so interesting that I chose to make a book about it….The Bird That Wants to Boogie!)
9. This is just the beginning
I’d put so much heat on the grad show as being this BIG FINAL thing. I so wanted to do myself justice and show-off all the hard work I’d put in over the past 2.5 years. And in one sense this is true, and I’m so glad I put everything I had into making the show great.
But on the other hand it was just one show. The first of many (I did my first ever public group gallery show the following month in Bath at 44AD, and I have my first ever art market this Sunday).
So the opportunities and challenges keep on coming. My journey in the traditional publishing world has just started, and I have years and years of joyful book creating ahead of me.
And I’m super proud to have taken my first big step.
My MA picture book projects are out in the universe looking for a publisher. Have a closer look in my portfolio and do get in touch if you’re interested in working together to bring these epic stories to life.
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