I really enjoyed the BBC series ‘What do artists do all day?’ It gave you a little peak into the lives of artists and yes, quite obviously as the title gives it away, what they do all day. I’m sure this is not all day everyday, but it gives you a good sense of their day-to-day professional lives. Inspired by the TV show here you have my ‘What does artist Rebecca Harris do all day?’
I decided to take a photograph every hour on the hour to illustrate my day. I have been thinking on this for a couple of weeks now and couldn’t decided when to pick *that* day. So dear reader you got yesterday. On the hour my alarm would ring to alert me to taking a photo of the there and then. Trust me, listening to the alarm each hour gave me a shudder up my spine, reminding me of that horrible feeling you have each morning when the alarm goes off (I’m not a morning person).
What I got from this experience is that each hour became much more precious than usual. By taking the photos, I was committing to achieving something as time ticked by. Not aimlessly scrolling through Facebook doing a bit of pro-procrastinating. I also figured, that I’m probably a bit boring, but why should I save the day until I am doing something a bit more amazing? We spend our online lives sharing an idealised image of the cool things we do in a bid to make ourselves look much more interesting than we are.
So here goes, I may continue to do this on other days in the following weeks/months, who knows?
What does artist Rebecca Harris do all day?
The day is a typical day in the preparation for my show Storm in a B Cup coming as part of Art Week Exeter in May.
9 am
I am preparing breakfast. Whilst waiting for the toast to pop and kettle to boil I make good use of my time. With my daughter away for the holidays I’m keen to get to the studio, so wanted to get this job done quickly as that work needs to go with me. During the evenings, whilst watching some rubbish TV I crochet. It has to be TV that doesn’t require a lot of my attention as I frequently look down at what my hands are doing. I produced this batch in the last couple of weeks and it was time to get it down to the studio to see what I was going to do with it all.
I had to reboil the kettle and my toast went cold.
10 am
I’ve arrived at the studio. There’s no coffee and I didn’t bring any milk, so peppermint tea for me. I’m working on what I’m going to do with some of the crochet doily titty pieces.
11 am
Still working on what on earth I’m going to do with those doilies. I make a larger droopy breast soft sculpture structure to attach them all to but this just doesn’t work. The mixture of colours and patterns are wrong, it would need to be a uniform colour and pattern to successfully pull this off. I’m really pleased with the flat piece (in the frame). This is inspired by mammographs. So at 11am I am happy I have ‘cracked’ a piece, this has now been finalised and I think it’s going to be presented horizontally on a plinth.
12pm
The droopy breast piece is bothering me. I’m getting frustrated that I’ve wasted all that time making those works to not then do anything with them. So I’m taking a break but instead of doing a ‘nothing break’. I decide to write up next week’s blog post “What’s the most challenging materials you have worked with?’ Starting three weeks’ ago, I write a post each week that expands on the questions posed to all participating artists as part of Art Week Exeter. Here I am including a YouYube video about Eva Hesse and her use of latex (my most challenging material). Oh and enjoying some pistachios 😀
1 pm
Feeling inspired I return to the bench. The blog post remains unfinished but will be picked up again after another blurgghhhh art moment. I am looking at possibly presenting the series of droopy breast doilies I crocheted onto small square canvases. As a background I have covered them in tights, I really like the ‘feel’ of this.
2 pm
OK, I’m back on the mac. I have described in the past that I can’t concentrate too long on one thing. It’s like I spin plates, having many small things going at once. I’ve remembered I need to get an image sorted and emailed. I am working on doing a cake & crit session in Exeter. Working with Spacex and Exeter Visual Art Forum (EVAF) I will be hosting our first informal art critique in which we share cake! So, I’m looking for a cake image to create the social media promotional image. I’ve also sent and answered a few emails.
3 pm
Back to the bench. The tights and droopy doilies are working, yay! I’m also playing with making the background 3D – that don’t work so that’s been abandoned.
4 pm
Back at the laptop, but have brought some sewing with me. I’m attaching the droopy doily to the canvas whilst browsing the web.
5 pm
I have popped home for dinner. I picked up more vegetable seeds at lunchtime so am potting these and watering my other seedlings before preparing lunch.
6 pm
If you weren’t bored yet, you will be now. I am about to serve dinner. Yeah, told you. In case you were wondering it was lasagne.
7 pm
I have spared you this photo. Honestly, it got so uninteresting at this point, I had just finished eating and couldn’t bring myself to take a photo. My partner was doing the dishes though, maybe I could’ve taken a photo of that!?
8 pm
My partner has gone out for the evening, I was offered to join him and his friend at the Exeter Phoenix to watch an old punk band. It might have made for more interesting photos for this evening, but really isn’t ‘my bag’. So I have taken advantage of some free time and returned to the studio. My hour’s alarm is going off as I pull up to the studio, so here’s my 8pm shot. I like this time of year, lighter evenings.
9 pm
It’s all coming to a close at the studio now, I’m feeling tired and thinking I might head home soon. Here, we go full circle and the doilies are being crocheted together to see how that might work as a complete piece. I will return to the studio the following day to see if I am happy with how that is developing.
Was that of any interest? Not a rhetorical, just wondering if people do find it interesting to see how us not so world famous artists do with our days? What do you get up to in a typical day?
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