I had an email from a friend reminding me of when I set up an art group a few years ago. The group after a while, didn’t really tick my box. I had missed going to my art classes, working alongside other people and was feeling lonely and blocked. Why didn’t the group work? We were all friends who had met through that art class, my idea was to discuss our work and support each other. What it turned into was a social group, going out to galleries etc. Which was nice on one level but it felt like a waste of time for me personally. The very useful thing to come out of it was that it introduced me to the OCA and I signed up for that.
Now, twelve years down the line, I have had a very interesting week, precipitated by a Zoom call with 2 course members from the OCA. I don’t actually often interact with other course members. I am a grade 1 introvert, never happier than on my own in my studio, thinking, pottering etc. with tutor feedback plus having a couple of external art friends keeping me going.
However it brought home to me that I can actually work really well collaboratively or in a team, My magazine work is ideal for that, we have a few meetings, discuss ideas, then we all 3 work separately and I bring it together in the layout.
That zoom call which lasted an hour and a half had a huge impact on me. It changed the way I think about myself and my creative identity in a really good way, it will help me move forward creatively with confidence. We have plans to meet up again via Zoom in a months time.
My next project has to be very much my own work (autobiography works that way funnily enough) and we are all engaged on very different projects so there isn’t an obvious collaborative opening here specifically. What I am really trying to flag up to myself is that it really ticks my box to work alongside others despite my strong introverted self, and I need to be open to possibilities in the future. Could there be possibilities of collaboration in animation, maybe with the music / audio side?? Or the filming??