Its been too long. Had a great chat with Sharon today. We caught up on the low residency (Sharon attended, I didn’t); life; art practice; research blogging; social media; a certain three-letter-acronym that will not be mentioned; and everything in-between.

The title of this post is a reference to my status message on WhatsApp. Its something that Sharon mentioned as it resonated with her when she saw it. Its a state of mind, and not an unfamiliar one. Partially tongue-in-check, but also quite serious.

I don’t think it can be underestimated how much work is put into an MA. Admittedly the output might come in fits-and-starts to navigate the balancing act between a MA and life, but pretty much most of the time its thinking about the practice, trying to push it forward, researching, reflecting, carving out the time to make art and update the research blog, panicking about not doing enough, and wondering if people “get” the art. There’s never enough time in the day to fit everything in. I was looking at the calendar: the final show is approaching at what feels like the speed of light. I need to make more art. I’m trying to get shit done.

Two trains:

• More exploration. Ontological reduction. Repetition. Series. Discoveries to be made. Happy accidents to occur. This can only happen when artworks are made. Need to make more art for more things to happen. Pretty obvious, but needs saying!
• The more artworks I create the more material I will have to curate down (distillate) for the final show. A performance of artistic distillation. Not just for the final show: there are competitions to enter; my artistic site needs content; etc.

Already I can see things that I would like to go back to and take forward. And some ideas that I have yet to implement. The harsh reality — the pragmatic response — is these will probably end up as a post-MA task. Or perhaps not. Who needs sleep. Got to get shit done.

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