So on Wednesday I had my last day at Scunthorpe Studio School, a 6 month opportunity with artist mentorship, and although it was an incredible experience and provided me with a structured routine that has been so beneficial, I was getting pretty sick of the same drive up and down the country every week, and I’m excited to put everything I’ve learnt into practice in the real world and hopefully land myself some paid opportunities!
Towards the end of the experience, we took part in a few interviews and podcasts, mostly created with the intention of advertising the opportunity to future applicants and cohorts, but also to just reflect on what we gained, so as those clips come out I’ll be sharing more of my perspective on the experience, but overall I couldn’t be happy with what I learnt and how it aided my growth as an artist re-entering my practice following a challenging episode of neurodivgent burnout.
Going right back to the beginning of the process, one of the very first tasks we did with our mentor, was writing an artist manifesto, something I’ve never considered before, and I can’t emphasise enough how beneficial this practice was for me. It’s something I regularly went back to (and I imagine will continuously go back to) in order to check-in with myself and to ask myself the question, does what I’m doing align with what I want? And I’d strongly encourage other artists to consider doing it too. Below is my artist manifesto:
Have fun.
Be present, go at your own pace.
Be boundaried.
Make work you care about.
Make money, but don’t burnout or sell-out.
Travel, explore, learn, and enlighten.
Take risks - Breath, and believe it will always work out.
Do what you can, not what you should.
I’ve been on a journey of re-establishing what being an artist means to me, and as you can probably tell, my values are largely centered around protecting my mental health, that’s my number one priority. I want to connect with people and learn, but also I want to make money from my art, and to do that without burning out or selling out, means making work that a truly care about.
Since starting the studio school, I’ve gotten a lot better at truly leaning into and embracing myself specifically as an artist, rather than an unemployed person that occasionally draws… My confidence and self worth has grown so much and believe with this will come well paid and exciting projects!