Introducing RUPTURE - The Art of the Practice
Examining and Expanding your Practice
We talk a lot about practicing here at the studio. About having a practice, showing up for your practice, deepening your practice, staying true to your practice, choosing your practice. We talk about making boundaries so that you value your practice, and how difficult it is to insist on those boundaries sometimes. How selfish it can feel to get to a place where you "deserve" your practice, or it's okay to have one or to want one.
But what even IS a practice?
And what is YOUR practice? And why is it?
What questions is it asking?
Is your practice something you wrestle with or something that supports you? Is it growing and changing and challenging you, is it something you wonder about and challenge back? Is your practice focused on how much you can trade your work for in pounds dollars? Are you trying to figure out if your work is good enough, and what that means, and how to know?
For the last four years, we've been working with artists from all kinds of educational and exhibition backgrounds, from people who show with the biggest galleries in the world, or manage them, to those of us who draw on napkins and could never think about these doodles as "work". We've talked with literally thousands of art-interested people, be they artists, curators, collectors, tutors, historians, writers or researchers in every kind of artistic pursuit, from performance to painting to music to patisserie.
The number one thing we learned is that people aren't sure anymore what an artist is. What the brief is. What their job is. They often know they are artists or are artistically inclined, but there is some bottom that has fallen out about how to - art. How to engage in a day-to-day practice without being wasteful or derivative or bad or new or a beginner. Sometimes these questions come from very accomplished artists who are rethinking their relationship to art itself - to the generative urge, the act of making.
Working through these questions with someone who has no stake at the end of your story other than helping you make sure it is authentic to you - your skin in the game, your voice, your ambition, desire, or urgency - can break practice open and help you to trust yourself, your work, your right to make that work.
If this resonates with you, book a free 20-minute mentoring session with Kate and Sally, or sign up for our Winter Examining and Expanding your Practice Workshop, or our upcoming afternoon Spark Crit at the studio in Hampton Wick.
Not an artist, but interested in thinking like one, solving problems acrobatically, freeing yourself from judgment so you can focus on the creative solution?
Practice Mentoring is for all kinds of practices, not only artists. For executive coaching or speaking, get in touch using the form below.