In the move before this one I recycled a whole recycling bin with sketchbooks, drawings and art/paper related work. This included wire works and the odd pipecleaner piece.
At first it was hard throwing away work, then as I realised how much stuff I have, it got a lot easier.
In retrospect, I regret throwing out my life drawings, however there is not a lot I can do about it.
I now have about 20 sketchbooks that I can not part with. They contain the visual parts that make up who I am and why I do what I do.
I always think that it is essential to be open to whatever is before you at any given moment.
Not to be solely thinking about one thing. This is the reason why my sketchbooks are important to me. They catch things before they are forgotten.
Sometimes, when I go back through sketchbooks, I wonder why certain images have been chosen and collected.
Other times, seeing a particular image opens up a new body of work. This is why until recently I have held on to my sketchbooks.
I somehow hoped that by letting go of a lot of things, new things would fill the spaces that have been left open. This remains to be seen.
My jewellery practice is worked at the same way I go about creating art works.
Each new body of work starts here in these books.
In this busy world filled with things, there must be a reason for creating new things, not just to earn a living, not to just make fashionable things that are discarded with a new season.
I think about this a lot.
These thoughts fill these work books and I hope that there is evidence of this in the work created. That the forms and textures and colours add to a continuing story that is added to with each new year. And that the work created is worth holding on to and being passed on to people who enjoy their individual stories.
