Never forget you're an artist
I have a good friend, Greg Chapman, a magician, juggler and all round shaman who has taken this time to think about his performing persona, as we all must from time to time. Regular readers of this blog will know I have been through my fair share of persona analysis, some of which has been aired and shared here.
When I was director at The Clocktower, the major lottery and Arts Council funded project which saw me through many of my best middle years, we developed programmes for young performers giving them skills and motivation to grow and learn. I am still in touch with many of them and some have continued with careers in the business, and many others have spoken of their time in Mostyn with fondness and affection.
One of my overarching mantras to them was the title for this blog and I have been giving more thought recently to this notion. Important while none of us in our section of the arts can practice our chosen form. We can rehearse and imagine of course but with no live response it makes it very different and in many respects a great deal harder. And we’re not earning anything which of course stretches the ‘garret on a crust’ artist notion to the nth.
Do we stop being an artist if a central tenet of our form is denied us by Corona? It certainly changes it fundamentally. My friend and many others of my acquaintance have taken in earnest to the video and internet form with degrees of varying success in my opinion. I have dabbled myself and will continue to do so, but it is by no means an easy road. Translating pieces whose sole raison d’etre depends on a live response from another human into a medium which is anything but live (however hard some may pretend that it is) makes for an almost insurmountable challenge. Not that I’m against insurmountable challenges. I juggle knives while balancing on three folding chairs on a table and currently I am learning to ride backwards on my electric unicycle. But the form is so different. No matter how much we play to that piece of wonder that is an iphone camera or webcam, it is not the same. Of course some can make it work wonderfully well. If you can, check out ‘Captain of the Lost Waves’ and his regular ‘live’ Facebook shows. And then maybe you’ll think an artist is an artist is an artist and the form is irrelevant. For me I’m not so sure.
In any case I have never fully believed that anyone can call themselves an artist. It seems to me to be a statement of overblown self-importance, and signally lacking in humility. You can say you are working in an arts medium but let posterity and others decide whether that epithet can be inscribed on your blue plaque. For me, inscribed on my blue plaque, alongside the front door on my lorry, is ‘Entertainer’. I prefer it, though in my heart, body and mind I strive to be an artist. I try to let that notion pervade everything I do. Not just the development of the performance and all that goes into it, but in lifestyle and the daily activity of living. This requires a perpetual consciousness and a scrupulous attention to the detail of everyday thought and action. I’m not pretending I’m good at it. I’m striving, I’m not there yet. Maybe it is the journey, not the arrival. But it is a road I decided years ago to travel and I do know it, or I thought I knew it. Then the Virus came along. Maybe I should have been prepared, like the good yogi, for whatever, but…
And of course the good thing is that it has made us all think about what is important. For me, I knew previously what was important to me. Performing live to you. So now I have another major re-think in process. Like my friend Greg who has discovered the magic of a magic wand, of being not just a showman but a shaman. I have yet to finish the thinking and I will share the process with you here. At the same time I will struggle with lighting, colour balance, auto focus and aperture. Not to mention editing, deciding content and uploading to an internet which struggles to reach me in my lovely lorry.
One day this week I edited until 3.00 am and put the results on a usb stick for first class guaranteed next day delivery (faster than my internet connection) to the people at Camp Quirky where I would have been performing for the first time this weekend. If you have time my three short videos are being premiered this afternoon at their Virtual Camp Quirky;
https://www.facebook.com/events/610770992849581/
The event is for people who hand build their own camper vans. Sound like my kind of folk.
All the best from a road, on the other side of the screen, near you,
Mr Alexander