Make a list of 43 things that have inspired me

that the whole reason of this goal, is to evaluate what I like and why, and where I think I want to go artistically. I want to be excited about my work again, and I need to make some important decisions in the coming months and I really want them to be the right ones, so I’m going to write about things I like, why I like them and how thay have influenced me. My interview last week made me think about the type of work I want to go and see, and the problem here is that there isn’t much in the city I live in that excites me, and so I think what is the point in doing something unless it’s something I really want to do? And more importantly where is this art that I want to see, and how can I make it more accessible to where I live, and what I’m doing. Art is after all self indulgent but it can also be thought provoking, question probing and opinion giving, and I think if it’s really what I want to do, then why not make it in the city I live in and maybe other people will want to see it too?

This exhibition has to come first above everything else, simply because it was the exhibition that created a shift in the way I looked at textiles, it opened my eyes to the possibilities of textile as art, it also gave me the inspiration to create a signiture style for myself and encouraged me to make decisions about my work. The other thing it did was open a relationship between myself and Japan, I found that this work was everything I wanted to achieve and make myself, and it was in the style, subject and influence of it’s origin that really interested me.

To me there are two Japans, both of which have equal influence on me as a person and me as an artist. The first Japan is that of Tokyo busyness, fast living, culture clash, Harijuku living and the other is the peaceful zen, the haiku, the silence and space which features in textural space. I wrote my dissertation comparing the textile industries in Japan and Britain, looking particularly at textile art, Japan seemed to come off better simply because of this attitude of incorporating all elements in everything thay do, whether it’s eating, building houses or socialising. After a while I moved onto other things that weren’t influenced by this particular exhibition, but it has always been a place where I’ve come back to, for instance I believe there have been 3 important phases of my artistic development, the first was this exhibition and the work I moved towards, then I studied printing, and was particularly influenced by Japanese wood block printing and indigo dyeing, then the phase which I’m in right now, is word related art and bookbinding. There are so many different techniques originating from all around the world, and what technique am I most drawn to? Japan. I’m also making paper following similar principles to Japanese made paper and the way I display the work is drawn from this exhibition, making use of the spaces around and inside objects. It seems like Japan is a recurring theme in my work and that I seriously need to make a trip there.