This week I have been reflecting on the many wonderful people I met during my exhibition at The Learning Connexion. I enjoyed the many conversations with you all, sharing my exploration of folding paper, my process of making, my personal creative life, & connecting about our everyday lives, whether creative or not.

Now I’m home, & back into my ‘normal’ life environment, I realize that it was because of the exhibition place, space, & environment, that all that connection & sharing had the opportunity to happen. Such an enriching experience, in such a short space of time! And I am surprised that, for the first time in my life, I am actually ok with calling myself an artist!

So, now what?

The exhibition was the showing of one whole years worth of my creative work, shown to you all for just 3 days. That one year was fantastic, being able to stay home & study by distance delivery, not be a ‘productive unit’ for the workplace, & have the space and time to settle into being me, in my own environment, exploring my own way of making, & creating. I discovered my process of making loves a slow, wandering pace, where i have time to reflect, really engage with what I am doing, so I can notice things happening. It is completely opposite to my ‘manager’ skill set in the workplace, where being efficient, accurate & reasonably fast are expected. That’s a role I play to suit other people’s requirements, & for many years it was the dominating part of my life. But it is no longer how I want to spend the majority of my days. When folding paper, I am relaxed, simply folding paper, pausing along the way to notice what’s going on with the material, building up a relationship with it, that begins to have a dialogue. I wonder if I can spend my entire day, for the rest of my life, like that?

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Vicky xxx