Time works differently now

Strong medicine (keep it close)
mixed media on 200gsm acid-free paper
42x59.4cm/16.5x23.4"
©2020 Megan Chapman
Sold

After completing the thirteen new works in my latest series, I am delighted to share that one of them sold straight away to a patron in my hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas. My hometown has stuck by me through thick and thin and near and far. I am grateful to have this base of support. Some of you might not have realised that Arkansas has a cultured coterie of abstract art buyers but it does and lovely warm people to boot! Consider yourself in the know, darling. 

In other news after that body of work was created - the lull came back, the dreaded ebb. Perhaps it's more of an overwhelm as I have so many paper pieces I need to varnish/fix and space is at a premium as I am still not working in my studio. 

I wonder when I ever will work regularly in my studio again. I wonder if I even need a studio. Is it sustainable in this new reality? I wonder how we are all going to survive. You know the big questions, as the title states time works differently now and our brains are all heavy with thought. 

I have been walking this month for Samaritans, doing a 50-mile charity challenge, but I will end up surpassing the challenge total. I have enjoyed getting outside in the available light as the weather gets more grey and dark by the minute. I look for the bright colours in the trees and the sun when I can find it. Some believe the walks influenced the 13 paintings. I have been told they feel hopeful and energetic. I am not sure what is pushing these works. I need to think about that. In art school, they said, "we don't care what you do and make as long as you can talk about it, as long as there is a reason." I need to get quiet and start thinking about my reasons again. The meaning, what am I trying to say, explore, express besides my intense love of colour, line, and pure abstraction? 

Perhaps we will figure this all out this winter. Stay tuned...

I know I have fallen behind/stopped making my Tuesday Studio Video Visits. I think because they would've all be filmed in my living room now and not my studio. There could be other reasons too. Perhaps we will figure this out this winter as well and start them up again. 

I'm thankful for all the patrons that have supported me during the pandemic when so much is so hard for so many. I won't forget it. I am going to be adding more exclusive content to my ko-fi page, a friendly way to support artists. Right now if you support my work for £3 or more you get a downloadable wallpaper and a patrons-only gallery with some downloadable images and well as behind the scenes looks and access to forgotten interviews. Consider supporting me over there, I promise to make that the place to be along with my social media sites. Thank you.

https://ko-fi.com/meganchapman

Thanks for your patience, please take good care of yourself. 

Money Talk: Studio Update

As many of you know, I have not been using my studio space since the second week of March. However, I have paid my studio rent in full for March, April, May, and June. Thankfully the Drill Hall management offered studio holders 1/2 off our studio rent for July, August, and September which I made use of. My studio rent at the drill hall is £203.69/month (and includes wifi). As of now, in October I will be paying the full amount of rent again. 

To enable me to pay the rent as I have during this time, I applied for and received £600 from the Bridging Bursary Fund offered through Creative Scotland (almost enough to cover 3 months of studio rent). I also applied to and was accepted for a commission to create a short studio video visit to represent and promote the Drill Hall along with my friend and fellow drill hall resident Mairi Brown for the Leith Late Virtual Studio and Mural Tours. This wonderful opportunity thankfully paid £200 - again, almost enough money for another month of studio rent. I have engaged in my own personal fundraising, raising another two months of studio rent on my Ko-fi site, a place where patrons can support artists. I am so thankful for all of this support and am delighted to have worked on something with Leith Late as I have wanted to for years now. 

I applied for and received both self-employment grants from the UK government and will apply for a third much lesser grant when it becomes available. During this time, I have been actively promoting the galleries that represent me, while also selling my art directly to my patrons online to sustain myself. During these strange days, I have been focussed on promoting more affordable originals as well as prints as I know most folks are being as frugal as possible just now. I participated briefly in the artist support pledge on Instagram as well. I scoured the internet for other funding sources and grants, applying for two grants that I sadly wasn't chosen for, and I also applied for an art tutor position that I also didn't get. So as you can see, I am taking action steps to stay afloat during this time as are many others. It's obviously quite competitive out there just now. 

I currently live about an hour's walk away from the studio or a 20-minute bus ride and the distance does, of course, hamper my ability to access my studio even when the building itself is now relatively safe with the new COVID measures in place. I have been in my studio once in July, once in August, and twice very briefly in September - as you can imagine paying for the studio and the wifi, while not using it, will eventually become unsustainable. I want to keep supporting the Drill Hall. I don't want to give up my studio and I also don't want to go into deferred debt (ie: a rent holiday which is another option the management has offered). I wrote the drill hall hoping that perhaps the half rent scheme could be extended or some other measures put into place while I and many others continue to work mostly from home solely as self-employed artists.

I appreciate that we are all struggling and I hope the Drill Hall has been the recipient of various government grants and other means of support as it is an asset to the community and one that I am proud to be a part of, long may it last.

I have been thinking about the future and other ways I can adapt even more with the ever-changing situation. After a productive spate of painting and drawing over 45 pieces from home since late March I haven't painted as regularly. The two main reasons for this are; firstly, the novelty of making smaller more controlled works in the corner of my living room is wearing off and secondly, with a good selection of paintings at a variety of prices, small works, and now prints, I need to sell some more work before I invest more money into making new work. This second reason and feeling will change because ultimately I make work to express myself and not only to make money. I have done well with this time and have expressed a lot and luckily sold a lot as well - which I am immensely grateful for. So more likely this is the classic ebb of the work and not me just digging in my heels. Regardless, I really do need to think of the viability of the studio in the future. 

Thank you to everyone who has bought a painting, small work, or print online, gotten in touch about a commission, or donated a cup of coffee, or sustained me through regular subscription donations. Thank you to the two patrons that bought refugee pieces during this time so I could donate money to a great cause and get two more bikes on the road. Thank you to a dear friend and patron who bought my ailing cat some prescription food and another dear friend and patron that helped to keep me in materials and regular donations during this time. Thank you to Jennifer and Tamsin my two monthly subscribers on Ko-fi. Those regular monthly amounts are extremely helpful! Thank you. 

All of you are keeping me afloat as well as the drill hall studio rent paid. And I know many of you are struggling too. 

I am thankful for you. I know I have been behind a bit in the blog lately and certainly in the Tuesday Studio Video Visits, but I plan to get back in the swing of things, so keep tuning in and watch this space! 

Anyway, again - I would rather write about the colour alizarin crimson or the tooth of the paper or canvas but sometimes, we just have to get real and talk about money...

Until next time, keep fighting! The world needs you and your art, your care, and the light you bring. 

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For what it's worth 62x76cm mixed media on canvas, framed in white, 2019, Megan Chapman
 Currently available through Irving Gallery. 

I am writing this post on Monday. I know my blogs have been backdated A LOT these days. Part of it is due to simply getting out of my routine and part of is that I don't feel as connected to my readers as I once did. I know that my lack of energy for this space and lack of readership go hand in hand. This space is still very important to me. I don't enjoy it as much when it becomes solely a promotional platform and it has been that A LOT lately. I like it more when it becomes a thoughtful, dreamy place where I can write freely and express some other part of my art brain that is usually held closer within and secreted away. Sometimes, I don't even want to write about my studio practice here, so I may feel limited at times by the scope that I originally set for this blog back in 2007. 

I realise of course, that I can write whatever the hell I want to and as I don't have the same dedicated art following here as I once did when blogs were king and social media meant MySpace, now is really the time to regift this space to myself. I am a painter and I write as part of my practice. Sometimes it is overtly connected and sometimes it is not and that is enough. This space is mine. 

Welcome to the re-gifting of Megan Chapman's Studio Blog. Imagine I have cut a long velvet ribbon with gigantic golden scissors and if you want, you are welcome to cross the threshold. It's like an old shoe with a new set of laces. 

I am listening to Beirut's song "Gallipoli" on repeat turned up loud on my big wireless headphones. I am still a firm believer in a good song on repeat to take me somewhere or to give me the space to find somewhere new in my brain, this is my sonic meditation. Music is everything to me. 

So here we are, in our Covid-19 days. I have not been to my studio in 2 weeks. I didn't think when I was there last that I wouldn't be just right back. I didn't gather up materials or supplies to work from home. I wasn't thinking that far in advance to our fast-approaching new reality. I live about an 18-minute bus ride away from my sacred space. I, of course, could walk there and have done so in the past or I could even ride my bike. I am not so sure if that is a good idea anymore. 

Today, I haven't even gone outside across the road to the wee beach (Wardie Bay) as more and more people are going out to nature and not observing the social distancing rules (2 metres/6.5feet) it becomes more difficult to feel safe or to avoid people. So here I am, trying to figure out a way to work from home in this new reality. 

If any of you have visited my studio in Edinburgh or even back in Fayetteville, Arkansas (at the Fayetteville Underground or any of my home studios) you will know that I am not a passive painter and that there are marks left behind on the walls and floors and that I can't seem to politely paint at an easel no matter how hard I try. So, of course, my work will change as I work from home. Perhaps more collage elements, more written or typed bits, or just tighter cleaner wee paintings. Who knows. I have worked from dining room tables, kitchen counters, and small spaces before. And god knows, I love a challenge. Perhaps there will be more accidental portraits but on a smaller scale. I really don't know. 

All of my exhibitions have been canceled and the galleries closed and I won't be venturing out to the post office to mail any art at this time either. So there goes my livelihood along with so many others. My livelihood is probably more predisposed to this type of upheaval. I am used to working alone and I am used to financial uncertainty. I am used to offering up my work for free to view online just make people happy or to infuse some beauty or interest into their days (I see your Covid-19 pet posts, singing posts, cooking posts and I thank you for them). You may now have a better sense of what many artists and creative people's lives are like. That desire to shift the narrative, to entertain, and to help others with whatever you feel you have to give and it isn't about money. 

However, I feel like The Giving Tree right now (I have always been the tree in that book). Currently, I feel like the stump at the end. This is mostly because I haven't been working as regularly (after that 2019 year-end flurry and I've been spending my time this year getting ready for what I thought was to be an exhibition flurry in 2020). Now, I am away from my studio, the galleries and shows are closed, I am not making my Tuesday Studio Video Visits, and I can't even send you art if you wanted to support me. I feel like I have nothing to give. I know this is not exactly true but it is a feeling that has crossed my brain a few times lately. 

And now watch what I do, I will turn it around. I am pretty good at this part, my middle name is Campbell (but it really should be Resilience). One day when I finally get around to making "my weirdest fucking art yet"™ maybe that will be the name I use - Resilience Campbell. 

So, okay back to the turnaround. Here I am, giving you this, I am writing my Studio Blog - better late than never and I think it's going to pretty good so far. I have ordered art supplies today. Just a few things to get me going again - yellow ochre, black, white, pink, turquoise paint (gotta have some colour!) charcoal sticks, brushes. Thanks, Pat for the birthday giftcard to the art supply store! I still need a few other materials (there seems to be have been a run on oil pastels!) and another generous friend has offered to help me with this. Thanks, John! 

Many of the galleries I show with are posting work online across social media and have e-commerce sites or are in the process of developing them so that patrons can still buy art in order to support their galleries and artists. They are thinking of new ways for us all to stay connected and in business with online art talks and more! For all the links look at last week's post.

After posting this blog, I will start to clear a space where I might be able to work (and as the weather warms I will be able to use the outside patio space too and get some fresh air while observing social distancing/isolation protocol). Tomorrow, I will record a Tuesday Studio Video Visit from home and might change up the format a bit. I still want to get the rest of my videos from Facebook and put them on my YouTube channel - and it looks like I will have plenty of time now to do that tedious task. I can update my online shop and can create new incentives for patrons to support my work- as in it's a great time to put a painting on layaway - at installments that you can afford. There are many things I can do to maintain my practice (and it might not just be painting) and hopefully generate a bit of money. Basically, I need to create my own WPA projects and hope that our capitalist systems fall in line with what is really happening with rent and mortgage freezes, utility freezes, support for the freelance, self-employed and gig economy WORKERS around the world and a basic universal income while we are helping each other by staying in place.

Honestly, haven't we all just been thinking of surviving and protecting our loved ones? This is not the best headspace for me to make art and I am not feeling too creative except for in the kitchen (yes, cooking is an art) but I have lived through many times in my life when it was not the best headspace for making art. The art changes and the headspace changes too. We don't wait for inspiration, we create the conditions for it and we catch it in the ether. Today, I vow to set the stage and have my internal butterfly net alerted to catch the wild ideas that float past. I have more to give, I am not done.

Be well, stay safe, distance, and isolate. Wash your hands. We need you and the gifts you bring, now more than ever. 

With love, gratitude, and hope for the world, 
Megan 

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