Semester two - July hui

Elton's little boys

It has been a really insightful and positive few days for me. Seeing the work of my peers and listening to them speak about their own and others work was a really nice way for me to ease back into the swing of things.

Over the two days of critique I had a constant feeling of vulnerability from the artist. I really admire that and appreciate their generosity for it, because I think there is strength in being vulnerable and to present something that may be sensitive or not quite how they'd like makes me feel pretty special.

I am also really grateful to have had the little write ups from each of the part two students, that was super helpful for me and eased my mind on a couple things. There are still some works that I struggle to understand and how they are actually art, but my approach to them has been much more positive and curious to know more.

I'd been away for a good 5 weeks to rest and replenish myself back to feeling normal again. I was running on E for a good little (whole) while in semester one and it was affecting all aspects of my life. I stopped doing the things that I loved and enjoyed and began seeing only the negative in everything I did. I didn't feel good therefore my output wasn't either. But this is not the time or post to talk about that. But I feel better

So for my critique on Saturday I had planned to just have a quick discussion about the show and what its taken for me to get to this stage of planning for it. I was pretty nervous about talking about it because I didn't want to waste everybody's time just listening to me instead of having things to look at but in the end it was really positive and I am glad that I went through with it. I was very fortunate to have Kura Puke sit in on my discussion and also continue a conversation afterwards about her work and the knowledge she has to share with me. Conversations with Kura are always super full and rich so it takes me a while to digest it all in and fully understand what she is talking about but they are super beneficial for me.

Since coming back I can feel that my approach to not only this semester but just my life in general is much better. I feel lighter and more curious about everything and am looking forward to seeing this semester through.