Steve Reich, Piano Phase (pattern 2) (1967) (courtesy of Wikicommons)

Last night, I watched the second part of Charles Hazelwood’s documentary on minimalist music: Tones, Drones, and Arpeggios. In an interview with Steve Reich, the composer advocated that, for him, music must have both integrity of structure and an emotional appeal. That’s my opinion too; the mind and the heart must be engaged together.

8.00 am: A communion. (I’m nothing, I can do nothing, without love.) 8.30 am: Off on my first visit to the Old College, via a failed encounter with the ticket machine at the railway station. Wedding residue:

9.05 am: (I was uncharacteristically a little late.) The first two MA fine art tutorials of the day before a brief period of Starbuckery to catch-up on admin before my walk to the School for a pair of consultation meetings. An uplifting and sustaining day, for me, for now:

11.10 am: A research consultation meeting With Dr Chamberlain on a matter of mutual passion. There are connections to be made between public and academic institutions, which are presenting themselves just at the right time. My sense was that I am, presently, on the cusp of something.  12.30 pm: A consultation with the MA art historians regarding the Vocational Practice assessment elements.

2.00 pm: The start of an afternoon MA tutorials first at the School and then, Old College. There are times when soul touches soul in art teaching. I wondered whether the same is experienced in other disciplines.

5.45 pm: Homeward. 7.30 pm: Further postgraduate teaching preparation awaited me: the PhD Fine Art research writing class tomorrow.

Some principles and observations derived from today’s encounters:

• We filter the world through our own past art.
• T: ‘In filtering the source, you’ve amplified its emotional resonance’.
• Creative endeavour isn’t linear; it’s circular: we often go from A to A rather than from A to Z, before beginning a new cycle – at A again.
• Many artists of note have constructed their career by concentrating on a narrow field of action. Diversification is the refuge of the undecided and uncommitted.
• Don’t make work for the mainstream. Make it for yourself. If the mainstream gravitates towards it, then, so much the better.
• You don’t determine to succeed because you suspect that you’ll fail in the endeavour.
• The passions of your youth stay with you in later life. Who you are is, in part, what you were, and what you’ll ever be.
• The movement from internal awareness to external articulation (intuition to cognition) requires focussed introspection over time in discussion with yourself and others.
• T: ‘You make in order to understand yourself, and you understand yourself in order to make’.
• In the dance, let the work lead occasionally.