first week back in college

so, here we are. wondering how to make a fine art degree relevant to me. I have wonderful projects in the pipeline but i feel stuck.

So what's going on is that my work is almost all sculptural, live or experiential. We have a singing walk-about coming up, a new Velobici routine in the pipeline, a theatre design/lighting installation/experiential audience journey coming up in the caves and of course slack-rope, which i'm still kinda shit at. (When i say shit, i mean, not nearly good enough to be professional. I'll do some tomorrow tho and slowly i'll get better.) as well as two potential lighting happenings. Note to self: when I have photos, I should start creating 'profiles'.

My sketchbook is scant, there are sketches but most of my sketches are performed on and with the body. Butoh, movement ritual, yoga, running, swimming in the river... in the context of a live performer these all count don't they?

And how is spending my time looking for a van part of the college experience? From having spent last year working at festivals both as artist-in-residence and the 'hobby' of doing kids area craft/theatre... from dreaming of running away with the circus... from just plain wanting to see folks, i need to be realistic about what i can do if i'm not mobile. This is part of learning. It's a tool for the job, like the computer and camera. I may be settling in for winter but summer will come again. I may have no plans as yet but if i don't set myself on the right track now, there'll be no time when it comes around. So what that's it's a hankering dream, it's also part of a realistic future, especially as I have a child...
...
... Are my choices of how to bring up a child fair or valid? Is creating a life i'd like him to lead unfair on him - trying to live out my dreams via him? Or is it creating the family life I choose to experience myself? It depends, I suppose, on whether I enjoy it or whether I expect him to thank me for it.

And my dreams... they are not deep. A life of variety, creativity and community. From my recent musings I have come to the conclusion that if I'm going to work physically, I should do it now. If I want to parent on the move, with a community, I should do it now.

'Cirque' isn't particularly interesting to me at the moment (there is a whole other thought line there...) and I think eccentricity can be fitted in anywhere and/or at other times. If I acknowledge that there are these various strands of my interest then, rather than trying to mesh them together, I can nurture them separately. I do not wish to abandon the conceptual, the meaningful, the deep. I do not wish to leave the visual. But I do also wish to work with my body, my frivolous nature and my nomadic spirit (vomit bucket ready...).

So keep the connections open. Work with Cross Art, with Girl Gang, with Kris, with Cat, with the Motorcycle showroom (if poss!), with the Cube (if it happens!). But remain open to random art happenings, to the bizarre, the eccentric, the beautiful, the deep, the exposing. But train physically, and follow dreams that are deep.