02 Aug Discipline, Procrastination and Cleaning the Cooker…

I have a strange relationship to discipline; I love it and need it, but at the same time I find myself flying in the face of it. Discipline and commitment, for me, run side by side; I have an inherent commitment, even compulsion, to a way of seeing, experiencing and feeding my creative life but this often fulfils me way more than any act of discipline. I fully acknowledge that sometimes I have to have creative freedom without the ties of order, but there is always a nagging organisational beast gnashing it’s jaws and developing daily…

In the past few weeks my general photo organisation has fallen into a chaotic iphone jumble, whereas it had been in good working order over previous months. The end of June and the whole of July have been my busiest all year; I had my two St James’s photowalks in London ( post coming this weekend ), The Vogue International event, The Summer Science Fair, The Design Museum ‘Moving To Mars’ event, my Summer Sale, filming with Sophie Abbott, painting new work and also finalising the concept of my new book ( more to come on that at some point.. ). I have basically been ‘doing’ lots of things and whilst that has obviously involved taking lots of photos too, I’ve had no time to pull them all together not only to file but also to share…

I also looked after my friend’s cat for a few days last month and was very inspired by the organisation of her kitchen…she’s been into sustainable living for over 18 years and has her home organised to within an inch of it’s life. Having spent the best part of 7 months working really hard to reduce my plastics, re-use, recycle and re-think, it’s become increasingly obvious that being sustainable involves a lot more personal domestic effort than I had anticipated…I actually don’t mind that it does and even quite enjoy it, however, it has meant that I am now missing a couple of hours in my day due to new domestic and sustainable chores: I wash and dry all my plastics, remove all the paper and metal on bottles and boxes to recycle everything separately , I make my own sprouting seeds for salad, my own kombucha and my own cleaning mixtures. I compost all my food waste and now, rather than making eco bricks, I make mixing palettes by ironing all my un recyclable plastic flat ( this activity is not quick!)… I think what has happened is that I have spent the ‘lost’ hours working in my home, consciously addressing the order of my domestic life, rather than utilising the time on my phone, my Dropbox, my memory stick, my hard drive, my blog and my emails etc, etc.. Creating a new domestic ‘regime’ at home has seemed hugely important over the last month and as I sit here and think about it, I have a feeling that there are two big components which may be feeding into my lack of digital order: Firstly, my life is about to change as my son going to uni in September…I haven’t lived on my own for over 20 years and I think I’m a bit nervous about how that’s all going to pan out, so maybe I’m in the process of trying to reclaim my home in some way. Secondly, as I briefly mentioned above, I have a new book to write and obviously that is not possible until the cooker is completely cleaned, the top of the cupboards are divested of hidden grease, the stairs and stair walls are scrubbed, the bathroom is sparkling and the cupboard under the sink looks like something out of a Kinfolk photoshoot…

But I had made sure that I’d scheduled in some time to be in Cornwall this month; time where I could start to write my book whilst my son is away…and because I don’t have the same domestic routine down here, because I don’t have my own cooker to clean, my own behind the sofa to get lost down, my own cupboard full of folders which need sorting from 2007, or my own general domestic distractions, I am obviously finding other incredibly important things to organise before I can start writing…like sorting my photos and my blog… And in writing that last sentence the nonsense of the importance of my organisation goals feels very apparent… I acknowledge that it is a procrastination…however, maybe it’s also a springboard; maybe I need this photo/blog disciplined/cleaning the cooker time to lead me gently into the new book stuff and maybe by the end of the week things will start to look and feel clearer…

But for now, here is a glut of ‘catch up’ photos from the past month and there’ll be a couple of photo only posts to follow too… Below are some pics highlighting some more sustainable and less plasticky things I’ve been introducing into my domestic life… I compost all my food waste ( apart from meat and dairy ) I soak any plastic stuff which has paper attached including envelope windows and packing tape…
I dry all my non recyclable plastic…
I scrape off all the paper which can either be recycled or composted… I empty all my teabags ( empty tea bags in pic below ) into the compost as the teabag itself is made of a fibre which contains plastic and won’t properly biodegrade… I take off and recycle the metal seals and cap on a wine bottle and also take out the 2 big bits of plastic hidden in the cap… I pick up plastic stuff I find when I’m out ( below )… And I’ve started making these mixing palettes with the non-recyclable plastic I collect by ironing plastic together and melting it in the oven… And I’m wearing clothes I’ve had for years and buying second hand… The art work below is from the Art Foundation Graduation show at Brighton MET and the chair was made by Chloe Monk who was my brilliant assistant on the London photowalks…