What This Artist Does All Day...

Sarah Kirby

MG: When does your working day start and end?
​SK: I’m an early riser … I’ve usually had the first cup of tea by 6am, but the work doesn’t often start before the first cup of coffee an hour or so later

MG: When/how do you take breaks?
SK: It depends what I’m working on…which is usually more than one thing at a time. 
As a printmaker sometimes it’s obvious - ie: I get to a point in cutting where I want to take a proof to see what’s going on and then have a coffee while ‘contemplating’ results.
Sometimes it’s because my fingers have seized up (getting more frequent with age) and I need to change activity from cutting to drawing for instance.
Sometimes I come to an impasse - usually a point of indecision rather than displeasure, and need to do something different to let the idea take shape in my head …then I walk to the allotment or do chopping or weeding in the garden.
​Sometimes the break is a reward - a self imposed deadline for a particular task for instance - get the drawing done on a piece of lino ready to start cutting and then you can make a coffee !

MG: What is your favourite kind of day as an artist?
SK: One without commitments, but one with purpose ie. an idea just starting - whether it’s starting the block or taking a trip to gather information and images for a new project.
​The point when a piece of work is underway is always best.  There are nerves before starting and fears when coming to conclusions; but the middle bit is thrilling, full of promise and all encompassing.

MG: What marks a successful day?
SK: Starting or finishing a new piece of work.  Working all day on a new piece of work is what I love to do - any day doing that is successful.  Obviously it’s fabulous to be offered a show, or when someone buys  a piece of work … but the longer I do it, the act of doing is the only success that matters in the long run.

MG: How does the place you work influence you if at all?
​SK: Always … I sit at a big window looking out at my garden. It’s a safe, quiet, peaceful, yet ever changing backdrop to thinking.  I live in a city but have privacy, space, light and lots of green outside.   I have Radio 4 on, and until very recently, a big beloved ginger cat at my side and try to remember how fortunate I am to be doing what I do.

MG: Who are your biggest artistic influences?
SK: I love so many artists, many of them printmakers but not all. If I were to name some it would include Samuel Palmer, William Blake, Edward Bawden and Cecil Collins. Recently I have been delighted by exhibitions of Tirzah Garwood, Vanessa Bell, Martha Armitage and 13th century Italian icon paintings at the National Gallery. 
And, like so many of us I spend time on instagram and enjoy being taken around the globe by contemporary artists and illustrators at work .

MG: Where do you find inspiration?
SK: There really is inspiration everywhere … taking time to look  and draw never ceases to provide ideas and emotions.  I am drawn to being outside but an allotment or garden is equally amazing as a vast landscape. I like the connection I can find with a place; the mark of the human in the natural world.
​Poetry also often inspires. My current obsession is Mary Oliver.

MG: When is your favourite time of day to create?
SK: The mornings are always best for me.  I have focus and energy for the creative stuff until the early afternoon. I tend to do the ‘admin’, the sorting, the wrapping of orders, the accounts etc in the afternoon if I have to!

MG: How do you define success as an artist?
​SK: Just being able to still make and be able to define myself as an artist; some days even that seems a big task. I look at some artists who have been making for decades, with little or only moderate recognition and sometimes think it is the most heroic act.

MG: Does art help you in other areas of your life?
​SK: It touches every part of my life. When everything or anything bad, sad or troubling happens I know I still have my meaning … being able to make keeps me getting up each day.  I tend towards the melancholy and try hard to see it as a positive trait when the rest of life makes me anxious or worried.  On a good day it gives me a belief and a necessary confidence for the other bits of living.

MG: How do you develop your art skills?
SK: Drawing, drawing, drawing - a habit I will endeavour to do for ever!
Recently I had a big show which took over my life for almost 18 months and I realised I had stopped visiting exhibitions and seeing other people’s art so am consciously trying to build that up again. Exploring other people’s creativity and collections, looking at and reading about art helps to generate new ideas.

MG: What couldn’t you live without in your studio?
​SK: A view / a table!!!  

MG: Do you have the opportunity to mentor or share your skills with young or new artists?
SK: I am a member of an Open Access Print Workshop in Leicester. Sometimes if I need more space I will print my linocut editions there. It’s a lovely environment where all sorts of printmakers also share the space. I love sharing my process and talking around what I’m doing. To have someone else interested and being able to share is a privilege.

MG: What role do you think the artist has in today's society?
SK: The way of an artist is so varied and unique it sometimes seems to be at odds with most of what the world is seemingly about. To give value to time and choice, colour and craftsmanship,  individuality and space, the eccentric and the prosaic, conversation and different ways of thinking and, above all Beauty, is to constantly redefine but also confirm what it is what we are all here for.

MG:  Thank you very much Sarah for sharing your day.  We wish you many more successful days.

You can see Sarah's work in our summer exhibition, A Particular Place.