Today, I am closing a chapter in my studio practice. It is the first one I feel I can bring to a close, having reached a proper conclusion. (And I am sure this statement will come back to bite me in the ass a few months from now, when I decide I want to add something else after all!)

I find it curious how, in the first works I made, I can see the seeds of what I went on to do later. I think this kind of archaeology is essential to making sense of my own work, time and again. How curious is it that themes or interests emerge intuitively, or that we make choices that say so much about us? And how can we bring those aspects into consciousness?

Exercises are easy. You have to do X, at this size, on this subject. What is difficult is when we have to decide for ourselves what to do. Not only because of the creative challenge, but also, at least for me, because the work has to have a reason to exist.