A Day with Sam Winston:
The Value of ‘Being’
Lucy Brown
It was a pleasure to
welcome Sam Winston to Staffordshire University last month for a one-day
lecture and workshop, organised by Alke Groppel-Wegener.
“Sam Winston creates
sculpture, drawings and books that question our understanding of words both as
carriers of messages, and as information itself.”
Chris McCabe
Sam came humbly, with
some outstanding, beautiful work, and a wealth of mental wisdom to share.
Crafted with such precision, his pieces exemplified a practitioner at peace
with his process.
“Do what you love,” I
wrote as I listened to Sam speak – a timely reminder for all who aspire to keep
their personal practice alive amidst the demands of our busy lives. As teaching
staff we must also remember to pass this lesson onto students, to encourage
them to do the same.
Sam spoke of recognising
the value of the process whilst making new work. He said, “The work is the
teacher. The question is the teacher. The enquiry is the teacher.” In his piece,
Drawing Breath, Sam presents the value of this:
Winston, S. (2014)
Drawing Breath
We often loose sight of
the value of process in a ‘results’ driven society where we’re taught that the
end product is all that counts. What of the value of the journey, and the road
that carries you along the way? “Beyond travel, doing, teaching, working, just
‘being’ in the making is as good as it gets,” in Sam’s world.
In the afternoon, the group
discussed how the values of society effect the values of education, which in
turn effect the values of a personal working practice. Sam’s workshop was a
pertinent opportunity to pause and consider the current values of the
educational, creative space, both at our own institution, and beyond. Is our
society and culture currently promoting value in simply ‘being’ and making
personal, creative work, as opposed to constantly ‘doing’ something else –
arguably not.
Throughout the workshop
I was also reminded of the value of, "empowered reflection," through
the use of journals, notebooks, working drafts, simple mark making and play. It
is easy to forget to document and record the process, allowing anomalies and
'failures' to find a place.
Sam reminded the group
that life will always get in the way of an ideal working process, and that you
will often feel, as you've felt throughout life, that failure is bad. A
conscious awareness of the value of process requires daily contemplation, and
practice. He said, "The enemy of doubt is trust," and therefore in
order to progress, we are to trust our minds, and our bodies to generate work
through the space of simple 'being'.
We discussed how the
'back' part of our brain is working subconsciously on our behalf 24/7 - fast as
lightning, breathing, processing, producing - executing a whole range of bodily
functions without us even noticing. The 'front' area of our mind, in
comparison, is actually rather slow, to think, create, work. If we can learn to
trust the natural abilities of our body and mind in their 'being' state, how
much more at peace may we become with our working processes.
Further information
about Sam and his work can be found online at:
Image Credit:
