Professional practice

 Graham Elstone  

Graham Elstone is a Nottingham based artist predominantly working with sound, tech and installation. Graham told us about the breadth of his work in education and as a mentor for young offenders as well as working in teams with other artists. He uses the other jobs and roles in his creative thinking and his artworks. His advice was to build transferable skill sets, look for new materials and new possibilities to build a portfolio. He encouraged working with others, both artists and communities and cited his work in care homes, even his own artworks contain a degree of public interaction. He spoke about trying to be confident in your own abilities and sharing them. Graham works in mixed media and said to never close of anything but to look for what's available at the time, in both materials and opportunities. He also made a point that flexibility in yourself and work is a positive and not to be afraid of rejection. 

This talk has made me think deeper about building a skill set that could be transferable throughout my artistic life and think more about the possibility of collaboration. I was also interested in the way he used early tech at the beginning of his career as this is something that I might like to develop in my own work. 

                                                                    Ode to... 2023