Laura Boswell ARE – Printmaker

Job’s Worth

It’s easy to get disheartened when you’re an artist working alone. All sorts of little things add up and up until I sometimes take refuge in stomping about declaring that I would be better off doing something that started at nine, ended at five and involved a pension, holiday pay and company. I think this may be a somewhat dated idea of the workplace based on Radio Four Extra’s endless supply of old sitcoms, but there are days when being outrageously patronised as I make tea seems almost attractive.

The trick is, I suppose, to see that things do balance out. For every instance of petty theft, there’s an honest soul like the lady who went to enormous lengths to return a pencil she’d inadvertently packed into her equipment. All the silly comments about artists and how we indulge in a super-wonderful time of things dabbling at our hobby are somehow cured by the serious young couple who bought my first ever really big print and turn up at Art in Action each year to gravely buy a print and discuss my work. The horrible, horrible business of accounts and tax returns eased a bit by the fun of swapping a print for a basic lesson in bookkeeping. The hours of preparing for classes noticed by the one student who’s a teacher and tells you you’re well prepared and that she knows what that involves…

So I may be beginning 2014 a bit frazzled, but on reflection I wouldn’t trade this particular job for anything. Not even the chance to make a cuppa for the Men at the Ministry…

Author: Laura

Laura Boswell is a printmaker working exclusively with linocut and traditional Japanese woodblock printing. She has a degree in Art History/Visual Art from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and has been elected to the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers.

One thought on “Job’s Worth”

  1. Hi Laura, could really, really understand how you felt in this post! Greatly enjoy following your posts…..and glad to find I’m not the only printmaker who has close relationship with the men from the ministry….not to mention Steptoe and Son and others at R4extra!!!! Have a brilliant 2014!

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