12. The Power of mentoring
As I decided on a title to provoke the writing of this post, the 80s pop rock track, The Power of Love nestles into my brain as an earworm. But it’s not entirely inappropriate. The mentoring I received was so care-full and generous, it felt like a shared act of love for the work.
I identified mentoring as an important element of my DYCP quite early on - the need to understand others pathways, to get an insight into their experience and skills as a way of creating a road map for myself. I saw mentoring as a way to orient myself and my aspirations for the work I want to make in relation to others' practice. I wanted to connect with artists who I consider my elders, sometimes actually, sometimes in terms of practice. My dream wishlist was all older women, which feels significant even if I can’t quite articulate why. I also wanted to create my networks, and deepen connections, where my ideas and aspirations were central to the conversation. I spend lots of my time supporting others' ideas and aspirations, so this element felt quite radical. Mentoring sessions ranged from a few hours to two days, and were mainly in person.
A lot of my work involves that intangible skill of holding space for others; to express and develop their creativity, to learn new skills, forge new relationships and experiment with ways of being. It’s something that is quite instinctive to me, and a skillset I have invested in developing. Something that I hadn’t expected from the mentoring experience was how supportive it was to be held. I felt a lot of pressure approaching these brilliant artists. I was nervous about my ideas, felt like my track record was lame and that my thinking was so far behind theirs as to be embarrassing. I realised it had been a long time since I'd felt like a beginner at something - a way of being I regularly pursued before I got ill in 2015. It was a useful reminder to stay present with my own discomfort but try to sensitively let it be. As it was, each session was in its own way delicious, all the artists were warm and kindly, including when they were challenging me and my thinking.
I got so much out of the mentoring sessions - I’d thought of writing up each session as a blog but it felt unhelpfully overwhelming and very specific to me and my idea. I’ve tried to distil the learning and discoveries that I made:
Everyone is making it up as they go along and that’s ok.
I can be more adventurous with materials and disciplines - I can dance or make a print, I don’t need to do another training course. I can discover through doing.
It’s ok to be demanding for myself.
At the same time I can let myself off the hook a bit more.
I have some really interesting, rich, lines of enquiry in the projects I’m thinking about
The experience of hearing about the mechanics of other people’s work has given me useful tools to apply to my own.
I need to think about documentation more creatively and rigorously.
It’s really nice to have mentoring type conversations while engaged in an activity, walking, cooking, swimming, I even got to do some sailing. It changes the rhythm and intensity.
Do less, better. And when I do more make sure I take care of myself.
Notice what my preferences are and explore / invite the opposite – particularly with regards to tempo and pace.
Serendipity is a powerful agent, but it needs to find you in motion.
Just ask - people can only say no.
There’s more for me to find in the tension between rigour and chaos.
The experience of being mentored has made me think about how I will make mentoring an essential part of future project design, to try to build in that support and stretch for myself in all the work I do.
Here are the artists who mentored me:
Sheyamali Sudesh and Ishwari Bhalerao part of Kneed for a short peer mentoring conversation
I also want to thank Jo Mackie, Lily Einhorn, Toby Peach and Jordana Goldbourn who have supported, encouraged, challenged and inspired me at different points on my journey.
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