Sally | Ōtāhuhu
“Something I could say about myself is that I had an interview to go to art school when I was 19 and I didn’t go, and it’s always been my biggest regret. That’s something that most people don’t know about me.
I was a young person who loved doing art, and always wanted to make that my work. Then I spent a year overseas when I finished school, which was fantastic and a massive privilege, and when I came home, I found that I’d lost the habit of drawing and making art, and it just caused me to lose my confidence. So, when I was successful at being asked to come and have an interview to go to art school I just had a complete crisis of confidence, and didn’t go.
I’m someone who has a lot of privilege in my life, and is very grateful for a lot of things that I have. Perhaps something that might not seem obvious to some about someone like me, is that even when you have so much, you still have reasons to stop yourself from doing those things that you really want to do. That’s just a regret that I have, and it’s not something I’ve ever managed to, you know, I want to say fix. It’s not something you can fix, I’ve never been back, or done any art training or anything. It’s still a regret that I live with.
I became a writer instead, which is again something a lot of people would love doing. It’s kind of just a, it’s a good job. It’s something that I do because I’m good at it, but it’s not my passion. I still try and do a little bit of drawing here and there, a little bit of pottery from time to time, but now that I’ve got a little two year old daughter, it’s hard to find that time for yourself, especially as a mum. So that’s still something that I hope to find more time for in the future.
I’d love to obviously (go to art school), but the older you get the more obligations you have, and the more financial barriers are thrown in your path. I think it will probably be something that I do as a hobby, and maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe the thing that you love should be separate from your work. A lot of us would call ourselves privileged just to get to do those things that we love doing in our spare time. So I think that’s probably what I’ll aim for, yeah.”
