It should be a bit irritating, but will people get it?

#Letter365 No116 gets posted in bright evening sunshine
No116 gets posted in bright evening sunshine

First of all I should explain that I have changed the style of posting picture today because of the return of the shadow rabbit. I felt that Violet Lines and The Rabbit was a combination too much!

The piece I’ve produced today is superficially attractive and well composed but is designed to irritate the spatially astute among you.  Part of what art should do is challenge us; ask questions; irritate us. I suspect that most people (who like my work) will just go “ooh, that’s nice”. If that is your reaction then you should look harder, more carefully, longer. Of course now there’s the rub, you cannot see the item in question, at least not until next March and even then only if it is sold!

Back of #Letter365 No116 (detail)
Back of No116 (detail)

I’m really pleased with this one: no, I am really pleased with this one!

#Letter365 No115 gets posted
No115 gets posted with a note to the postie

There are times when I have done an especially good piece when I am close to weeping and other times I am a bit more fist in the air or sometimes, like today, when I just want to keep looking at it. The problem with that is I then start to have doubts. I wonder if it is just a superficial attractiveness or the idea is a bit facile or I am being too clever or too intellectual. But then again I couldn’t care less if I continue to derive such pleasure from looking at it: pleasure and wonder can’t be bad can it? I really didn’t want to part from this one so it will be interesting to see it again in 8 months time and see how I feel about it!

Back of #Letter365 No115
Back of No115

Printer problem as bad as ever

#Letter365 No114 shows a printer error
No114 goes in the box with printer chaos

It’s quite architectural I think, but its got to stop (hasn’t it?). The printer error is close to obscuring the address so we had better clean up its act!

I put a little note on for the postie who is doing the round for our fan while he is away. I hope it cheers them up.

And no I haven’t photographed the reverse side of the  envelope upside down – the annotation explains it.

Back of #Letter365 No114
Back of No114

I fretted about today’s #Letter365 but the postman doesn’t care!

Twitter exchange between David Smith and Bridport Arts Centre
Why the postman won’t be worried about today’s piece

Another miraculous silk purse from a sow’s ear – no that is not the right metaphor.  There must be a saying that sums up finding a sapphire ring in a pig pen. Another fine sapphire from a pig pen! This morning, for the first time, I was wishing I had never started this project. I was down in the dumps with no confidence and an idea for today’s piece that I really didn’t have any faith in when I had a little idea just pop in and immediately I jumped up and created something pretty special and something which caused me to do some prep for some other things as well as deciding to develop some other work from it. I have no idea where it came from and it was sort of a cheating way to make the idea that wasn’t going to work (and which I would have spent a lot of time on before accepting that it wasn’t any good) have a speedier and easier resolution.  Then it just took off and I knew immediately it was going to work and was worth the effort. All that was said in one excited breathless breath!

Anyway the postman who is supposed to be a fan is on holiday: thus the exchange above!

Apparently the postman is a fan

#Letter365 No113 bears a message to the posties
No113 bears a message to the posties

I popped into Bridport Arts Centre today to buy some tickets and was told that the postman had said I would have to reduce the amount of writing on the outside of the envelope – it is holding him up on his round reading it! So today I put a little hello to the post people to thank them for the good work they do. Just like I used “gotten” the other day to better fill the space, today I have used “postperson” instead of “postie”, the non-gender-specific term I decided on some time back, because it looked better visually.

As you can see the printer problem has returned with a bang and we have Violet Lines appearing again. I’m going to play with some photos before I make it go away.

Back of #Letter365 No113
Back of #Letter365 No113

It’s time for some experimental photographic prints

The envelope of #Letter365 No111 shows signs of printer problems
The printer problem returns on #Letter365 No111

Oh dear, the print problem is back with a vengeance. The bright side is that I can see what random effects it may cause on some photographic images – it’s worth the risk of a little wasted paper (or collage material as I prefer to call it!) However, I feel it may have gone far enough on the envelopes of this project!

Well the  number 111 should be important. Why don’t we celebrate the 111th anniversary of things with equal vigour to the 50th say? I seem to remember (or guess?) that there is something in the Kabbalah and it is the NHS number. (The word count after I typed NHS popped up as 111! How spooky is that? Well it’s not really spooky is it? I don’t usually notice the word count when it refreshes but as I was on the subject I, naturally, was alert to it.) It is the birthday upon which Bilbo Baggins set off on his travels so Tolkien fans might celebrate the eleventy-first of things, It is of course most powerful in cricket, where a score of 111 is known as a Nelson (erroneously after Admiral Lord Nelson who had only one eye, one arm but two legs) and is thought to be unlucky. It is remarkable (spooky) how often a wicket falls at 111 (or a multiple) – probably the same number of times as one does at 109 or any other nearby less-memorable number

And there are jottings on the back of this one about the printer problem and how much I like the work inside:

Back of #Letter365 No111
Back of No111

Rabbit out of a hat job – magical

#Letter365 No110 goes in to the post box
No110 goes in to the post box

I’m not referring to the shadow rabbits that have appeared here but the fact that somehow I have managed to magic up a good piece of work even though I have been really down today and barely able to do anything. It took a while to do and longer to find a way in to it and I wasn’t confident I would pull it off but it’s come out well in the end, very well.

Back of #Letter365 No110
Back of No110

Printer problems threaten again

#Letter365 No109 gets posted
Posted in pleasant evening sunshine No109 goes in the box

I am quite tempted to let the printer problem develop further. I like the way this little wave of chaos is reasserting itself, just like a shipwreck or a cliff fall will alter the formation of a beach until the sea slowly sorts it out and gets it back neat like it wants. I also wished i had done some more experiments with printing things with the blocked nozzle last time. So we will see how it is tomorrow.

Then there is the back of the envelope and that is  going in dangerously silly ways. I have always loved names (it is probably something to do with the rather pedestrian name I was graced with) and have” collected” place names at various times for their history, their humour, their story and so on. I have also made up place names, especially descriptive names for places along the route of my local walks. So many place names have been lost because of the breakdown of communities and the increase in roads as the main byways and highways. I like to redress the balance a little. I also like to make up people’s names. Had i chosen to be a writer I would never have been short of good names. So who knows where the back of today’s envelope will lead? Perhaps I will have to get a person’s name on the back? I am reminded of Joseph Heller’s “Is there anybody in the john, Milton?” (There is something willing me to go and fins the quote to see if I have the punctuation – well any of it – correct!!!)

Back of No109
Back of No109

No108 – words fail me

#Letter365 No108 goes in the box
No108 goes in the box

That’s not true actually: it’s not the words that have failed me but my will.  I have the words and I have the ability to string them together quite well but I just can’t be bothered. It is warm and sticky and I am tired and my enthusiasm for writing has wilted away. Luckily I did the art part earlier on else this would have had to carry an advisory on quality!

Back of No108
Back of #Letter365 No108