It’s been a busy day today. I sorted out the final pieces for my forthcoming #Collage365 show at Bridport Arts Centre and took them off to the framers. Then went and bought our second car, mainly for Sally’s commute and round town. And that took up so much of the day that by the time I had done #Letter365 we had ran out of time to get to Paul Newman’s preview evening in Gillingham, about which I am really gutted. And now we are off to meet some friends and say farewell before they move and another friend is coming to stay over. The reason I mention all this is that, when under pressure, all sorts of things pop into my head. I get scared to do the things I think are needed in case I bugger it up and have to start again. When will I learn to just do what my heart tells me?
So the headline continues from yesterday. I wasn’t expecting to get much work done but I had hoped to get more admin-type things done. Of course, this state of normality I seek is a total fiction. It’s what I would ideally like to be the case – especially since I have so many things I want to explore in the studio.
This thing about silence on the envelope: I wonder what proportion of people might connect it to Simon & Garfunkel compared to the proportion who may have thought of John Cage?
I am starting to feel frustrated and stressed that I have not been able to spend a sanity-ensuring amount of time in the studio working on my art and I have documentation and admin to do as well and things keep getting in the way. Grieving, illness, looking for a new car and IT issues are just some of the things that have come to stop me and whilst I am resigned to having to restrict my studio time for the next few days to ensuring I do #Letter365 I am still edgy and unhappy about it. It has become a real necessity for my sanity and wellbeing to work at my art and not being able to spend extended hours absorbed in it is bad for me.
Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to do some of the admin I need to do and on Sunday I am confident that we will see an interesting development in the progress of #Letter365!!! I am pitching for a fresh start on Monday so I can finish setting up the studio and get back to decent spells of time just creating art.
Having said all that, #Letter365 is a life-saver for at least I can insist on the time to do something each day!
I used “Don’t look now” as the title of this post because it is written on a Post It note on my desk, because the whole idea of the project is that you can’t look now, but most of all because once again I’m late getting this blog updated and our cat, Henry, has set me a puzzle. Henry’s puzzle is “how do you catch a mouse while holding up a sofa?” So the full title perhaps should be, “Don’t look for the mouse now you have a blog to update.” Henry was not interested in helping me sort the mouse problem.
Henry’s mouse is a rather lovely, scared-but-unharmed field mouse which he brought in while I wasn’t looking, whereas the Post Office brought me a brand new mouse while I was out. They didn’t leave it under the sofa but took it back to the sorting office. The mouse it is to replace is not scared but it is a bit harmed. It is old and worn out and no longer able to scroll at speed or be relied on to carry out basic mouse funtions. Henry was not interested in sorting out these mouse problems either.
I started today’s piece this morning but then had to go off to test drive a couple of cars (yes another new car, this time for Sally) and that all took longer than we thought and then we had Film Society (a good Japanese film, “Like Father Like Son”), so I didn’t get back to the studio to finish it off till late.
No214 gets posted close to deadline at my home box
Busy with chasing wild geese and such things today so #Letter365 was all left rather late in the day. Then, when I was happy with the piece, I found I had left my camera at home. Because the lights at the studio flicker slightly I can’t get even a half decent image on my phone camera so I had to come back home to fetch it. So it was getting later and later but in the end it got popped in the box in plenty of time and this blog post will be done before midnight too.
That’s three days in a row that we have been to something at the Arts Centre and it’s not usually open on a Monday so my Film Society visit on Tuesday should count as 4 days in a row. This afternoon it was to see “Will and Testament” the new film about the life of Tony Benn with a Q&A beamed live. Spoiled for choice in sleepy old Dorset we are!
The artwork worked out better than I could have hoped. I usually have a really clear idea if what I intend or am empty and open to inspiration. Today I was empty and feeling rough again with this cold. I delved in my brain and got a vague idea I wanted to play with and it all turned out swell – though I suppose you would expect me to say that!
No212 got posted at Kilter Theatre’s mobile sorting office
We went to see Kilter Theatre‘s “The Last Post” tonight, a sensational performance that takes place inside the Mobile Sorting Office, which was parked on Bridport Arts Centre‘s forecourt. We really enjoyed their piece and the guys from the cast agreed to take responsibility for the delivery of my #Letter365 artwork. I have given them a free hand to deliver it in whatever way they choose and they have a Mobile Sorting Office stamp which they will use on No212’s envelope. So pleased to be able to link with other artists working with a postal theme, though since the MSO handles a lot of undelivered and undeliverable mail, who knows what will happen!
Kilter Theatre take responsibility for delivering No212
As to today’s piece itself: I love it! It is also somehow quite fitting for the delivery mode too – not sure why but I feel it is.
I got Ziggy to deliver No211 to Jonty at the Arts Centre
I thought I would save the price of a stamp and deliver today’s piece by hand. I could have just wandered round to Bridport Arts Centre from the studio but since I was going to The Gravity Drive gig there this evening I thought I would deliver it then – except I left it at home and so had to go back at the end. Jonty was there but refused to pose because he was all sweaty from …from who knows what, so he suggested Ziggy take it, but since she didn’t have the key to the office had to deliver it to Jonty anyway!
The piece itself is quite an unusual one. I had a mind to play around with some particular materials – not specifically for #Letter365 – and remembered how I had used something previously and thought it would work just fine for today’s artwork.
I think I have talked about this before: I have learned to not fret over ideas that come to me at night when I am in bed, falling asleep or in a dream or when I half wake. I have wasted hours trying to capture the chimera that is this or that perfect composition or even just try to remember it! Unless it is still burning bright when I wake I just forget it. This morning the night’s inspiration was still burning bright and I merged it with some other things I have bubbling away and am very happy with how this piece turned out. I may do some more work in this vein.
An unfolding artwork created a piece each day for a year
