No292 gets posted through the Arts Centre “art” doors
It’s all a bit of a long tale but to cut it short I planned to do my artwork for the day and take it to Bridport Arts Centre personally as I was taking down my #Collage365 show this afternoon. I had created the envelope, including a message that it was to be delivered by hand, but left it at home. By the time I had finished the piece there wasn’t the time to go back home before I had to be at the Arts Centre. Because I had already created the envelope I sort of felt bound to deliver by hand. I considered making a new envelope or crossing out the message but decided to do it properly. I’m pleased I did because, as you can see in the photograph, I discovered the “art doors” of the Arts Centre. The shadow of the Christmas lights appears to say “art” across the doors, which I think is pretty cool! The art work inside the envelope (which I didn’t just leave outside) is pretty cool too, a bit odd and unusual, but cool! The envelope has another quote from Joni Mitchell’s “River”: the nearest I get to liking a Christmas song!
Oh and I have just realised that I will reach No300 on 31st December!
I was just about to write some deeply intellectual or arty or witty stuff about the messages on the front not being messages when I found an email from hours ago asking me urgently to provide an image for the Arts Centre brochure to advertise this project at an unspecified “slightly higher resolution” than the image I provided 6 weeks ago! How come they have only just now found this out? What have they been doing since the deadline they gave me? So I am not happy and I am not playing right now.
I put off doing my #Letter365 for a while to go to the artist’s talk with Jill Kennington at the Arts Centre. Her show of photographs is on in the Allsop Gallery above my #Collage365 show Oh and we also had a nice lunch at Spice & Rice the street curry stall in the market. So I didn’t get to deliver my letter till much later and Dee has had enough of me taking her photo!
I really don’t know if I can just restrict this one to #Letter365 I wasnt to develop it as a theme and I think it needs space to breathe rather than being locked up in an envelope. We will see! Well you won’t – that’s the whole idea of the project.
Even in my mind’s eye the remembrance of today’s piece sparked alive with a satisfied joy. I completed the piece before going off to Portland around lunchtime. I didn’t quite have the time to drop it in at the Arts Centre before going so it sat on the passenger seat. Even though I was in proximity to it I really didn’t give the contents a second thought. I went to the dentist, a gallery. explored some of the historic ruins looked at the view, drove back to Bridport, delivered the piece, went to the shop, made dinner and watched The Dark Knight without giving this specific artwork any thought. So when I came to write this, for a moment, I couldn’t remember what I had made! Even as I write this I have not yet looked at the photographs, I know exactly what I have created. I remember the point at which I had to decide how subtle or how obvious I needed to be with a particular element for it to be just slightly unsettling, to make the eye curious in a curious person and in an incurious person for their eyes to rest gently upon it.
Anyway, Megan was kind enough to take delivery of today’s piece. It was her exhibition I went to see in Fortune’s Well. I appreciate her wearing nail varnish and top that works well with the day’s envelope!
Laura Cockett, the new Director of Bridport Arts Centre takes delivery of #Letter365 No252 at my #Collage365 Private View. It was a great evening with lots of people and some sales. #Letter365 is set to be even better.
No350 heads to the post box like Star Wars credits
Well my #Collage365 show at Bridport Arts Centre opened this morning. We finished the labelling and soon after the first ones sold. So the show is off to a good start and is looking great.
I, on the other hand, have run out of energy and am completely run down. So I need to get to bed and get the batteries recharged.
Please note that I am ignoring the fact that this is another round number!
I can’t say any more – and anyway it’s late having been out to see Mark Steel at Bridport Arts Centre – but in this case I think it is an idea that works in many sizes. Sometimes I wonder if I have the skill to make bigger – I mean much, much bigger – versions of ideas I make in small mostly I think it’s a little bit of fear and lack of confidence. What I have wondered is why I stuck as stamp on and posted this to a place I visited an hour or two later!
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?
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.
An unfolding artwork created a piece each day for a year
