Tag Archives: art

When it all goes wrong sometimes all you can salvage is a lesson

#Letter365 No299 goes in the box
No299 gets posted

My first attempt at my #Letter365 piece today was, well, crap really. What seemed to be a good idea started well then quickly foundered. Despite many attempts to bring it back from the brink, sadly, it tipped off the edge! Part of the problem was my love of using mixtures of materials that are perhaps not designed to go together – sometimes it produces interesting results. There again another part of the problem was that it wasn’t a well thought through idea and I was experimenting as I went. As we all know not every experiment yields a useful result! If I am really honest, I would have to say that my discipline failed for a while too. It was cold at the studio and I had left it later than I intended and wanted to try out some other ideas not related to #Letter365. The lesson is, I suppose, you can’t win them all and get your ducks in a row first!

I am still working even if you are not

#Letter365 No295 goes in the box
No295 gets posted

Most people in the UK get Boxing Day off but like people in the Health and Emergency Services I am committed to working for at least a little while to work each day for a year.  These days quite a lot of retail workers have to work today too. The difference between me and emergency and health workers is they are doing something of real value to the benefit of others and I am bonkers. The difference between me and retail workers is that I am creating something of real value and they are doing something bonkers for the benefit of their capitalist bosses.

And a happy Christmas to all my reader!

#Letter365 No294 goes in the box
No294 is not a Christmas special, just special

All the best laid plans… of course I forgot something! Having decided that I would be doing my #Letter365 pieces at home over the festive season I prepared various things and gathered materials together to allow this to happen with maximum ease, minimum stress and widest options. I wanted to be able to let inspiration not be too limited but on first outing got caught out! To be fair my first idea was crap and the second wasn’t going anywhere and it was all taking much longer than I planned and I was starting to get cold in the Pig Barn (my erstwhile studio in the garden). All went better after lighting the woodburner! Tempting to stay there as today’s piece has sparked some ideas to take elsewhere, but it is Christmas day so it’s back to the warmth of the house and family.

I thought of a great headline but forgot it!

#Letter365 No293 gets delivered by hand
Delivered by hand again: No293

Walking round to the Arts Centre I thought of a brilliant headline and how I would write this blog entry but it went totally out of mind when I realised that I had omitted an apostrophe from my message on the envelope: worse than that I realised that I had done the same yesterday but not seen it. Woe, woe and, thrice, woe!

Front of #Letter365 No293's envelope
Front of No293’s envelope