I am really fed up with the weather being so drear and dismal again. Yet the trees are coming in to leaf and the summer visiting birds are gradually arriving. A friend said they had seen the first swallow. Fingers crossed for some finer weather soon to go with my fine art!
I ought to develop this theme perhaps. Possibly I could make shadow puppets for some of my pieces with little scripts for plays.
I didn’t mention that I am letting the printer cartridges run out until I need to print something in colour. The magenta has gone as you can see!
I am not feeling very well again today but am trying to ignore it, except that I did my #Letter365 for today as one of my first jobs just in case I wasn’t up to it later. And I have to say I am very pleased with the piece I made. Not that I am not happy with all the pieces I am putting forward in #Letter365 – they all have to pass the “would I have it on my wall” test as a very minimum! But some days I think that maybe I should reconsider my intention to destroy, unseen, any pieces that haven’t sold at the end of the exhibition.
Anyway, having got the piece ready I decided I would post it rather than deliver it by hand. When I got to the Post Office there were two shiny red post vans and there had been a collection (they don’t tell you the times any more in case they can’t be bothered some days I suppose). The postie who had emptied the box readily offered to take my #Letter365 and, slightly more reluctantly, agreed to have her picture taken. I think you will all agree it’s a pleasant change when I can feature smiling people rather than just a post box!
Thing is I now find myself in a quandary. I have previously been refering to “postmen” and have today used “postie” as a non gender-specific term as the person who took my letter is clearly female. Should I refer to her as “postwoman” or change all future references to postal operatives to “postie”. I am not a great lover of shortened names and terms, though “postie” does have a friendly nature to it. What do you think?
I thought about calling this post “Letter The Right One In” as a play on words with the film I saw this morning. I am glad i didn’t. I’m actually not feeling very well so I have nothing else to say apart from the fact that I have posted No27.
I don’t mean the evidence that shadow rabbits can hold credit cards between their ear and nose (see picture) but the evidence that the post box day plate for Tuesday has been “mislaid”. It hasn’t been there the last few weeks and MON is displayed on Tuesday. That’s why all the people in Bradpole look confused! Well, one of the reasons.
I got very frustrated creating the envelope for this one. For some reason the printer would not recognise the settings set up for this particular document – the ones it has used for the previous 25 days – and chose to use the settings for the other documents that were open!
It’s odd that there is a pressure in me to produce a completely new and unique work each day. While I intend each work that will be unique that doesn’t mean that I have to summon up a totally new idea each day. I have only just realised that I could work on developing a single idea over a period of time – I had already thought of doing special series, say at Christmas – and I had sort of forgotten that part of this process is the final installation, so perhaps I will do series of similar work for stretches at a time. It will perhaps be like the wave-carved ripples on the wide sand beaches, the same but totally different every day. And some days there will be a rock or a crab. But mostly it will just be the same but totally different. There again I may not do that!
I thought it would be sunny today but it turned out dull and drizzly. So today’s #Letter365 offering got everso vaguely damp in the 30 paces to the post box.
Having spent a busy day making the most of the sunshine, painting the new solar wax extractor and digging and raking one of the vegetable beds, then spending some useful time in the studio I am exhausted! Losing an hour last night probably didn’t help either. So no energy for deep thought.
I will just mention that I watched Powaqqatsi this evening. Interesting to see it again after 30 years I guess. Still stunning even though not as powerful as it was in my memory, but now we have such a deluge of visual images available to us that it is hard to remember how remarkable this was when it came out. The Philip Glass score is of course a masterpiece in its own right and certainly not just a film soundtrack. Two sections might get plundered by me for some ideas!
Well the sun went in but I had already printed the envelope – though I expected change so was hesitant!
I was a bit disappointed that the Post Office had run out of the Bridport News so I was unable to maximise my journey 30 yards down the road!
I spoke to Pete Bryan at Arts Development UK today (I set up their website) and he thinks I should apply for a grant from the Arts Council. Should I? I could make the application process part of the art process. Anyone got any thoughts?
Sometimes it all seems a bit pointless. I just put the latest #Letter365 in the post box. A few minutes later I popped back to the shop (Bradpole’s excellent Post Office) and the postman is taking the stuff out. I could have just hung about in the rain and given it to him. If everyone had waited around we could have had a nice chat and the postman wouldn’t have had to do any bending.
Talking of the rain this is probably the first time there was proper rain at posting time. I knew it would might get wet so adjusted the wording on the envelope!
Anyway I had a chat to Ann in the shop. She had seen me the other day as I mentioned. Now I have explained what I am doing she doesn’t think I am any madder than she already knew I was!
Just look at all those tobacco products. Only by shopping locally do you see that sort of thing. I have to say that I am not tempted to take up smoking each time I see them!
This one took ages to dry – now there’s a hint: glue or paint or ink maybe – so I am pleased I started it early. I spent part of the day painting in the garden – black paint on a solar wax extractor – not sure that is going to dry properly now that the temperature has plummeted, but I don’t have to send it off to anyone only find it a place out of the weather.
I like the colour on this one very much. Perhaps I’ll stick with it.