Home again in style! I haven’t got the energy to review and amend all the previous posts I couldn’t put an image up for: I have barely got the energy to put this one up! Just the few seconds taken to get a photograph has played havoc with the print on this one. I am still using Sally’s printer as mine is still not printing properly. I am trying to fix it this evening but to test it I need to buy some more cartridges! Ouch, expensive if I still can’t fix it. Anyway it looks as if HP pigment inks are less waterproof than Canon dye inks.
The height of excitement yet another different post box.; a George V one at that! We know how to live in Bridport!
The musical allusion isn’t summery, but then the day didn’t really turn out that way. Added to which I cannot find a clip to embed so if you want to hear and see Talking Heads Live in Rome version of Electricity (Drugs) check out this YouTube video. It only got into my head because I have been dealing with electricity companies today.
And we thought yesterday’s visit by Violet Lines was a one-off but she has knicked some of the pigment at the trailing edge of today’s print.
I had hoped that we had seen the last of Violet Lines, but she is back to celebrate getting to 150!
One of the problems of having a split working facility is the logistics of the envelope. Until I move my computer to the studio I’ll have to do the envelopes at home. This morning it seemed it was going to be a nice but not too hot summer day so I hinted there could be a mention of some summertime music, but long before I started on the piece the sun had gone and it became a mostly overcast afternoon. So I didn’t get into a summery mood and I’m too tired now to manufacture such a state so sorry but no music today!
I chose to detour via a different post box today just to add a little zip and pizzazz to the proceedings!
No132 goes in the box with a caress from Violet Lines
I am so tired that it has been really difficult to do the simple tasks of creating the envelope, photographing the work and getting it in the post. Fortunately when I returned to the work (which I had done much earlier) I was very happy with it. As I walked through the door of the studio I had a little anxious moment thinking “what if I don’t think it is good enough?” It was already late and my energy was really low. I am barely going to make this before midnight: goodness knows how I would have managed to create another from scratch!
As to the work, it is another new direction to explore, coming from some possibly sculptural ideas I want to develop.
And Violet Lines has returned in almost spectral form
Yeah, caught the post! I had just taken some images of me about to post No117 when the post van sped up and to give us a break from letters at the mouth of the box we have it going into the “official sack”.
But as I was saying … there are day’s when I am confident that I am pretty good at this art business. Ha! I’m not so sure about the business side of it, but with the background of my training, years of practice, years of looking, wide references, good taste and a helping of talent I can create pieces with integrity and intensity. They may not be to everyone’s taste but the work I am prepared to put out there is of good quality. (I do have a problem photographing it well though!)
Fortunately some people appreciate my work and it’s great when I get a spontaneous tweet from a client:
And of course the printer problem persists but while I mentioned it on the front of the envelope it doesn’t get a mention on the back:
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.
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.
I really have little to say about posting No112. The printer didn’t play up as much as I feared and There could have been a disaster with the sealing wax which I have written about on the back:
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:
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
An unfolding artwork created a piece each day for a year
