Another lesson learnt today. I hesitated before adding some last-minute enhancements to today’s piece. I didn’t want to risk spoiling it yet I knew it needed something. For a few moments I held back. The piece was OK and I really didn’t want to start from scratch again. Then I said to myself “Do not be afraid – it’s only art” – well that isn’t quite true: the actual words involved an expletive or two, but that is a fair summary! I believed in myself and was confident that I could create something good if II did have to start from scratch. That of course gave me the freedom to add enhancements that enhanced!
Today I have been stressed and stretched, doing things I had to do but shouldn’t have needed to do, things that gave me a headache from the start. So when I grabbed some time to go to the studio I was looking for a quick result and no stress. No way! I tried to shoehorn an idea into the wrong format with some bits I prepared yesterday for something else. Well I left it on the desk and went to the house to do the envelope (quite successfully and stress-free) and when I returned I sat and studied what I had made as I usually do. Usually I feel good, sometimes smug even, but today I was asking myself “is that OK?” I was trying to convince myself it was good; that I liked it. Whereas, in fact, I didn’t believe it to be good enough. There was a little period when I tried to tell myself it “would do” but in truth I knew I had to discard it and start afresh. Much better!
I should perhaps say that I finished a little constraint I put on myself for the month of June and am flowing freely till the next mad idea crops up.
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:
First of all I should explain that I have changed the style of posting picture today because of the return of the shadow rabbit. I felt that Violet Lines and The Rabbit was a combination too much!
The piece I’ve produced today is superficially attractive and well composed but is designed to irritate the spatially astute among you. Part of what art should do is challenge us; ask questions; irritate us. I suspect that most people (who like my work) will just go “ooh, that’s nice”. If that is your reaction then you should look harder, more carefully, longer. Of course now there’s the rub, you cannot see the item in question, at least not until next March and even then only if it is sold!
There are times when I have done an especially good piece when I am close to weeping and other times I am a bit more fist in the air or sometimes, like today, when I just want to keep looking at it. The problem with that is I then start to have doubts. I wonder if it is just a superficial attractiveness or the idea is a bit facile or I am being too clever or too intellectual. But then again I couldn’t care less if I continue to derive such pleasure from looking at it: pleasure and wonder can’t be bad can it? I really didn’t want to part from this one so it will be interesting to see it again in 8 months time and see how I feel about it!
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.
Why the postman won’t be worried about today’s piece
Another miraculous silk purse from a sow’s ear – no that is not the right metaphor. There must be a saying that sums up finding a sapphire ring in a pig pen. Another fine sapphire from a pig pen! This morning, for the first time, I was wishing I had never started this project. I was down in the dumps with no confidence and an idea for today’s piece that I really didn’t have any faith in when I had a little idea just pop in and immediately I jumped up and created something pretty special and something which caused me to do some prep for some other things as well as deciding to develop some other work from it. I have no idea where it came from and it was sort of a cheating way to make the idea that wasn’t going to work (and which I would have spent a lot of time on before accepting that it wasn’t any good) have a speedier and easier resolution. Then it just took off and I knew immediately it was going to work and was worth the effort. All that was said in one excited breathless breath!
Anyway the postman who is supposed to be a fan is on holiday: thus the exchange above!
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:
Back of No111
An unfolding artwork created a piece each day for a year
