All posts by David Smith

#Letter365

I didn’t expect that!

#Letter365 No34 goes in the post box with a stamp on
The mad rabbit and a reminder on the envelope ensure a stamp goes on today

My name may be mud at the Arts Centre following yesterday’s forgotten-stamp debacle, but I am undaunted! I altered the writing on the envelope in the hope that its pale words would remind me to put on a stamp and as it was sunny the mad rabbit was about to threaten me with its credit card!

And the piece I created for #Letter365 today surprised me. I had started it this morning and left it in a volatile state as I had to be in the house to await delivery of a replacement credit card as I had cut up the other one by mistake and used it in a #Letter365 piece – no, not really, just joking! No, I had cut it up by mistake when my new debit card arrived! Anyway, when I returned to the studio it became immediately apparent what I needed to do and I really like the result.

Talking of things in a volatile state, the whole piece and its envelope nearly went up in smoke.  A piece of burning wick from the sealing wax fell off and continued to burn on the back of the envelope. Initially I tried to pick it up with my steel rule or my scalpel, before being tempted to let it all burn a bit! In the end I just blew it out, but it has given me food for thought to digest at leisure.

The other volatile thing is me! Oh, you knew that. Well I’m a bit on the incandescent side because my special #Letter365 camera has managed to download device drivers which I never asked it to do and which make it harder for me to use the camera the way I want to use it. It’s odd how so many manufacturers decide for its customers that their way is the best or force you to use their crappy, buggy software. People accept these things from Sony, Apple, Samsung – thank god there is not much you can do to a pen or pencil or paintbrush!

#Letter365, Bridport Arts centre

Bugger, but it had to happen some time!

No stamp on #Letter365 No33
I forgot to put the stamp on!

With my son and his wife staying I hoped to get my #Letter365 piece finished and away early so we could spend the day together. Good idea but slightly scuppered by finding my camera – my special #Letter365 camera – with a flat battery. So there was a pause while that charged up and somehow…well stuff happens. Worse thing is we ended up coming into town and could have delivered it by hand. C’est la vie!

The yellow ink has just about run out as well as the magenta, but I guess there’s not much to be gained from any more as the cyan and black are pretty full!

The keen-eyed may spot that they have found the TUES day marker on the post box.

#Letter365

The first month completed

#Letter365 No31 goes in the box on a drear and drizzly day
No31 goes in the box on a drear and drizzly day

Well the first month has been completed and I still have lots of things to sort out for the project from this website to sponsorship and printing to events. This week the From Page To Screen festival has eaten up a fair bit of time – 7 films in 5 days – and I have some basic stuff to put in place for Dorset Art Weeks and my son and daughter-in-law are visiting for a few days and there’s the garden to sort when/if it stops raining and then the bees will be swarming and…and…and…it’s good to be busy!

But whatever else may be happening, the work I am doing for this project is happening well – it’s mostly flowing easily and also teasing me into unfamiliar areas and causing me to experiment in my other work. So all is well.

#Letter365, Bridport Arts centre

Amelie accepts the latest #Letter365 at the film festival

Amelie accepts #Letter365 No30 at the film festival
Amelie accepts No30 at the film festival

What with it being the From Page To Screen film festival here in Bridport I am at the Arts Centre twice today so it made a hand delivery the obvious choice. I was there for a screening of Derek Jarman’s The Tempest and will be heading off there again soon to see The Railway Man.  It was also an obvious choice to have the smiling face of Amelie, the new intern at the Arts Centre, rather than the straight-lipped, stern face of the post box.

Nothing much to say about the process today except that some accidental by-products of its making have sent me off experimenting with some other techniques.  Oh and the print is getting ever fainter on the envelope.

#Letter365

NIce to have a smiling human and not an inanimate post box

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#Letter365 No28 gets handed to a friendly, smiling postie
No28 gets handed to a friendly, smiling postie

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?