Category Archives: Art

#Letter365, Art, Bridport Arts centre

I am not having fun right now!

#Letter365 No281 goes in the box
No281 goes in the box

I was just about to write some deeply intellectual or arty or witty stuff about the messages on the front not being messages when I found an email from hours ago asking me urgently to provide an  image for the Arts Centre brochure to advertise this project at an unspecified “slightly higher resolution” than the image I provided 6 weeks ago! How come they have only just now found this out? What have they been doing since the deadline they gave me? So I am not happy and I am not playing right now.

#Letter365, Art

Made at the Whitechapel Gallery

#Letter365 No279 gets posted in a side-opening double box in London
No279 gets posted in a side-opening double box in London

I have been to the big city today to go to the Kiefer at the RA and the Tuttle at the Whitechapel where I was allowed to use the reading room in which to work on today’s piece. I have to say my piece is batter than anything in the Tuttle show and better than the burger I had in the gallery café and actually the splendid and much misused post box is more interesting too.

#Letter365, Art

Not finished with Zappa but Captain Beefheart and Buddy Holly have snuck in

#Lette365 No277 gets posted
A nice moody shot of No277 going in the postbox

I did a drawing years ago – about 1974 – which I still have, called “Raining in My Heart” but that was from my clouds and rainbows period. Whilst there was a sort of wistful melancholia about it there was not the sadness of the song in it nor the pain of depression. (Oh and wasn’t Melancholia a good film!) Today’s message is connected to the melancholic but was sparked by the sun being out and me being indoors.

The Captain gets a mention because Louis Hawkinsresponded to yesterday’s post and alluded to Don V. There ain’t no Santa Claus on the Midnight Stage got chosen for the topical subject – not the mention of Santa but the despair and desolation of poverty , homelessness and slavery that is growing in our world! I tried to find a live YouTube video of the number but failed. I got a bit sidetracked watching Frank Zappa playing The Torture Never Stops and Black Napkins (with Terry Bozio and Adrian Belew) – and no I am not finished with Zappa yet! Recently I’ve been watching Talking Heads Live in Rome featuring Belew too

I did find the clip below of Captain Beefheart doing Golden Birdies. I saw him with the Magic Band at the LSE about this time I have got a feeling that Blossom Toes were supporting. I saw them at LSE again with Eclection and Third Ear Band. Enjoy!

Oh and there is some art in the envelope!

#Letter365, Art

Would Frank Zappa have thought #Letter365 is where it’s at?

#Letter365 No276 gets posted
No276 goes in the box

Frank Zappa was pretty zany and may have appreciated the utter idiocy of this project. He pushed boundaries in music but I don’t have any information about his working with artists or what if anything he liked in the visual arts.

The piece inside doesn’t push boundaries but it is quite nice and  could place it in context of my work and the influences from art history.

#Letter365, Art

Sailing close to the wind

#Letter365 No275 goes in the box
No275 gets posted

Whew, only just got this in the box on time and the first iteration of this posting had only a few minutes to spare.

I have been out and about today with a visit to Swanage to check out a couple of galleries and this evening to a PV at Slader’s Yard in West Bay. Everything was good and extended longer than anticipated including a late takeaway (and I had missed lunch) so I was late starting and had to work at home which meant the idea i had been toying with during the day had to be ditched as I didn’t have the materials to hand. Always good to have the challenge of starting from scratch in a limited timeframe with limited materials and coming up trumps!