Busy with chasing wild geese and such things today so #Letter365 was all left rather late in the day. Then, when I was happy with the piece, I found I had left my camera at home. Because the lights at the studio flicker slightly I can’t get even a half decent image on my phone camera so I had to come back home to fetch it. So it was getting later and later but in the end it got popped in the box in plenty of time and this blog post will be done before midnight too.
That’s three days in a row that we have been to something at the Arts Centre and it’s not usually open on a Monday so my Film Society visit on Tuesday should count as 4 days in a row. This afternoon it was to see “Will and Testament” the new film about the life of Tony Benn with a Q&A beamed live. Spoiled for choice in sleepy old Dorset we are!
The artwork worked out better than I could have hoped. I usually have a really clear idea if what I intend or am empty and open to inspiration. Today I was empty and feeling rough again with this cold. I delved in my brain and got a vague idea I wanted to play with and it all turned out swell – though I suppose you would expect me to say that!
We went to see Kilter Theatre‘s “The Last Post” tonight, a sensational performance that takes place inside the Mobile Sorting Office, which was parked on Bridport Arts Centre‘s forecourt. We really enjoyed their piece and the guys from the cast agreed to take responsibility for the delivery of my #Letter365 artwork. I have given them a free hand to deliver it in whatever way they choose and they have a Mobile Sorting Office stamp which they will use on No212’s envelope. So pleased to be able to link with other artists working with a postal theme, though since the MSO handles a lot of undelivered and undeliverable mail, who knows what will happen!
As to today’s piece itself: I love it! It is also somehow quite fitting for the delivery mode too – not sure why but I feel it is.
I thought I would save the price of a stamp and deliver today’s piece by hand. I could have just wandered round to Bridport Arts Centre from the studio but since I was going to The Gravity Drive gig there this evening I thought I would deliver it then – except I left it at home and so had to go back at the end. Jonty was there but refused to pose because he was all sweaty from …from who knows what, so he suggested Ziggy take it, but since she didn’t have the key to the office had to deliver it to Jonty anyway!
The piece itself is quite an unusual one. I had a mind to play around with some particular materials – not specifically for #Letter365 – and remembered how I had used something previously and thought it would work just fine for today’s artwork.
I think I have talked about this before: I have learned to not fret over ideas that come to me at night when I am in bed, falling asleep or in a dream or when I half wake. I have wasted hours trying to capture the chimera that is this or that perfect composition or even just try to remember it! Unless it is still burning bright when I wake I just forget it. This morning the night’s inspiration was still burning bright and I merged it with some other things I have bubbling away and am very happy with how this piece turned out. I may do some more work in this vein.
The postie was just collecting when I got to the box: not the last post (we are seeing a performance of that, a play performed in a mobile sorting office van by Kilter Theatre on Saturday at Bridport Arts Centre).
Today’s piece re-approaches some work I did a while back and I want to re-explore in that area again soon so it was worth doing something for #Letter365 in that vein.
I left for the studio saying I had no clue what I would do for today’s piece, but knowing that something would turn up. I am still feeling run down so didn’t intend to stay long. I had not been able to concentrate much at home this morning and had little hope that things would shift this afternoon. I lost myself in preparing some substrates (more gesso on Whitechapel Gallery leaflets) and trying to mix a particular colour red that would granulate when allowed to run wet-in-wet into a mix of deep blue. I got the colours right but when they mixed the separation was vulgar! Back to the drawing board on that one. All that allowed me to forget #Letter365, so when I turned to do it I was primed and open. A nice piece with legs soon emerged. I don’t mean that I drew something with legs (though I might have!!) but it was something which I might continue to experiment with.
That’s an odd thing isn’t it? I get suspicious when things go well and effortlessly. I had half a lame idea and was looking around for some materials in the studio and because I have a cold and feel a bit rough I was finding excuses for not getting the paper I wanted. Was there a scrap around? No, but I found something else which sparked an idea which continues an investigation and the colour is just right and a bit of fiddling here and some jiggling there and soon I was underway with a piece I really like …and then I start questioning it because it came so easily. Don’t you have to struggle to make art? Technique, look, composition, relevance – all a piece of cake. Does that mean it’s not very good? Well I would be pleased to have it on my wall and maybe I should start painting large canvasses
I want to talk about the interplay between contrivance and serendipity, but I can’t without telling too much about today’s piece, but it is interesting how I had an idea of what I wanted to do and how it would look (though as it turned out I changed its orientation in the making) but the moment I started to play with the materials I noticed something else, something very subtle, which really enhanced the idea and the piece.
I had this great idea for today’s piece. It was so good I thought I might do several versions of it and develop it into a larger work but the moment I began the second process I knew it was just rubbish. What was I thinking? How could it ever have worked? I hung on to the thought it was a good idea but that my realisation was poor, my physical technique was flawed. But I knew really that it was just plain crap. I still carried on for a few lame seconds but jacked it in and started on something fresh!
When I had it all finished I realised I had left my camera at home. Not quite with it, but then I had been Tweeting to a mad Swede about Latin, mushrooms and invading Northumberland!