Because I tend to write a bit about the weather on the envelope I wrote the word “heatwave” and immediately my brain offered up “Whenever I’m with him…” which was Martha and the Vandellas “burning” up with passion. They really had something special, though as a lad I guess I liked the Who’s cover more (now it seems tame in comparison)
That spread to Marilyn Monroe “We’re having a heatwave, a tropical heatwave” and from there to all sorts of summertime songs. So beware!
I have been struggling with this post as I did with today’s piece. It’s a muggy old day and there is still that unsettling electricity in the air that last night’s thunderstorms didn’t clear. It makes the bees irritable and over-defensive and me too really. I thought it would be a good idea to force some kind of resolution on some elements that I have been playing with for a few days or more. I thought I could use that idea up and get it out of the way, but of course things have their time and today wasn’t it! After a few other false starts it was time to take a step back and stop struggling. Now I don’t mean that in the way of giving up or giving in, rather I mean that sometimes battling with something head on does not bring results and oblique strategies and sideways thinking may prove more effective. As soon as I started to work on some other things not related to #Letter365 an elegant solution started to form and opposition crumbled away. Struggle was only interested when it thought I was up for a fight
That strategy didn’t work so well for the envelope or this writing or indeed the other work I was doing but, hey, you can’t win ’em all!
Would you believe this man is just about to demonstrate Troll dancing having only minutes before this picture been demonstrating the effect of fiddle music on a grumpy man’s skeleton. Accomplished storyteller Martin Maudsley takes a break in his barnstorming performance tonight at Bridport Arts Centre. Accompanied and illustrated by ace fiddle player Fiona Barrow, Martin told tales of fiddles, fiddlers and fiddling (I mean fiddle music!) from around the globe giving a modern edge to traditional themes. Anyway, he kindly took a moment out to post today’s piece into the special box at the Arts Centre
It’s great to have a man who can smile for the camera! Peter, who runs our local Post Office, is a sport for pandering to my idiosyncrasies. As you can see he is my new artistic collaborator:
The new commemorative stamp – there is only one image for the 1st Class denomination – is to mark the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but I get the sense that nobody wanted to go to town on it. None of the designs are special, though the one depicting running has something about it that reminds me of the old South Africa stamps I used to have in my album as a child. Some more new stamps are to be issued in just 10 days time in remembrance of the First World War
The back of the envelope is as boring as the stamp:
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
This is an exciting moment: you should not that the envelope of #Letter365 No131 is absolutely covered, both front and back, with a complete lack of annotations. Tha’s right not a single annotation – not even one to say there are no annotations – adorn this envelope.
Today’s piece is a slightly new departure for me using media previously unused in the project.
The postie forgot to change the day plate on the day I forgot to update the number. Is there a connection? It was full moon yesterday about half an hour before the collection!
Well that hasn’t happened for a while and I only just noticed that I have misnumbered No128. Chaos reigns. I’m off to storm the Bastille!
There’s nothing more to say and I haven’t got two thousand words.
