I know the picture looks much like all the other photos of me putting a letter in the post box but inside the piece I have made is quite different to anything else I have done so far in this project. I’m not sure that i have ever done anything quite in this vein before. Mind you I might not again! I tried playing around with some more things in a similar vein afterwards and couldn’t manage anything with the freshness and vitality of the #Letter365 piece.
I was really upset this morning that after quite a bit of preparatory and layout work on my #Letter365 piece I messed it up. I accidentally damaged the piece in a way I could not remedy. I remember as a child at school being upset once when I spilt paint on an almost completed painting – one that was going to be entered in a competition, It was a painting of a couple of children and a dog playing. My teacher, a wise woman, suggested that I could turn that spill into a tree trunk. It made it a better painting too. I didn’t win the competition. But today’s issue wasn’t one of those things where you can make the mistake into something else. I had just messed it up!
I had other things to attend to and it was quite a lot later that I returned to teh studio to decide what to do. When I looked at the morning’s piece I realised it was rubbish. I had been trying to shoehorn an idea that might work on a larger scale in a different medium into #Letter365. You could say that i was using #Letter365 as a sandbox, being lazy and trying something out rather than concentrating on making a good artwork for the project.
I then went on to make something rather nice, much more in keeping with the nature of the project. And of course it all came together with ease because I wasn’t trying to force it. Even though it required patience, care and precision I didn’t mess it up in any way: it was the right thing.
So although I was upset and frustrated this morning I am now pleased that I messed up, otherwise I would have wasted even more time on something that was never going to work in that format.
Having forgotten the stamp on yesterday’s #Letter365 I thought it only right to pay the fine so I made a special envelope for the payment and dropped it in to Bridport Arts Centre so they would not be out of pocket. Lovely Dee Fenton, who for some unknown reason hates to be photographed, tried to hide behind the envelope but I snapped her when she peeked round the side!
Seems like the postie that delivers to the Arts Centre is on the ball he noticed there was one missing when I popped it in the special box myself.
It has been a very challenging and tiring couple of days with no end of things mostly out of my control coming to eat my time and bother my brow, but I willed myself the energy and concentration to do a good #Letter365 piece, only to blow it by not putting on a stamp!
It’s been a long day and a day with some challenges. I’ve been working hard to prepare for Dorset Art Weeks and the day started with some clearing of things from our living room and hallway so the decorator could do the prep work for painting ready to be converted into a temporary gallery for two weeks. Then it was sorting and photographing the last things before they go off to the framers. The challenge came when I got to the framers when they told me there were some issues with a couple of collages. Then we discovered that two other fairly large pieces had cockled in their frames overnight, one of which is to be delivered tomorrow for an exhibition. I’m sure we will get through it but right now I feel drained.
Glad to see the back of (rather than lick the back of) the Buckingham Palace stamps. I didn’t mind the period illustrations but the gaudy photos celebrating disgusting ostentation were a bit much for me.
I know, after 2 whole months, a sixth of this journey you would think I could do better, but frankly I am so busy with preparations for Dorset Art Weeks (just 17 days 14 hours 22 minutes and 35 seconds till opening as I write this) and trying to get stuff sorted for the launch of selling options for the project posting a letter has a low priority for my creative energy. On the other hand what’s inside is pretty damn good!
You will note that I am back to ordinary stamps for a number of reasons, one of which is that apart from one that i stuck on a misprinted envelope and one ghastly one I am saving, I have run out of commemorative stamps.
I got stung in the face by a bee today for no reason: unusual, but I did drastic things with them yesterday so who knows.
We spent quite a while working with the bees in the garden, we had to do a pretty severe manipulation called a shook swarm which I hate doing, but helps keep the varroa mite levels lower. I find it emotionally draining to sacrifice brood and still find it hard to justify even though bad infestations of varroa can cause the demise of a colony. Usually the colony quickly recovers and often may become exceptionally strong and productive.
Anyway that was one of the reasons that I didn’t start my #Letter365 piece till late afternoon and then finished if off after dinner and some entertainment.
As you can see from the image, this one is for my partner Sally Beeson whose birthday it is today. I couldn’t spend untold hours in the studio working on #Letter365 on her birthday and it not be for her!
If you want to buy a #Letter365 piece for someone’s birthday or wedding or anniversary let me know. You will soon be able to buy options and reserve dates on this site and I can arrange for a gift card telling them about their present so they have something on the day.
Clearly we are going to run out of space with this box as we always knew we would, but it’s great to have it there at the Arts Centre as a talking point. I’ll get some cards printed with details of how to buy to fit in the little holder at the side.
As we were going to the theatre tonight anyway (to see the cracking Miracle Theatre’s “The Case of the Frightened Lady”) I thought I would deliver it personally and save a stamp.