Most of the afternoon it has been raining; sometimes so hard that I have found excuses not to make the walk up to the studio or back down to the house. It has been so dull that photography of my #Letter365 piece was not so easy. Almost the second I got back from the post box it stopped raining and the sky cleared. Isn’t British weather wonderful. Actually the day was relieved at times today with some wonderful skies that went a small way to compensate for yet more rain.
Take a look at the edge of the stamp sheet I have left attached. Royal Mail clearly doesn’t understand socio-economic groups: Buckingham Palace is definitely not the house of someone in group C1.
No51 displaying its custom Library of Birmingham with the iconic building itself as a backdrop
I made the decision long ago that I would not try to use sealing wax when I am away from home. Last time i was in Birmingham I used some spotty tape as a seal, I believe, but I forgot to take anything with me this time so created this custom seal. It was windy in the city today and a gust bent the letter at the moment I clicked!
No51 goes in the box in Birmingham
I posted it in the box near to Gormley’s “Iron Man”. The box has a helpful picture of a hand and a letter. I was unable to replicate this with my letter as I was unable to get the envelope to stick to my hand long enough to get it in the box and soon gave up as it began to rain. Also I wanted to pop in and take a look at Grayson Perry’s tapestries as it would be my last opportunity to see them. They were quite entertaining, amusing and in places very beautiful but I’m not sure if I would feel the same if I hadn’t seen the TV programmes.
All ready to roll but as i am off to the Midlands tonight I will post it from a box in Redditch probably! I will try to post from there too – but no promises that I’ll get enough bandwidth!
I had a bit of a disaster with the envelope for tomorrow and didn’t check what I had printed on it before sticking the stamp on it! Luckily it’s a commemorative stamp so I can steam it off some time and use it another day. The backside of Buckingham Palace tastes horrible but sticks fast!
The piece today was quite interesting in how it evolved – a shame I can’t say much about it. I like the result and it has legs to go elsewhere, but now I have sealed it up I am wanting to have another look!
I wanted to complete my #Letter365 piece as early as possible today so that I am free to go and work with the bees for a while. We have some important tasks and may not get a chance over the weekend as we shall be away part of it. All went smoothly with the art and I’m pleased to say that it took of in its own direction with confidence, which following a few days of struggle feels good.
No48 gets posted at night with a disgustingly gaudy stamp
When I say posted in the dark I mean after dark for we have quite strong street lights with a fairly cool colour temperature. Most lights round here are supposed to go off after midnight to save energy and preserve the dark skies – but ours don’t because the Post Office three doors away is deemed safer from burglary if there are streetlights. Any way this was posted well before midnight, but well after the post went.
From the outset today it was clear that I was never going to catch the post. I have been on the go since about 7.15 this morning and didn’t really have a proper breakfast or lunch but only managed to select some work and deliver it to the framers ready for Dorset Art Weeks; go to the opticians for an eye test and get my favourite specs fixed and cook dinner. So I didn’t get to go to the studio until it was almost dark!
The box plate WED tells you I missed the post with No47
Following on from my last post, all was good with this in the end, but I think I am just having a poor art day. There was another piece hanging around in the studio – a reject from a previous #Letter365 attempt! – which I thought I could use to do an experiment on, rather than risk the piece I was working on (not #Letter365 related). It was looking amazingly good and I was really delighted with it then I added the final process and found that the ink I’d used was not waterproof and it went from looking interesting back to a mess like the one that got it rejected last time!
So I missed the post, but there would have been a backlog with the Easter holidays so it will even things out a bit!
I have been forced to go into extra time today. I suppose I have got a little casual and assumed that each day my #Letter365 piece would just flow, that the picture I had in my head would get transferred into physical form and be quite wonderful. Alas today’s just turned out to be a crock of proverbial! I have to say I was quite deflated to have produced something that missed the mark quite so badly and which had no discernible redeeming feature! It really was quite depressing. Made worse by a growing headache, the fact Radio 3 keeps playing warbling women and the realisation that I had run out of envelopes and had but a little time to dash in to town and get some. So I have had to take a deep breath and relax to the fact that there was no way I would get No47 would be in the post box before collection time! That’s OK as my deadline is midnight and I have turned things round in my mind and realised that I am working in an OK way on my other stuff and this was just a hiccough that caused an overreaction and loss of confidence. We will see if all is well when I return to the studio in a few minutes to look what I have done so far!
I was tempted to start trying to make the post box images a bit arty, but when it came down to it there’s only so much you can do with a post box and I was very hungry and looking forward to Cottage Pie for dinner. So this is what you get!
As it says on the envelope we have been busy with bees today. We had a look at two colonies at one of our out apiaries. One was one we had been worried about as they were badly raided by wasps last autumn, but they have bounced back well and are really strong and gentle. The other one is enormous. We left a lot of honey on it over winter as it was a big colony (it’s always been big!) but we has to give then some more room for honey already. I could barely lift the last box full of honey back on the hive as it is about my height! There is probably about 80lbs of honey on there already and the season is only just starting really. The bees are working the dandelions now, so the new comb they are building is stained a wonderful sunshine yellow.
Wet and chilly today – well not so chilly in the studio once the woodburner got going, a bit too hot really. No excuse for not getting on with some work, though I got a bit delayed trying to sort out websites. I just hate it when an update gives you more work and no confidence!
An unfolding artwork created a piece each day for a year
