I know it’s a madness but then that is what this is all about: oddness, obsession and madness. It is madness because to post this piece I went out of my way on my journey between my studio and Bridport Arts Centre for the AGM and Polly Gifford‘s leaving do. But I had already put the stamp on so what could I do?
The piece itself revisits a recurring and constant theme with some more recent vocabulary.
We are really lucky in Bridport. For a very small town we have loads going on. The flags in Bucky Doo Square for the Hat Festival today proclaim us a Britain’s Eventful Town. We have a film festival, a book festival, a literary festival, three performing stages and a number of pubs and other venues for music and events. One of the key arts sites is the Bridport Arts Centre where this project will be installed in March 2014. LIke all public arts venues the Arts Centre, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is always in need of funds. We are lucky to get people willing to give their time and performances to aid the cause: on of these was Mark Knopfler who appeared in conversation with Polly Gifford, the Arts Centre Director, to talk about his career and music. I can remember him talking about how he needed to have a little riff to let the audience know what song it was but that mostly he just improvised and it was different every time. He was playing guitar as he talked and a number of times said “I’ve never played that before”. Well I can honestly say about today’s piece, “I’ve never done that before”. The combination of surface treatment, format, materials and even the style of the marks and structures are totally new – and yet it sits in the flow of my work in a way that you can tell it is by me even though it is quite radically different to what I have done in the project before or even through all my work. Oh, by the way, I really rather like it!
Acclaimed sculptor Greta Berlin delivered today’s piece through one of her sculptures. It was the Preview Evening of the combined show of three generations of the Berlin family at Bridport Arts Centre. Alongside Greta’s sculptures and paintings areworks by her father Sven, while downstairs her daughter Zennor Box is showing her puzzling and witty paintings. Greta kindly agreed to the last leg of the delivery and it was her idea to post it through her piece to Arts Centre Director, Polly Gifford. By the way it is a very interesting show and well worth a visit. I’ll certainly be popping back to give it a lot more concentrated time.
I could pretend that I was surprised and deeply upset that the special #Letter365 box in the Bridport Arts Centre foyer had disappeared when I went to deliver No103 by hand. The truth is that Polly had been kind enough to let me know in advance that another installation was using that space for a few weeks and a very interesting array it is too!
So I had to post this piece into the hands of lovely Dee, who finally appears in a picture with enough of her face showing to be recognisable. You will note the worsening state of the printer errors front of the envelope. My annotation about it on the back appears below:
I reminded myself again that I don’t have to come up with something totally new each day. I can explore and play with themes and subjects and do series if I want. I don’t want to make duplicates but there is ample scope for exploring ideas and reusing elements exactly as I do in my other work. So this may or may not be associated with yesterday’s, or tomorrow’s or alternate Fridays’. It may or may not be part of series, but I think you will like it anyway.
I was late starting today as I have been trying to get some decent photos of my work done before things go off for framing. With Dorset Art Weeks only a few weeks away it’s all go.
I also popped into the Arts Centre to see the new box
Polly and Dee at the Arts Centre have both decided the wish to purchase their respective birthdays so I best get on with making it possible for people to invest in #Letter365. Purchase options will open very soon.
The new #Letter365 box has arrived! Polly Gifford, Director of Bridport Arts Centre, emailed me yesterday to tell me she had taken delivery of the new perspex container for my #Letter365 pieces to be collected and displayed. The box is going to be installed tomorrow in the foyer of the Arts Centre next to the box office along with information about the project as it progresses. Hopefully it will become and remain a talking point and help to create interest and momentum. So thanks Polly and sorry that the team will have to walk a little further to store each letter!
I started on today’s piece quite early this morning as I was going to be out all day. I am glad I did because I was out longer than expected and got a bit hijacked by other events. My car is a bit poorly and I thought it best not to drive to Dorchester today, so it took a bit of extra time out of the day, especially as it was quite late on the way back. What with everything else (including a nice Curry at the Taj Mahal) it was gone 9pm before I got to the studio again. Fortunately I was pretty happy with it and just needed to make a few adjustments before packaging it up and posting it (in the drizzle)
Those of you who know me well may not believe this, but I had a plan, I worked the plan and the plan worked! OK, the postie quite rightly gave me a little lecture on putting stamps on and postal security and stuff, but he did let me put a stamp on the postally-naked No38. I suspect that I came out of it OK. Polly Gifford at the Arts Centre would have mercilessly ribbed me about it at the very least and I saved us the £1 or so extra for unstamped mail and the walk to the sorting office. I even had a go at a flamingo shadow on the postie’s leg, but it didn’t come out that well as you can see. Nice shapes in the lower half of the photo though!