I still have this nagging feeling that I might be able to reconnect with whatever it was that I had in mind to write about, but I have an equally nagging feeling that if I remembered what it was I would be disappointed! Whatever it was it was snatched away from me by tiredness and stress and lack of time – a bit like today’s piece was snatched away by an efficient, friendly but in a hurry postie. I never got a chance to get a better picture and hardly know what was going on. It was like reverse Father Christmas: a huddle of people handing over packages to someone who put them in a sack! I was aiming to have a night off and go to the film society, but I just didn’t have the energy. I am doing far too many things that need to be done and far too little time is left for art. Though I have to say that some of that time went in just looking at the piece I created, not looking for faults or checking if something else was needed, but just looking at it, admiringly I suppose. I really enjoy looking at this piece! What that says I don’t know.
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 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.
The reference to damp inside is my fear that I had chosen the wrong media today as noted in the previous post. As for the stuff on the envelope I feel I need to explain a little.
You may have noticed a musical theme over the last few days. The Morning Glory reference two days ago just popped into my head and yesterday’s Emile Ford was a bit more “manufactured” following on. (I saw Emile Ford’s band the Checkmates on the same bill as the Rolling Stones and the Hollies – a long time ago!) I had forgotten that I was going to say hi to the postie and ask if he had had a good holiday. That was because I stumbled across this post on Twitter from Helen Atkin-Roach about a mystery item:
Helen’s mystery item is of course a trouser press
As a time-served Bonzo’s fan I had to enter into a dialogue about it and ended up posting this video of the Bonzo’s:
This led me to referring to the trouser press in the “Do Not Bend” area and alluding to the album title at the other side. Sad isn’t it? Or maybe it is art of the highest kind! Certainly the Bonzo Dog Band (or Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band as they were then) must have a right to be labelled art!
On the back, however, I have probably lost the plot and maybe the will to live:
Yeah, caught the post! I had just taken some images of me about to post No117 when the post van sped up and to give us a break from letters at the mouth of the box we have it going into the “official sack”.
But as I was saying … there are day’s when I am confident that I am pretty good at this art business. Ha! I’m not so sure about the business side of it, but with the background of my training, years of practice, years of looking, wide references, good taste and a helping of talent I can create pieces with integrity and intensity. They may not be to everyone’s taste but the work I am prepared to put out there is of good quality. (I do have a problem photographing it well though!)
Fortunately some people appreciate my work and it’s great when I get a spontaneous tweet from a client:
And of course the printer problem persists but while I mentioned it on the front of the envelope it doesn’t get a mention on the back:
It’s quite architectural I think, but its got to stop (hasn’t it?). The printer error is close to obscuring the address so we had better clean up its act!
I put a little note on for the postie who is doing the round for our fan while he is away. I hope it cheers them up.
And no I haven’t photographed the reverse side of the envelope upside down – the annotation explains it.
Why the postman won’t be worried about today’s piece
Another miraculous silk purse from a sow’s ear – no that is not the right metaphor. There must be a saying that sums up finding a sapphire ring in a pig pen. Another fine sapphire from a pig pen! This morning, for the first time, I was wishing I had never started this project. I was down in the dumps with no confidence and an idea for today’s piece that I really didn’t have any faith in when I had a little idea just pop in and immediately I jumped up and created something pretty special and something which caused me to do some prep for some other things as well as deciding to develop some other work from it. I have no idea where it came from and it was sort of a cheating way to make the idea that wasn’t going to work (and which I would have spent a lot of time on before accepting that it wasn’t any good) have a speedier and easier resolution. Then it just took off and I knew immediately it was going to work and was worth the effort. All that was said in one excited breathless breath!
Anyway the postman who is supposed to be a fan is on holiday: thus the exchange above!
I popped into Bridport Arts Centre today to buy some tickets and was told that the postman had said I would have to reduce the amount of writing on the outside of the envelope – it is holding him up on his round reading it! So today I put a little hello to the post people to thank them for the good work they do. Just like I used “gotten” the other day to better fill the space, today I have used “postperson” instead of “postie”, the non-gender-specific term I decided on some time back, because it looked better visually.
As you can see the printer problem has returned with a bang and we have Violet Lines appearing again. I’m going to play with some photos before I make it go away.
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!
A sunny Sunday posting for No38 – with no bloody stamp!
I cannot believe I have done it again! I was so pleased that I have managed to spend the day in the studio despite my lost voice turning into a really bad sore throat tuning into a rotten cold. With the help of tissues and Strepsils I have soldiered on and had a really productive day. I did my #Letter365 piece first and am very pleased with it. Around lunchtime I did the envelope and photographs and popped it in the box. It is only now that I notice the lack of a stamp! (I didn’t notice that I thought it was Sunday yesterday as far as the message on the envelope went!)
So here is the plan:
Tomorrow morning enquire at the Bradpole Post Office as to the time of the first collection
Hang around about that time and see if the postie will let me rummage through the box and stick a stamp on the envelope
Failing that (if I miss them or they won’t let me) go cap-in-hand to the Arts Centre and offer to pick up and pay for the postage due
Suggest I leave a postage due fund to cover future cock ups
Repeat the opening words of Four Weddings and a Funeral under my breath from time to time
Record it all as part of the process!
An unfolding artwork created a piece each day for a year
