Spring has started to nourish Winchester , iluminating the endeavours of many forty somethings as we work with gnarled fingers on worn keyboards trying to distill decades of existence into blogs books and plays . Why do we feel compelled to submit our words to type ? Could it be that we are trying to fix a little of time in aspic as we gallop along through life barely touhing the sides or , more likely are we pricked by the hope that like many before us that we have something worthwhile to say.
Like nature ravaged by spring time , I have been bursting to finish creations and have simultaneously been ravaged by predatory clients !
Carvings have been critised for their lack of qualities in darkened corners !... Funny that!!
On other fronts though growth has been promising , Jersey zoo have created a tasty new visitor centre and have fallen for a pair of wasps I created many moons ago. They want me to show some of my bugs in the main foye which would be a great spot to maybe catch a few new clients with my huge spider !
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Mind the gap
Had a blasts from the past last week , not since my dark distant art college years of heavy pot smoking have I had such an intense sense of fear and suffucation !
Like the cannabis madness I experienced during an Art school occupation in 86 (Education Minister Norman Fowler was threatening to cut arts budgets , sound familiar !)
I experienced the disembodied sensation combined with the fear of my imminent mortality with out the 8 hot knives we inhaled on that first thick heady night .
This high octane feeling is of course a panic attack , seemed to come from no where and can effect people in many different ways , a good friend of mine settled on the sceaming running around approach . For some reason I took on the role of a Noel Coward movie and with a stiff British upper lip managed to lean toward my lovely wife and proclaim my fear of my immanent demise !
Trying to trace back the source of this reaction has been hard as apart from the usual melée of family life (trying to control the relentless surge of everyday residue ) I had only visited a friends contemporary art exhibition . Now I would love to say that the content of her pieces , fired up by the infidelity of her husband had sown a seed in my male brain that had caused old sins of my pre Noel days to surface and haunt me but the sharpened stakes and the wilted wax figures just left me wondering what we shared if anything under that wide umbrella that is Art !
Maybe it's my subconscious screaming out to me to pickle a few sharks , drink a bottle of turps and paint with my own excrement but that really all sound a bit exhausting, I'll stick to smoking the odd joint and then eating half a box of ginger chocolates .
Like the cannabis madness I experienced during an Art school occupation in 86 (Education Minister Norman Fowler was threatening to cut arts budgets , sound familiar !)
I experienced the disembodied sensation combined with the fear of my imminent mortality with out the 8 hot knives we inhaled on that first thick heady night .
This high octane feeling is of course a panic attack , seemed to come from no where and can effect people in many different ways , a good friend of mine settled on the sceaming running around approach . For some reason I took on the role of a Noel Coward movie and with a stiff British upper lip managed to lean toward my lovely wife and proclaim my fear of my immanent demise !
Trying to trace back the source of this reaction has been hard as apart from the usual melée of family life (trying to control the relentless surge of everyday residue ) I had only visited a friends contemporary art exhibition . Now I would love to say that the content of her pieces , fired up by the infidelity of her husband had sown a seed in my male brain that had caused old sins of my pre Noel days to surface and haunt me but the sharpened stakes and the wilted wax figures just left me wondering what we shared if anything under that wide umbrella that is Art !
Maybe it's my subconscious screaming out to me to pickle a few sharks , drink a bottle of turps and paint with my own excrement but that really all sound a bit exhausting, I'll stick to smoking the odd joint and then eating half a box of ginger chocolates .
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Dads Army
I have survived show week ! It's like getting through a military campaign , Noel as the Artistic Director is the General ( a sort of beautiful female Winston Churchill, if that's possible !) I meanwhile , am the Arthor Lowe character , head of the home guard , keeping the home fires burning and painting my legs with gravey browning whilst looking out for enemy parachutist " They don't like it up 'em "..... sorry ! I think I got a little carried away there !!!
That's what show week does to you ,if you're not a little bit crackers before then the 6 months of build up to those 5 shows can test any one , and I wasn't even involved with putting on "Our House" a Madness extravaganza .
Noel has been directing shows for Encore Youth Theatre for over Ten years but has been marinating in thespian soup for over 30 years !!! Their shows are fantastic thanks to her incedibly strong support from her brigadiers .
My role as head of the Home guard is as much about listening to intelligence from the front , trying to rebuild moral and luckily not having to cook whale fritters as Noel is very good at planning our rations .
We now have Noel back on leave for 6 months nursing her trench foot and suffering flash backs ( more after show blues !) until the call up papers slip through the door and she gets that sparkle of battle fever in her eyes again.
That's what show week does to you ,if you're not a little bit crackers before then the 6 months of build up to those 5 shows can test any one , and I wasn't even involved with putting on "Our House" a Madness extravaganza .
Noel has been directing shows for Encore Youth Theatre for over Ten years but has been marinating in thespian soup for over 30 years !!! Their shows are fantastic thanks to her incedibly strong support from her brigadiers .
My role as head of the Home guard is as much about listening to intelligence from the front , trying to rebuild moral and luckily not having to cook whale fritters as Noel is very good at planning our rations .
We now have Noel back on leave for 6 months nursing her trench foot and suffering flash backs ( more after show blues !) until the call up papers slip through the door and she gets that sparkle of battle fever in her eyes again.
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Bu##ering around with a Black Berry
At last , Nearly finished the bush ! Haven't enjoyed myself being so juvenile since I finished working on my cockerel !
Must stop fiddling with it ,but... There's still that leaf on the left that looks a little limp .
Then to the photographer before the client takes delivery , wonder if the Queen likes a good double entendre ! That's if she does visit her ladies in waiting sometimes .
Going to the photographer for me is a little like visiting my therapist , I turn up freshfaced still slightly buoyed by the completion and allow the piece to be probed from all directions by that mat black lense.The concentrated silence seems to have a laxative effect on my conversation and a need to fill the void leads to a stream of unecessary confesssions of all types .
I know that the deluge maybe boring , but weeks of self imposed exile in my shed chipping away barely holds back a tsunami of half baked philosophies and ideas , my family have long ago developed selfselective hearing and inoculated themselves from any effect .
So Adrian is a lamb to the slaughter , and earns far more than the agreed sum .
What will it be this time , the effect of global warming on the fauna of the ST Cross water meadows or the reduction of Minstrels in the average family packet.
No , I know , he's bound to share my distaste for Justin Bieber !!
Must stop fiddling with it ,but... There's still that leaf on the left that looks a little limp .
Then to the photographer before the client takes delivery , wonder if the Queen likes a good double entendre ! That's if she does visit her ladies in waiting sometimes .
Going to the photographer for me is a little like visiting my therapist , I turn up freshfaced still slightly buoyed by the completion and allow the piece to be probed from all directions by that mat black lense.The concentrated silence seems to have a laxative effect on my conversation and a need to fill the void leads to a stream of unecessary confesssions of all types .
I know that the deluge maybe boring , but weeks of self imposed exile in my shed chipping away barely holds back a tsunami of half baked philosophies and ideas , my family have long ago developed selfselective hearing and inoculated themselves from any effect .
So Adrian is a lamb to the slaughter , and earns far more than the agreed sum .
What will it be this time , the effect of global warming on the fauna of the ST Cross water meadows or the reduction of Minstrels in the average family packet.
No , I know , he's bound to share my distaste for Justin Bieber !!
Friday, 18 February 2011
Mirror mirror !
I have a sneaking empathy for the wicked queen in Snow White !
Not because I wish to murder all the beauties in Winchester , or have an allergy to all small miners with beards . The queen , when she looked into the magic mirror always saw a little more than she barginned for .
Similarly there is a time as I am finishing any sculpture when I look at it , all hope and any potential of the piece is dragged back down by my perception , dashing all it's subtlety and poetry .
It is like looking at a self portrait with a rather large forehead tattoo describing all ones short comings and bad habits .
The style and execution echoes my hidden inadequacies .
It's quiet a shock as you can imagine and Noel has become an expert at negotiating these periods .Some artists can destroy the piece loosing months of work , but I have discovered that with a little time the strengths can surface out of the mire and grow from the weakneses .
With a little more time the work actually starts to exist on it's own and the glimpse into the mirror is replaced by the beginning of another journey .
So , no , I have no need to dress in drag or leave small children in the woods .... But I have a rather tasty apple here if you would fancy a bite !
Not because I wish to murder all the beauties in Winchester , or have an allergy to all small miners with beards . The queen , when she looked into the magic mirror always saw a little more than she barginned for .
Similarly there is a time as I am finishing any sculpture when I look at it , all hope and any potential of the piece is dragged back down by my perception , dashing all it's subtlety and poetry .
It is like looking at a self portrait with a rather large forehead tattoo describing all ones short comings and bad habits .
The style and execution echoes my hidden inadequacies .
It's quiet a shock as you can imagine and Noel has become an expert at negotiating these periods .Some artists can destroy the piece loosing months of work , but I have discovered that with a little time the strengths can surface out of the mire and grow from the weakneses .
With a little more time the work actually starts to exist on it's own and the glimpse into the mirror is replaced by the beginning of another journey .
So , no , I have no need to dress in drag or leave small children in the woods .... But I have a rather tasty apple here if you would fancy a bite !
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Age concern
Horray ! Our eldest has started baby sitting for us , the bonus for all that teenage angst is paying off ( a bit ! ) actually I'm being a bit unfair , she's lovely when she's not leaving wet towels everywhere and threatening to kill her sisters .
I can see the distain sometimes in her eyes , I may feel 21 inside but outwardly I feel I could become one if those anonymous middle aged men ,why can't we have the same effect of awe that an old oak tree has on a viewer ? The passage of time etching it's own signature on our skin . Like a fine old bottle of port we should be handled with care and respect , dusted off with excited expectant words before savouring ! In an age of youth worship I am fascinated by the almost repulsed effect that the ageing body can have on people , looking at the analogy of the tree further , we share it's anatomy , trunk ,limb , crown but a great yew tree will be fanatically protected because if it's twisted stoop , it's human counterpart at best with sympathy .
Of course there is the obvious benefit that nobody is going to cut you down at the zebra crossing to create a bespoke wardrobe , worship can be double sided .
I can see the distain sometimes in her eyes , I may feel 21 inside but outwardly I feel I could become one if those anonymous middle aged men ,why can't we have the same effect of awe that an old oak tree has on a viewer ? The passage of time etching it's own signature on our skin . Like a fine old bottle of port we should be handled with care and respect , dusted off with excited expectant words before savouring ! In an age of youth worship I am fascinated by the almost repulsed effect that the ageing body can have on people , looking at the analogy of the tree further , we share it's anatomy , trunk ,limb , crown but a great yew tree will be fanatically protected because if it's twisted stoop , it's human counterpart at best with sympathy .
Of course there is the obvious benefit that nobody is going to cut you down at the zebra crossing to create a bespoke wardrobe , worship can be double sided .
Thursday, 20 January 2011
No Butts
What is it about sculpting that makes the last bit so hard ? I have been trying to analyse it .
When you start a piece, the vision of what could be drives you forward , comunicating it's potential is difficult and the client needs to have trust . The work begins to appear , evolving , seemingly making it's own journey, taking you with it .
Nearing the end , the vision seems to get in the way ! Sometimes blinding the artist to it's true value , similar to a sort of dismorphia , either under or overvaluing it's properties . So I am now in this state , trying to finish the full size figure , aware that the over observation has rendered me temporally blind to it's values ,is the nose too wide ? Ears too flat or eyes to small? like a particularly lovely ladies obsession with the size of her butt can eclipse her gorgeous curves !
When you start a piece, the vision of what could be drives you forward , comunicating it's potential is difficult and the client needs to have trust . The work begins to appear , evolving , seemingly making it's own journey, taking you with it .
Nearing the end , the vision seems to get in the way ! Sometimes blinding the artist to it's true value , similar to a sort of dismorphia , either under or overvaluing it's properties . So I am now in this state , trying to finish the full size figure , aware that the over observation has rendered me temporally blind to it's values ,is the nose too wide ? Ears too flat or eyes to small? like a particularly lovely ladies obsession with the size of her butt can eclipse her gorgeous curves !
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)