Berlin Residency Journal

Manfred came with his ladder to change the anteroom light bulb that blew a week ago. Now they have all been changed nothing more should need doing. The problem here is the twenty-foot ceiling so that I can't do it myself because I don't have such a high ladder, or any ladder. The bombshell for me, or since that is rather dramatic, the disappointment for me, is that Manfred won't be here for my exhibition. He's going to be working in Köln at the Art Fair. Since the majority of artists in the Milchhof are German speakers, amusing Manfred has been a main link between the whole Milchhof and me. He speaks a lot of English and is a very sociable person knowing everyone, making jokes making things easy. And now he won't be here, that is upsetting for me, but can't be helped. It is strange, now that I am in the fourth month, although with four weeks to go and all the paintings to finish still, I have that home stretch feeling of ‘what needs to be done before I go?' Which is weird. Some people come to Berlin for a weekend and here I am again worrying about "only four weeks and time is running out". Psychology give it a boot!