As 29th Feb is a special day I feel that I really should be doing something different and just a little bit monumental today.
Having just stupidly nearly incapacitated myself trying to demonstrate a tricky yoga pose whilst at the same time running up a hill, I am now somewhat curtailed by having to apply RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) to my poor knee.
The good news is that my ‘My Name is Earl’ period of indecision is over and having collected a large bag of hosiery offcuts from a lovely and helpful manufacturer yesterday, the next GYO*BYO project is hotting up.
There is NOTHING like a bag of brightly coloured nylon to fire the imagination.
I started off today trying to remember to remember to plan… which went quite well for a little while.
The trouble is when things aren’t quite working, it is very hard to stick to what you are supposed to be doing. I can get very easily distracted when demoralised by practical problems.
I am now even boring myself with the perpetual chant of ‘why don’t I make things simple’ I think it must be written into my geneology to complicate things and always ‘bite off more than I can chew’ When things are going simply I can always find a way to throw a spanner in…..
Not being blessed with a mechanical mind I am, by necessity, forced into a positon to love the low-tech. And this is good, for I hate it when technology gets in the way of a good idea, or exists in place of a good idea. The problem comes when a good idea needs just a little bit more ‘workings’ to help it on its way.
I wonder, does Amazon have a copy of ‘Hydraulics for Dummies’?
Just watched the Jeremy Deller Culture Show programme and feel really bad – what a lovely bloke – what interesting work – I had never realised. The press portrayal of his work never seems very interesting and in the past I have just shut off my attention and dismissed him. Jeremy – huge apologies – I think your work is really interesting and with humour – which is a little valued asset in art. For me – humour is one of the MOST important things.
Now feel inspired in many ways. And will try to be more open minded about everyone. (I love you all).
Not had a very inspiring day today. Trawled around the internet looking for appropriate materials for new GYO*BYO installation which is coming up very soon….
Started to panic wildly about London Marathon when I received an e-mail from RNIB (who I am raising money for) saying only 60 days to go!! With all the hullabaloo going on with Kinetica, snow and sick children my abliity to run even 1 mile is not what it was.
Note to Self: run everywhere all day long it will add up.
Had long winded discussions with poor father (who now has my new project to worry about – feeling guilty already) about the logistics of planning and how to make work. Do you look at the practicalities of how to make something and design accordingly (him) or do you make what you want to make and solve the problems as you go (me).
Big headaches all round.
I am currently in that horrible limbo time, the time when procrastination strikes heavily, between projects – the time when it is so easy to phaff the days away in indecision – what is it exactly that I am going to make next?
Much as I hate it, I think I get a lot more done under extreme pressure. This is not really good for anyone as everything falls apart when I have a project deadline. However when there is no pressure nothing ever quite gets finished.
I have a very large collection of ‘unfinisheds’ and could very easily fill a substantial gallery (my choice is the Hayward if any curators are reading…) with work that is just a little unresolved.
So the big questions of the day are: do I finish a few unfinisheds? (the responsible option) or do I forge on with all the exciting new ideas I have in my bulging sketchbooks? (this one, this one!) Which idea will be the one to make me rich and famous? How do I choose?
I am considering using a ‘hands of fate’ option in decision making (perhaps a bit of a cop-out in avoiding the responsiblitiy of making the wrong selection) by getting a pack of blank index cards and writing an idea on each one. Then it is just a question of ‘find the lady’.
My fear from this approach is that I will just end up with the old boot of card tricks – ‘the 52 card pick up’.
