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Ok I’ll admit it, there is a bit of a Goldilocks Vibe going on here. But that isn’t totally out of whack with the thinking… maybe.
But this isn’t yet nasty enough for me to like what is going on.
At the moment we have odd chairs, stitching, fabric scraps. Its getting somewhere, but not quite as I want. Yet.
I’m not sure if the streaks of stitches are too abstract. I know what they are, but does anyone else?
Do I care?
well… sort of… because I hate that whole the-artist-has-to-explain-it-before-you-can-possibly-understand-it thing. That is elitist and leaves no room for the viewer. I like to leave room for the viewer. I like the stories I get told… they weave themselves in too.
Is the fact that these are recognisable, familiar, but slightly peculiar chairs with stitches on enough?
Where am I going to get the nasty from? Maybe the song. The song is coming along…
I have the mantra “Avoid Tautology” in my head again… I must remember to keep my touch light…
I do have another oddly shaped chair at home … four… that would take Goldilocks out of the picture… or maybe let her stay?
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Art is not therapy¹
It is more animal than that²
During a rubbish week of illness, death and injustice, I get myself, finally, to the studio.
This is not escape
This is not soothing
This is not relaxation
This is animal activity – this belongs to the fight/flight/fuck variety of responses
So don’t be fooled by the apparent slow and measured activity.
I am angry and sad.
This is the way I respond to the world.
I’m writing and drawing…scratching ink furiously into paper.
Jabbing my poisonous needle into the fabric…pursed lips…hunched shoulders.
I am powerless to prevent the inevitable. So I try to insert it into my work. I attempt to assimilate it, to make some sort of sense. I am not assigning it to the gods.
The activity I undertake is not distraction. It does not serve the purpose of diverting my attention.
This art is focussed, frustrated fury.
It works through; it acts out; it filters,sorts and files; it absorbs the facts and spits them back out.
No.
This isn’t a gentle thing
This isn’t ladylike and modest.
It is hard work.
Exhausting.
But the world has to be dealt with, and this is the way I do it.
¹But it might be Therapy
²Dan Whitehouse told me. He is a wise man
