Which was a great film from when I was at college which seems to have disappeared without trace; obviously I was in the minority. I can't remember too much about it except the flower duet from Lakme was used in the soundtrack and it starred a 'kooky' girl with red hair. I went to see it on my own at the cinema which at that age still felt kind of cool and off the wall; not so many years later I did it nearly every week. Funny how perspective changes. I keep meaning to launch into a full rant on ageing and how it changes your view of the world, but it is a bit of a case of 'can- open, worms- everywhere!' Went into town today to drop off new prints at my first and favourite framers, collect money for the ones sold and order frames for the new giclees that will hopefully be appearing soon. So begins my first 'product'. Having embraced the need to swerve into a commercial lane while continuing to produce work of a more eccentric and personal nature, I am detirmined that my product should be worth the paper it is printed on, so to speak. I have worked with designers, postcard producers, publishers; it is a real thrill to be finally creating my own little thing.
Looked at some great little things in the Scotland Gallery; some wee baby Picasso and Chagall prints and more exciting to me, drawings. There is something truly magic about the actual pencil on paper that has been sketched out by someone you greatly admire. The Chagall was a revelation- a loose but very correct drawing of a female nude with arms raised almost in the 'caryatid' pose I love. So unlike most things you end up seeing from him, and so almost like seeing a secret or hidden gem.
The other show of note to me was an Australian called Stephen Bird whose work utterly charmed and challenged me - his work is largely ceramic but with some awesome drawings and watercolours of his studio, gum trees, crazy birds and people.. The ceramics are headed 'Industrial Sabotage' and he worked with the Stoke on Trent potteries factories producing moulds and multiples of everyday things, toys, animals etc which he assembles into little toby jugs, worlds, houses... There is an element of political comment and a great deal of surreal humour, all in toytown colours and shiny gloss; some great pieces based on big chunky ashtrays with cool bugs painted on them, and jugs with handles made of multiple dolls heads.
As ever I am so happy and energised to see someone with such a unique vision and the guts to just go with it and let the contents of their head loose for our edification and inspiration.
Back home painting with a vengeance and looking up things on the web to help me out; for some reason I am fixated on mermaids now to add to my cast of deep sea dwellers and imaginary animals. Internet broke down into three straightforward categories for mermaids; fantasy soft porn art (long haired ladies with their tits out and fishy tail, mmm sexy) Disney, and fake stuffed animals. I would use the correct term for stuffed animals there but my brain actually is officially going and I can't remember it. Taxidermy. There it is. Shall I do the thing about ageing now?
So! I am tomorrow going to find the fourth way; the mermaid that is neither a suggestive magazine illustration, a garish cartoon with bug eyes or an even buggier eyed alien lookalike stuck to half a perch. Can't be too hard, surely?
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