Chronologicallyours: January 2016

Sunday 24 January 2016

40 years!

24-1-16

Note to Nick and Ruth,

Nick, we were self formed when we left - we knew where we were going, very strong minded individuals.
As I write this on the day of a Tory victory, what will happen to out N.H.S? - time to sell your house when cancer creeps in.
But the family thing is slightly surprising / slightly overwhelming. There but for fortune and we are all here.

With a life behind us that doesn't ask "what happened to those twenty odd years?"
Hash brownies and haven't we grown?

The last minute dash for the train must have been inevitable to both parties

I would like a photo of each painting - it secures a resting place for my identity.

I like to tell a yarn - maybe its a defence mechanism, maybe its the same as writing a paper, or performing a tune or perhaps even painting.

Aging and change, but the same essence - there was no doubting who you both were, for me within a second! In my immediate impression of you, you were both how I wanted and indeed expected you to be. When we went our separate ways, at least if our futures weren't totally mapped out, we were all on a mission.
They were vivid character forming times - an era of "uncles" or indeed "aunts" who left us slogans and memories.

Some people have said "where have you been?"
I know where you've been and I like it. I'm proud of who you are.

p.s This was written last Autumn and published yesterday!

Monday 11 January 2016

Tree House Refurbished

TREEHOUSEREfURBISHED

I like the fact that my blogs in general are a kind of maze, they overlap and sometimes there are two pages of the same ilk only slightly different.

But I feel I need to get some kind of chronological grip on things and so have decided to convert my first blog space into simply one that responds to the passing of years, with added extracts and links.

There are spaces in my past!

(also on my Art3000 site)

I also aim to set up a new blog site entitled:

OVER-FLOW-BLOG

with added flooding

Dance Myself to Shadows

Dance myself to shadows

for Jack Bruce Jan 11 2016

Idiot Dancer, Hyde Park C.1968

Cream – Dance The Night Away Lyrics

Gonna build myself a castle
High up in the clouds.
There'll be skies outside my window;
Lose these streets and crowds.
Dance the night away.

Will find myself an ocean,
Sail into the blue,
Live with golden swordfish,
Forget the time of you.
Dance the night away.

Dance myself to nothing.
Vanish from this place.
Gonna turn myself to shadow
So I can't see your face.
Dance the night away.
Songwriters: WILKINS, WAYNE / BROWN, ALEX

I haven't worked out how to make links work efficiently yet - they need highlighting then a right click. (PAIN IN THE ARSE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFKsyZrPqfYv

Kind of like a
DANCE ZONE.

--- so, not my own words, but words I find myself inhabiting.

The energy and pervasiveness of dance.It's not just about dance steps - in fact, it's not about steps at all.
It's about inhabiting the music,
about being the music * * *
& it's wonderful!
Dance enables you to find yourself and loose yourself at the same time.

Lets Dance: David Bowie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4d7Wp9kKjA

The Dance floors of Knossos (at an early stage) for one of the twelve "chapters" of Achilles Shield.

DANCE,DANCE,DANCE. Steve Miller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qp6GU-aUjk

It's not dancing to show like John Travolta,
Not a performance
Although, why not add a bit of an ego trip?

I suppose it's a bit of a process
A letting off steam -an introversion for no specific reason
And also an expression
Without judgement (in its purest form)
And after all, it is healthy, both mentally and physically.

Although, idiot dancing is pushing the boat out a little bit far maybe.

Of course, there is also the interactive element
unison between partners
cohesion and intuitive understanding.

Or the group phenomena (forgetting line dance)
A number of people thinking as one, almost like a choir.

Moondance: Van Morrison.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lFxGBB4UGU

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

Saturday 9 January 2016

The two lost shows

The Two Lost Shows

Not lost as in "gone" but in that they both went out on a cusp.
Almost as final statements as I was just finishing doing mural projects with infants, my son had arrived at a more self reliant age & I was beginning to feel that just pumping out paintings without an awful lot of contemporary contact was beginning to lead to progressive implosion - a major factor in my taking on an M.A. course.

Also (of course) I had accumulated a large pile of work that I hadn't seemed to have done anything with. (Never mind all the stuff that came out of the four year stay in Istanbul)

http://whitemoustachestreet.blogspot.co.uk/

(highlight and right click)

On hindsight I feel they weren't particularly strong shows, but in the same breath, they weren't too bad.
In a way, they were let down by the inclusion of some weaker material, which maybe detracted from, rather than informed the general gist of the shows.

I feel that the M.A.course * coming from a completely different angle of academia from where i had been * did help to group themes, whys, wherefores and put me into a more helpful position as to where I was going to pitch, comment and to who.
Or, indeed, identify what was being created "just for the hell of it"

It was a sign of those times (1999) slightly akin to what was going down with "Art & Language in the early 70's.
This time; what are we going to do with Po Mo?
Interestingly, there seems to be more of a trend toward "suck it and see" work out why - after an experimental stab at present. A complete about turn for many to claim to be in the know.

"Stories"

An exhibition of painting Nuneaton Museum and art gallery. May 1998.

The story of the poster and title.
As represented in the poster, I wanted to name the show
"You caught me floating in my sleep last night"
This was considered too risque and seeing it to be a kind of local family location, I succumbed and renamed it, feeling that "stories" fitted the general theme.
Since then, the number of shows with the same title that I have passed has astounded me!

Guardian kite over a Himalayan village in H.P.

The curator at the museum at the time was Gina Quant and a pleasure to work with. There was a handy man there name of Alf or similar with whom I could have worked without friction for a considerable period of time.
He got the poster printed for me, unfortunately he took it on himself to insert an extra "stories" onto the page. He was suck a nice bloke I couldn't say anything!

Ganesh at home, Karnataka.

Nuneaton Museum is about the prettiest place I could imagine to hold an opening in. A lovely building situated in the middle of a park with running water.

There had been a drought for about 6 weeks and the start date was in the beginning of May. I rubbed my hands in anticipation.

The morning of the big day woke me with intense rainfall - a deluge in fact! On turning on the radio, I was informed of five separate bomb scares centered on roads in that general ares. You could say that that was a bit yin!

It was a quiet opening, but I do remember the event and the conversations with friends that had turned up. (& they had to be friends to do that!)

A good venue, especially if all you wanted to do was turn people on - reinforce existing mind sets or maybe even slightly change them.

-But not being local to that area - not a lot of reason to show there. Although, I would if it was handed to me on a plate, maybe with a few quids worth of expenses.

Dogbayasit. N.E. Turkey, very close to Iran,

Carousel Left Panel

Middle Panel.
And the seasons they go round and round and the painted ponies go up and down.
We're captive on a carousel of time.
Emerging as an idea in sketches with the birth of my son Aydin.

Carousel, right panel.

" Lucky"

The show kind of moved onto the Queens Hall in Narberth, West Wales.
In Nuneaton, it basically hung around the Carousel and other stuff I had produced in Istanbul, then (embellished). Also stuff from a trip to India.

"Johnny Eidetic"

In Narberth art Centre at the end of 1999