How to make a fool of yourself

Read between the lines if you will. Or the photo's.


Fancy dress is one of those things I think you either love or hate.
I hate.
But for your friends you do things that go a bit against the grain.
For their 40th you feel obliged to make a pillock of yourself if requested to.
I have to add that after some bolstering red wine I quite enjoyed myself. Even though when I got home and caught sight of myself in the mirror my heart sank like a stone.
So maybe my attempt at tree climbing was ill advised from the start. When you are deflated and your pride is dented risking failure is not likely to end well.
And it didn't.
I picked a tree that had close spaced branches, left right, left right, all the way up. When I was 8 it would have been a doddle.
I think my bulky coat was the biggest hindrance. But Ramblin' Randall thinks that's a very poor excuse. Not in the spirit of a true adventurer.
Can you imagine Ranulph Fiennes saying 'I didn't get to the Pole because my coat was too bulky.'?
Fair point.
Quite demoralised and feeling every single one of my years I went off to play in my studio.











I feel better now.

More thoughts on theory and art

I can't take credit for this tho I wish I could.
This is a Ramblin' Randall.
I have asked his permission to post this picture. And was kind of surprised when he agreed because he is as good at self promotion as a chocolate teapot is at holding hot liquid.
He is a quiet self sufficient kind of chap with a fascination for people's faces that seems at odds with his lack of interest in socialising and dislike of crowded places.
This quiet, from the corner, observing and recording what is seen, was something that the photographer from Wednesday also engaged in.
Whenever R.R. and I compare photos we have individually taken of the same subject I am always aware that he sees things,or aspects of things, that I do not.
I look at this image and I want to know the story behind the face. Is that just me?




And this one? It reminds me of Hopper with the disengaged gaze of the subjects from each other and from the viewer. Now straying into Lacan territory!
Meanwhile I have been grappling with my new Janome embellishing machine. It did take the entire day! But, I have managed to make an inchie ( a new concept to me that I rather like) and a 2x4ie . There's mileage in it for sure.




All the while I was making prettiness I was continuing with the thread of thought started on Wednesday. The thought about the divide between art and craft. The creative impulse generally. And specifically the randomness of my own makings and musings.




I drew out and dusted off a fragment of memory about Rosika Parker and 'The Subversive Stitch' and I got excited again. Not that I think the little black sheep in my wooly winter wonderland is deserving of any theoretical underpinning. No. No. No.
But I do think these ideas help me to focus. Perhaps become a bit less random.
I have a busy day scheduled today but I am determined to find some time to play. Playing with these ideas in mind. Hope you all have a happy Sunday.

Threads of thought

Yesterday was a day of " the skills that pay the bills". I think that I have previously stated that those skills are not at all creative. I will go so far as to say that those skills are clinical. In the true sense of the word.
But, I do get to meet some lovely and interesting people, tho often, and rightly so, the conversation never gets past the usual polite pleasantries.
Just sometimes,as happened yesterday, the conversation takes a far more interesting track. So I found myself talking to a photography student about the French literary theorist and philosopher Roland Barthes and in particular his 1980 work 'Camera Lucida'. Quite took my breath away. From there we moved to talk about psychoanalytic theory in art and questions of identity and how those ideas influence or are reflected in ' the work' that we do.
Her 'work' being photography and mine being .....making cat brooches from felt!
Crafty things being the main thrust of my creative activity. Crafty things being those that I readily and happily share.
But in secret, I draw.





I have been dithering over whether to share those drawings too. Just to let them see the light of day. But the idea scares me because they are so much more personal.
However, in yesterday's conversation I reconnected with my passion for a brief moment and it is on the heels of that moment that I am posting this blog.




I feel very exposed now! And in a heart beat and a single breath I will press the publish button.......

Snow

Today we have snow! And to go with it a swirling, biting wind. I'd like to say that I am cosied up by an open fire getting on with current projects. I can't say it  for two reasons. One: some modernising maniac took all the chimneys out of my Victorian house. And two: I am at work. The day job. However in this quiet moment I can show you the projects  that I am working on.
Bookmarks/book closures. Very useful if, like me, you have a sketchbook full of loose scraps of paper.
Pretty little bags for transporting projects or whatever else you choose.
And a newly learned knit stitch that has, I think, a lot of applications.

More walking

This landscape ,where we walk most days, is under threat of becoming a golf course.  I won't bore you with all the reasons why I and others think this is a terrible idea.  For now we can roam freely and each time we do is such  pleasure.