Sometimes life is a bitch.  I am very well versed in this bitchiness; the scratching and scrawling, hissy fits and just plain difficult nature of this otherwise sweet life.  Take for example, I recently took the opportunity to submit an original work-in-progress for a local open exhibition.  Standpoint was the title, and the idea was to create a piece of work based on the standpoint one takes in this life, the personal point of view, the musings, trials, tribulations, love and sweetness.  A real beautiful brief actually because it lends itself perfectly to an outpour of ideas, creativity and thought forms.  Indeed, in the immediate moment I read this brief, the whole image popped into my head, perfect and complete; all the intricacies, colours, everything.  This strike of inspiration, the gift of a fertile ground with which to create is my raison d’être .  I live for this; the parting of fog, the dancing colours revealing themselves somewhere within my soul.  I think many artists feel the same way.

So, fired up, I got to work.  I’ve been completely inspired by the psychedelic posters from the 1960s, and the idea of creating dioramas and mixing things up a bit.  I wanted to bring together all the things I love to do; photography, digital manipulation of said photography and to include hand worked elements; ink and letterforms, words and wistfulness and wrap it all up within my tribute to the psychedelic art form which has inspired me since forever.

In fact, the last element proved problematic, having now scrapped and reworked 3 times now.  Hey, I can handle that; I enjoy the practice to be honest.. and I love the stillness and patience required to work with pen and ink (and a special pen and ink that I own, requires always my very best efforts).

But after three weeks of working on all of these elements, the last thing I thought about was money and costs.. and being stereotypically poor and the inevitable fact all available resources are  (quite rightfully) poured into the domestics of bringing up two young boys, I forget entirely I needed to print and frame the work.. and I can’t.

Being poor is something I accept as part of this game I play, because my raison d’être I wrote about earlier explains to me blindly everything that still is beautiful about living and breathing on this planet much, much more so than all this wretched money ruining everything in this world.  Finances, projections, grand master plans for some reason cannot touch me.. They are abstract and do not compute.

So, life’s bitchy side comes along and scratches me across the face to remind me to pay attention to her.  Standpoint is now cancelled, yet here I still stand and I feel much better for writing this all down.  Make of that what you will.

Chris

I have updated my show calendar with my plans for summertime 2012.  I’m really happy to be involved with all of these; exciting times ahead!

Forthcoming shows are as follows:

Throughout Summer 2012

‘The DJ Touring Gallery’
Duckett and Jeffreys Gallery
2 Old Maltongate
Malton
North Yorkshire
YO17 7EG

www.duckettandjeffreys.com

2nd June → 23rd June 2012

‘Standpoint’ (open exhibition)
The West Gallery
Quay Arts
Newport
Isle of Wight
PO30 5BD.

www.quayarts.org

27th July → 27th August 2012

‘The Undecided Art Collective’ (group show)
5a Spring Hill
Ventnor
Isle of Wight
PO38 1PE

www.facebook.com/undecideds

Good times ahead!  I feel like an energy is rising surrounding the carcass of these times.  Just small steps away from the bullshit, the political propaganda, lies and the dangerous disturbance of the natural equilibrium by thieves and greed alike. Change! Positive fuel brings us towards greater understanding and acceptance of situations previously unfathomable.  This may be a fine time for me to reel of the spiel, but something is changing.. I cannot say what.. It’s a good thing.  A great thing..!

Until Soon,

Chris

In addition to the idea of a fishy fireplace (as proudly announced in my previous post) there were some thoughts regarding the use of the space as a cage for children.  Above are some altogether scientific preliminary experiments with my boys Jeff (top) and Alex (bottom).

Regrettably,  testing remained inconclusive.  There was some discussion that the practice of storing children in a fireplace could be construed as cruel.  I’m not sure about that.  One could argue that their unruly youthfulness measured against my own ageing grumpiness could be seen as cruelty against yours truly..  It sure is a topsy turvy world!

One day, around two years ago, I had the idea to house an aquarium within the fireplace (sans fire, of course; grilled goldfish taste awful!).  Originally, the intention was to create a cavity covered with lots of tiny mirrors; I thought the idea of infinite fishes cascading into the horizon would be ace and give the fish an impression of being within a reassuring shoal.

Unfortunately, due to practicality (and cost) this idea was ditched and I eventually went with black tiles.  It’s taken awhile to complete – I started work on this late October last year – the processes included :

removing an iron fireplace
stripping an inordinate amount of layered paint from the surround
building a solid platform for which to support it all
boxing it all in
tiling
lighting… and hoping the damn thing was going to fit!

Technically, it’s not really finished.  I have wires to tidy and brickwork to cover (and other tiny details), but since this blog has been deprived of a decent home-improvement post for far too long (!), I feel it is fine to be sharing these ‘near-complete’ photographs with you.

The rainbow effect has to be one of the happiest accidents I have yet encountered in this lifetime.  Words cannot express!  It was totally unexpected, but the absolute perfect finish. For the lighting, I used a strip of tiny low-energy LED lights and this effect is simply the refracted light beaming upwards.. I smile every time I see it.

( Goobye old, shitty fireplace )

My son Alex, asleep through sickness these past days.  Pale and motionless, healing.  Through this all, I could hardly dismiss the beauty of the light upon the translucency of skin, the tiny, fine hairs upon his forehead.  A quiet light caressing stillness.

It has been awhile since I posted any pictures of Alex.  He will be five years old this Summer!  He is doing very well at school, possesses a devilish sense of humour and will absolutely not let us cut his hair!!

In addition to this :

I’ve entered an art competition and would be super-fly-guy if you would take a moment to check out my page and help push it forward.  The top prize is an exhibition space at Times Square New York City, some much needed cash and a double-paged spread in an art magazine.. Not that I’m after superficial things.. But – Blimey! – wouldn’t it be great?!

Vote Here

Thank you and…. Until soon x

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Seedling Key:

i. Thyme ii. Parlsey iii. Dwarf Curry iv. Purple Basil v. Salad Cress