Yesterday I cleaned out my car. I took a picture out of a sooty frame outside so I could dump the glass easily. The weather was so perfect that I put the print on the tarmac to photograph it in the sunlight. It came out quite well with the road lending an urban feel to an urban artwork.
It’s an etching done in the nineties of the treasury building in Brisbane. The artist – John Hockings – is still exhibiting but over in Australia. I emailed him and we’ve agreed to try to list it for £250. I’m gonna give him a third as it came to me for free. I said it might not be the market for it here, but there’s only one way to find out. I’ll put it up on Sunday if it’s maximum £1 listing day. See how it goes.
I’m sharing this because, looking out the window, I have absolutely no idea how it was ever possible to calmly lay a £250 artwork on the asphalt and snap it like I did just yesterday. There was no wind. No rain. Perfect peace.
The windows are shaking with wet wind from over the water as I write. It’s one of those nights when I don’t feel safe in the good ship Al’s Flat. It feels like I might sink. It doesn’t seem possible that everything changed so quickly. Just yesterday I cleared out my car, humming happily to myself in the sunshine wearing just a T-shirt. I folded up the bivouacs and blankets and bagged up the rubbish and made it ready for the next set of adventures, whatever they might be.
I’m writing all this so I don’t get drawn into all this noise with the famous couple that we’re supposed to care about so much. Every time I read “an actress in an Oscar worthy performance” it makes me want to post custard to the idiot that wrote it. But I’m not gonna bite any further. There’s a lot of world out there to think about.
I got the damn picture up in the spare room. It’s almost straight too. There. Howdja like them apples? I’ve also put one of the tables that have been in the corridor for a decade into the room. It’s supporting an attractive light that matches the paint. It looks like it’s been thought about. It HAS been, only I already had the light. Wow.
It’s an improvement. I really want to get the bed in there now but that’s a two person thing and Max has a job and kids so it’s hard to pin him down for a hand. Insects don’t stop for the pandemic and nor do children sadly.
So – I’m writing this, listening to the wind and gearing up for an early bed before a ten hour non stop drive in a Luton van tomorrow, with loading and unloading to think about too. I think it’s time, you’d be surprised to hear, for a cup of chamomile and a bath. Night night.
AlBarclay 