London is sticky. I got here and realised I was going to stay here overnight. Just too tired and it’s too much my home in this flat for me to pass through it without sleeping. I loaded up my kilt and related paraphernalia. It’s all a little haphazard but it’s a family wedding and so it makes sense to wear the family tartan.
Now I’m just lying on my back in my hot room, and when I glance movement out of the corner of my eye I keep thinking it’s the little cat. She’s sending me projections. She wants treats and cuddles. I’ve let her down striking out to London. But here I am.
From here non stop it’s about eight hours to Glasgow. I’ve done it a few times in one go. Once it was in a van with no air con when it was like this. Bergman is going to be a luxury, and I’ve managed to pass the work on Tuesday so I can have a relatively slow return after the wedding.
Hugo is one of my nephews fathered by Jeremy, the youngest artist son of my father’s (first?) brood – (apparently there might have been some in Japan in the late 1940’s…) I’ve always called them brothers, and I get on with their kids. This one has stayed in art but is a producer. I went to the Affordable Art Fair last time as he was the Fair Director. I couldn’t afford any of the art. Buying modern art as an investment seems odd to me as someone who has tried to sell on a few pieces that my parents bought. Largely it seems to be a buyer’s market unless you are selling through a gallery. I suppose that’s what the Affordable Art Fair makes possible, but then the artists will need to have a gallery. I guess it’s like actors and agents. Gallery helps guarantee quality in a subjective market. Value is sustained by hype, hype is mostly purchased. Investment stokes investment. As an artist, you get back what you put in minus a cut from the gallery, and sometimes you get lucky. As a punter “Just buy what you like,” he advised me, and I think that’s the extent of it really. Buy art you like and hope that your taste matches that of the kingmakers. But this thing I’ve heard : “art holds its value” – that hasn’t borne out with the second hand paintings I’ve tried to sell. Maybe I was going about it the wrong way.
Hugo is getting married. I’m very happy to be invited and able to go. He was very understanding about the nature of my work and let me be a maybe for a long long time. Weddings are extremely tricky for actors, and I’ve had more than one occasion where I’ve ended up missing an important one, sometimes at horribly short notice and in very stressful circumstances. This one I’m gonna make it. I’ll do the whole drive tomorrow. It’s nothing in the scheme of what I’m used to. I’ll get there and be kilted up and all will be well and I’ll be the weird uncle.
AlBarclay 