Mobile Money

Maybe I’m getting more right-wing as I get older, but I really feel strongly about taxation all of a sudden. I’ve realized that the way people support each other and rise up economically depends entirely on the rich being able to hold onto their money and spend it as they wish. If the Government taxes the rich this is what happens:
The Rich tighten their belts and don’t splash out on luxury things like art.
Artists cant start or maintain a career.
Canvas makers and paint makers struggle. Art shops go out of business.
People who run the art shops or were previously employed in art industries are made unemployed. They have less money to spend on things like coffees.
Coffee bars profits run low. Low wage workers in coffee bars are made unemployed.
In effect, it’s the rich KEEPING and SPENDING their money that keeps the economy going and helps the poor. Taxing them just halts social mobility, and everything stagnates.
Maybe I should move to Jersey…?

The Queen of Anhedonia and the King of Qualia

Title for a book of poems I want to publish, apparently its getting easier to do that now, there's places where you can just send the text and graphics and they print and bind it for you..

Writers should be read, but neither seen nor heard.
- Daphne du Maurier

Performing For Fun (and Profit?)

Just listened to an interview with Siouxsie on the radio. She's a very insightful and bright person. She talked about admiring Bowie for being non-stereotypical, and how she dresses up and does the whole make-up and character thing for no other reason than its fun. How refreshing! And her new material is pretty good and non-compromising - probably wont get that much airplay but good luck to her, I wouldn't mind going to see her live (hopefully not at a festival, don't like them much). I think she'd still be an amazing performer. But what I admired most is her saying "don't believe ANYTHING anyone writes about you, good OR bad!". In that vein, I'm glad I've left my BA behind - you have to so be on top of everything that's written about your work then. I don't know how artists/performers can carry on having fun with what they create when it becomes their livelihood. It must take tremendous strength. I'm having trouble maintaining the enjoyment and I'm not even famous. I don't know whether being recognised and even a bit famous would make it any easier to hold my head up, maybe she does it by hanging around with like-minded people. That's hard to do when people are younger or geographically far away or are in a different trend or fragment - as time goes on there seem to be more and more fragmentation in any field of the arts - and age pretty much pre-determines cliques, especially in the young (which I find sad for myself and for them, so much waste of opportunity to cross-fertilise and just support each other). I try not to let age be an issue, even when I reccy venues with an OAP who is prone to some trying behaviour and Senior Moments (my god yesterday was tiring.. one end of London to the other.. sweating on the tube and walking around lost.. I ache and I have blisters!).
I can only hope to attract more peers and soulmates by having shows so that they can see and feel the work for itself, have a good experience, and maybe purchase something to keep my domestic woes at bay.. if only I'd started earlier when I had less responsibility.
Watch this space for news of upcoming shows. I don't want to say more until the venues are finalised, but so far it looks like 2 in London and 1 in Chicago. Fingers crossed!

Just because I wear a Union Flag badge on my lapel, does not make me a racist!

I really enjoyed myself at the Buzzcocks gig in Bromley the other night but was rather saddened at some peoples attitudes towards the black security staff. He was the only black guy in a group of poor sods working hard to stop us trashing the barriers, and he got singled out for an insult by a guy standing next to me who assumed I would find that funny or cool.
Its a shame that some people have to equate punk and British music with race hate. There was a lot of it about in the 70's and 80's when punk started but the world has moved on since then. I just shook my head and said "There's no need for that.."

We Could Be Heroes - Just For One Day

Well I wasn't that excited about my graduation ceremony yesterday, but then I got into the car and Heroes was playing on the radio and it just kinda made me excited. Even tho standing around in magenta-trimmed robes doesn't exactly make us heroic, the rousing speeches and the loud cheering certainly added to the feeling. I lead a boisterous round of applause when John Bird (alumni and founder of the Big Issue and colourful character!) announced in no uncertain terms that the world needed more artists (and not just ones that make tents!). Yep. It was memorable.

Cap, Gown, Dirty Hands

I'm proud I get my hands dirty. Not like some artists who dump stuff and call it art and then get 2 grand for it (no names, no pack drill). I make stuff. Hard graft! Yeah I only got a Desmond and I have an overdraft and debts and a HUGE guilt complex (semi-detached, suburban Mrs Jones I aint but am stuck in it), the house is full of crap I like but cant get rid of - not even on eBay - thats my work we're talking about there! - hubby says he's proud I haven't sold out but I said "Haven't sold - PERIOD! Drop the "out"!" which made him laugh but in a kind of shrug and aint the world shit way.
I've been taking advantage of the good weather at last to get my hands even dirtier: rubbing down bits of rusty stuff till all gleaming and then coating it in anti rust paint. That paint is horrible. It doesn't come off your skin until your skin cells fall off, so there I'll be tomorrow shaking hands with the great and the good with black fingers LOL. I dont care. I dont even want to be there. Whats to celebrate FFS? 4 years and a sum total of nothing has happened as a result. Just come-up-next-tuesdays taking you for a ride.
Been reading Hooky from New Orders blog. That man should write a book. Seriously. William Burroughs of the 80's (and beyond). Bit like Trainspotting to read, have to get in the mind of a Manc (icky) but its rivetting. From what I garner he's DJing or something? Will have to look out.
Dont you love that photo? He looks lovely and grizzled, but with an evil twinkle, just like a legend should!

Allelopathic Artists

Oftentimes relationships between artists or creative people is described as either competitive or symbiotic.
I argue that the relatively new term "allelopathy" is a more accurate description of this relationship. Having been at art school and in curated shows I can honestly claim I have experienced this kind of phenomenon both first hand and as an observer.
Allelopathy is either described as a type of, or opposite of, symbiosis. It is categorised by the nature of both parties contribition to the relationship, that is it falls into the rough bracket of Amensalism, in which the association is disadvantageous to one member while the other is not affected. (−party harmed vs 0party neutral) Allelopathy can fall into this category.
The reason I equate the artists with plant life (not meaning to offend!) is that in the cases stated on Wikipedia one organism poisons the others domain to the extent that it has an advantage and therefore can become the dominant type in an environment that would otherwise not specifically be favourable to one type or another. The output of certain artists can take over the domain in such a way: for example, conceptual artists in the latter part of the 20th Century, YBA's. They aren't in direct competition with other artists, they just smother them! Compare the works of Damien Hurst in the art world to the leaf litter of Casuarina equisetifolia that completely suppresses germination of understory plants despite the relative openess of the canopy and ample rainfall*: beneficial factors that may encourage growth of the new emerging artists as well as maintain established ones are like the sun and the rain in the world of nature, and direct parallels can be drawn between the unconscious and the conscious organisms.
I have been in shows where we have an equal or fair share of space in the gallery, and been in group crits where everyone is on equal ground, and yet one artists presence seems to predominate and send the others into shade or infertile ground.


*although not widely acknowledged, Rhododendrons are a plant that is allelopathic - "rhodie-bashing" is a well-known activity for nature conservationists, cutting back the bushes to prevent the soil become sterilised by the dense shade, fallen leaves and the toxic roots. Victorians planted them as beautiful ornamental bushes, little knowing the affect they had. Curators and Buyers of Fine Art take note - todays attractive investment can be tomorrows pest!

The Power Of Colour

Anyone who thinks just coloured paint isn't worthwhile (look at the amount of actual paintings in colour at my degree show.. count them on the fingers of an amputee!) needs to have a look at the Sony Bravia ad on TV. Awesome! I wish I had a tower block to paint, but will have to settle for smaller scale. But there's no reason small scale use of colour cant have an impact. I'm working on it!

Another box of blank canvases arrived today but the couriers really bashed them around. Big puncture holes in the cardboard and the plastic sleeves were all split. However, the person packing the canvases into the box took a bit more care. They obviously know these things are going to be slung about by people who dont give a damn and placed them in the box backwards so that the stretchers were on the outer edge. Otherwise the surfaces would be totalled. The courier guy was a teeny bit concerned when I pointed the bloody great holes out to him, said it had only fallen on a box of dog biscuits, but opened the box to check. I am nice to service people but I swear if they were damaged the company would have paid and I'd've moaned!

I'm looking for a "proper" job, back in the TV industry. Better the devil you know. And since no-one reads this blog, buys my art for more than a few quid and gives me nothing but pitying condescending looks when I try to talk about my work or art in general, I figure I'm the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe if I was 21, single, living in Brick Lane and with an unlimited supply of confidence enhancing cocaine I might stand a chance..

Healers Hurt

Gonna do a bit of politics I'm afraid. But its more a reflection of Human Nature when given Responsibility.
Should anyone be surprised that the latest terrorist bombers are Doctors? Have you been to a Doctor recently? Haven't they been rather cold and stand-offish? I think when you give a person the power over life or death, there is a great temptation to use that power to rise over fellow human and choose to administer death.
Healers have a polarised view of the world in my opinion. Psychotherapists are a very good example of this, and counsellors, and other academic practitioners. They acquire some sort of authority and then believe they have some sort of right to use this to justify just about every decision and thought they have. The rest of us are just their patients, the serfs to the masters, the lower animals in the family. They have an insight into mortality that can elevate them consciously over the rest of the living race. Whatever beliefs they have must be right as they are more educated and informed than the rest of us. That is what makes these elite potentially very dangerous.

I'm an artist. I admit I know nothing. I quite like it that way!