Flowerstalk

The stalk is about an inch long. I found it near the bus stop.

That lime green colour is charming. I should like to have a room one day large enough to allow such a bright shade without it becoming overpowering.

Some say the British are afraid of colour but it isn't true. They often use very strong colours to decorate rooms.

Papier-mâché birds - stage 2 - leg surgery

Bird with leg implantations.

I am using polyfilla to help make the birds' surfaces smooth for painting.

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Bird

The birds observe the leg surgery: Woodpecker's abdomen has been opened: he will subsequently recieve the wire implantation, which will then be bent to form limbs.

The Consultant Surgeon and Assistant Surgeon discuss procedure.

The Birds do not always balance easily. This Hornbill has cheated using blu-tack to hold on. Perhaps I will need to made a little base for him- I hope not, as this strikes me as inelegant.

The contents of a box 3; The British Grenadiers

My English Language teaching business cards. These are left all over the place to get private students.

From a distance they look a little like Warhol's famous soup cans.

Here they can be seen in formation, ready to march conquer Santa Catarina. I hear the rousing song of the British Grenadiers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsW4FoRzhQw

Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules
Of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these.
But of all the world's brave heroes, there's none that can compare.
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadiers.

Whene'er we are commanded to storm the palisades,
Our leaders march with fusees, and we with hand grenades.
We throw them from the glacis, about the enemies' ears.
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadiers.

Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health of those
Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the loupèd clothes*.
May they and their commanders live happy all their years.
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadiers.

I particularly like, "we throw them from the glacis, about the enemies' ears".

*I cannot understand what "loupèd clothes" are, though "loup" derives from the French for wolf, which suggests clothes made of wolfskin, perhaps?

Papier-mâché birds; toys and sculpure

Here's a collection of papier mache birds I've been working on over the last few days.

The thing is to find the right degree of anthropomorphism: the right balance between bird and suggested human characteristics for them to be fun.

They need to dry a little before I can work more into them, making their surfaces more even and improving their tails and beaks. Later they will be painted.

***

At what point does a toy become a sculpture? At the point at which it is too precious or serious looking to be played with, I guess.*

Play is regarded with tremendous suspicion in our culture though it lies beneath so many artistic endeavors. I suspect play is regarded with suspicion because it is regarded as the opposite of work, and Western societies are very much in thrall to the Protestant Capitalist ethos, whereby all activities must have a known, profitable end- to the extent that people are encouraged to feel bad about themselves when they aren't working, no matter how unfulfilling the jobs available to them are.

*Alexander Calder is an exception to this. Paul Klee, like Picasso, is playful but you couldn't really play with his works. Perhaps readers have other examples?

The contents of a box 2; Ten paper clips

*

The contents of a box 2

The photo above contains, from top left, clockwise:

1. Liquorice box, top and base (Paris, 2002)
2. Safety pin (probably British, c. 2000)
3. Orange plastic covered paper clip (probably British, c. 2000)
4. Screw eye (probably British, c. 2000)
5. Saftey pin (probably British, c. 2000)
6. Safety pin (probably British, c. 2000)
7. Two Clip-frame clips (London, 2003)

Ten paper clips

The items "speak" more loudly when placed beside other similar items.

*

The Writer

*

The Panty-thief, Pen and Ink drawing, 10 x 12 cm

He excuses himself at dinner to go to the lavatory. He walks up the stairs along the corridor as if to go to the lavatory but passes it, instead finding his way to your and your wife's bedroom door. He pushes the door: it swings open: no-one there. He can hear the voices: distant laughter from the dining room downstairs.

He enters: trepidation. A sudden creaking of the floor under his shoe makes him jittery. He sees the chest of drawers on the other side of the bed, so far! He walks round the bed to reach it then, after pausing momentarily, pulls open the top drawer, peering inside. Yes!, he sighs, relieved. He sees a gorgeous array of costly pastel silk and lace: your wife's knickers. His palms are damp as he hurriedly selects a pair. He cannot resist stroking his delirious cheek for a joyful second with those panties before placing them in his side pocket, then scuttling from the room. He stops at the bathroom briefly before descending.

He returns to the the dinner table. You are entertaining the other guests with an anecdote about one of the directors of your company and scarcely noticed the guest's absence. He is a small, nervous man: insignificant. You do not sense that he is breathing heavily, nor see the beads of perspiration on his forehead.

Who is he? He is a contemporary novelist or a journalist, probably an Englishman.

The Contents of a Box - 1

One of several boxes contain things which cannot be thrown out, nor which have any immediate use: items in limbo.

Clockwise from lower left-

1. Wooden box, which used to contain figs (Maida Vale, London, 2004?)
2. Cut Pieces of paper used as stencils for monotypes (Florianopolis, 2009)
3. Plastic Key, used for stretching canvases (Maida Vale, London, 2005)
4. Brackets used to hang pictures (Maida Vale, London, 2003)
5. Nuts (Florianopolis, 2007)
6. Bolts (Florianopolis, 2007)
7. Little screws used for brackets (Edgware Road, London, 2004)
8. Two Shells (Florianopolis, 2009)
9. Spiral shell fossil (gift from unknown donor, London, 2003)
10. Pencil eraser (Aberdeen, 2000?)
11. Part of a scalpel blade (Florianopolis, 2006)
12. Little scissors (Florianopolis, 2007)
13. Device for attaching telephone wire to skirting board (unknown)
14. Part of telephone wire (Florianopolis, c. 2008)
15. Small box of staples (Aberdeen, 2003)
16. Crumpled pieces of chocolate wrapping (Florianopolis, 2009)
17. Dennis the Menace Badge (Finsbury Park, London, 2008)
18. Two little strips of grey paper (Florianopolis, 2010)
19. Cat's Eye Bicycle Torch (Florianopolis, 2009)
20. Batteries (Florianopolis, 2009)
21. E45 Skin Cream (Aberdeen, 200?)
22. Rubber Body Parts (Bermondsey, London 2003)
23. Brackets used to hang pictures (Egdware Road, 2004- see little screws above)
24. Device used in Flower Arranging to help anchor stalks (Florianopolis, 2007)
25. "Stopper" used to close a tube (unknown provenance)
26. Two Brazilian coins * 5o and 10 centavos (Florianopolis, 200?)
27. Brown plastic "button" of uncertain function (unknown).
28. China Doll's Head (Copenhagen, 2004)


*N.B. the terrible design quality of Brasillian coinage.