Issue #200 - The Spaces in Between
Monumental Cup
It’s raining outside, the downpipe can’t cope and there’s water dripping down the brickwork, I might have to go out and empty the plastic bin that we’ve put there to try to stop it dripping through the cracks into the garage below. It’s been sunny all weekend, I walked to the library yesterday, you only ever see one or two people walking in residential streets, walking the dog, or working in their gardens, or kids on bikes.
It is cold and wintery now though, although people back home have had it even worse, coping with storms, especially in Wales where my inlaws live, trees have fallen, there’s been flooding, and many have been without power. One of the bakeries sent out an appeal because they couldn’t deliver their bread to local cafes and restaurants, and were preparing to put the a couple of hundred loaves into a walk-in freezer, but luckily those nearby came and bought as much as they could carry, and the batch was saved.
Back here, I had little birthday, into my 52nd year of spinning around the sun, and I think it’s going quite well. I went back to the pottery studio for the first time since all my travels, glazed a couple of pieces that I made and threw a couple more. Next week I’ll trim those, add them to the kiln shelf ready to be bisque fired, and hopefully throw a few more. I’m booked on the course on Mondays, so this will be the cycle for the foreseeable future. I am slightly obsessed, and spent a couple of hours in the library yesterday leafing through books on ceramics, and now my instagram feed is basically all pots. I also manage to finish reading Florian Gadsby’s book “By my hands” that I added to the spaces booklist on bookshop.org, along with Lynda Barry’s Syllabus. (btw these are affiliate links, but in the 6 years of doing this nobody has ever bought a book from the list, so it’s not like….)
The pottery class is my birthday treat to myself, well it was right until my friend Michael told me he had a bike for me…to be fair he’s told me that before, but he is really excited, and I might have to find some more money from somewhere…
Well, at least it would be incentive to get back on the bike, I just have not been anywhere for such a long time, and my fitness has dropped, despite a few weeks of walking everywhere in European cities, undone by buns (this might be the title of my autobiography), and despite cycling in Amsterdam, I really miss it.
You might have realised already that this newsletter isn’t the same as the previous ones, not sections, just a bit of a ramble, and that’s my prerogative, it’s the 200th issue after all.
After all the traveling it feels good to be back home and with family. It feels like the end of the year is approaching, and we’re planning a short break. I’m working to prepare my lessons and think about all everything that needs to be ready for the next semester. I’m looking ahead to summer and trying to figure out what it’s all going to look like.
Students are finishing up their projects, and I have to say I have missed being with them, and it was fun to drop into the WQED Studio to see one of the IDeATe courses preparing their show. This is a great space, and we’re hoping to use it for our forthcoming SONA Immersive Storytelling Festival.
I had a lovely morning working in my friend Kim’s studio, trying to get my head around turning some of my drawings into linocut prints. Sometimes it’s just sitting there and getting on with it that helps, still not convinced with the results. Feeling that my art-making and drawing needs a reset, but also know that a shift has to come naturally, you can’t force a change in style otherwise it’ll look forced, and that’s not good. So I need to sketch more, and work regularly. I loved being in Kim’s studio, as we talked about art, and listened to crazy music by Geordie Greep, and ate delicious instant ramen from Trader Joe’s. I was reminded of those days working in The Badger Press; these lovely spaces, I hope I get mine one day.
I’ve started to buy a few gifts, and will get a tree later for our living room. These traditions are fine, they don’t have any religious meaning to me, just things that we do, it’s nice to close the year out with some celebration, and family time. We’re thinking about visiting Nashville, staying in an AirBnB, and hoping the temperature might be a little warmer and we might see some sunshine. My friend Dan gave me a great list of places to visit, as I saw fit to give him a list of London haunts for his trip this week.
Not much that I spotted this week, there are some fun things in some of the end of year gift lists, including stationery from fictional hotels, Kottke has a good round up of gift lists, but whatever you do, don’t overdo it, people spend so much money, and often something small and personal that can be treasured by those receiving it. I know it’s tricky, but this is your reminder to not go overboard…
One of my favourite games is now available, Part 3 of Monument Valley, except you need a netflix subscription, is that how it’s going to be now?
The follow up/prequel/sequel to There, There by Tommy Orange has been released, and I recommend it very much, please don’t buy it from Amazon if your local library has run out of copies. It is called Wandering Star.
I had a Kim Deal week, she was interviewed by Adam Buxton for the podcast and they seemed to get on really well, even playing a few songs together. There were some touching moments, tribute to Steve Albini, (you might enjoy his conversation with Anthony Bourdain) and talking about her Mom. This music has always been so special to me, it’s wonderful to hear a record like this, that Kim produced with her friends.
So a week later as I’m finishing this up, the ground is white, the temperatures dipped down and rain turned to snow, and it’s been falling slowly since I woke up. I’m sipping coffee from a mug that I made at my pottery class, and while the colour, a sort of lavender blue, isn’t quite to my taste, the coffee is, and it’s fun to drink from something that I threw on the wheel, trimmed and glazed.
So, there we go, more stripped down for the 200th, we’ll try and get back on track, but in all honesty this will probably be the last of the year, we’ll see you in 2025, which going to be a busy year for sure and we’ll see what it brings. I want to thank you again for all your comments and kind words, let’s see how many likes this gets, it’ll just be like tapping me on the shoulder and say “good job”, and I’ll appreciate that very much.
Take care, look after yourselves.
Glad you are continuing to write. I really like your updates, very personal and real