Thursday 17 March 2016

Art


 I want to tell a bit of a story, but it doesn't have a start, middle or end. The words are a jumble in my head, the sentences could come in any order.

I'm sitting at my computer desk, in an uncomfortable dining chair because my wife is using the one office chair in the study for Actual Work. I'm drinking peppermint tea and recently finished a cupcake with a flower design on, and the middle of the flower was a smartie.

So, currently scoring around 'moderate adult'.



Sometimes, I walk home from work. My job can be pretty stressful at times, and it's a good way of clearing my head. It takes about an hour and a half or so, and I usually end up listening to some podcast or other.

I'd been listening to the Independent Characters latest podcast, which talks about oil washes and different paint brands, so I was feeling a little bit in an artistic mood. I'd also chatted a little to a couple of people at work about miniature painting and very much in my head was feeling like the painting I do is art (irrespective or not of whether it's any good).


Then I started taking photos of things. It started with a parked up post office van which had some interested sun fading on it in the yellow street lights. You don't see 'faded red' as a paint job very often - I suspect because it's really quite difficult to do. Perhaps it's something I'd like to try one day. The dust pattern along the bottom of the van was also pretty interesting from a weathering point of view as well.

Then the Independent Characters podcast finished up, so I decided to listen to the Radio Free Burrito for the first time. In it, Wil Wheaton talked a bit about some art he was thinking about involving old film, projection and so on.



This got me thinking a whole bunch about the art projects I've never gotten around to doing. When I was at school, I was one of those kids who constantly had grandiose plans I never followed through on. One of my teachers did push me over a cliff on that once by then signing me up to direct and produce a play on my own. That was good for my soul. I need pushing into things, I think. I'm inherently pretty lazy.



I took a bunch of photos with light and shadow and machinery and things. I've put some up on a Tumblr account I created a while back I've never been quite sure what to do with. I don't really know if anyone reads it. I don't like the interface. I'm not sure really why I have it other than for posting photos I want to be able to find later but don't want to leave on the blog because I think that they'd be filler that would kill traffic.

But tonight, I'm thinking about art and writing stream of conscious and I don't care about my traffic stats. Which is weird. I usually do. I mean, I don't, but treat it as a kind of score for how well I'm blogging and how good my content is. Rubbish view scores are a motivation to up the quality of my content. Competing with my past self, really.

Oh. Things I mean to do that never have. Write a blog about fiction and books I read. Write actual fiction myself. Do that painting project where I follow all the painting tutorials in the old GW Masterclass book.


Everything is a bit of a muddle. I think the weekend will be focussed in on sorting out little things I've not finished. Making things more ordered. Tidying. My mind is stressed and having trouble focussing and little successes are needed to give that little happy bump of 'done' and 'organised', rather than the big project of doom which takes a lot of effort to get done. Remember the lazy thing? But I need some success about now.

What I do is art. Be that writing on the blog, photos I take or painting miniatures or telling stories. Is it good art? That doesn't matter. It's art, and I did it.

17 comments:

  1. That was actually a really enjoyable read. Sometimes it is just best to say what is on your mind and not worry about high quality content and traffic statistics (I fall foul of this mindset too).

    Having a clean-up and finishing up some small projects will be a good way to recharge the batteries.

    Thank you for sharing these thoughts.

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    1. Couldn't agree more, hear, hear!

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    2. I'm never going to hold back from saying something I want to say or think needs to be said.

      Really, the traffic statistics confirm for me what I already know - that nice painted miniatures and cool things happening get people interested, as do topics I'm passionate about. Pretty much universally, filler content I've banged out to make sure I have a weekly post does very poorly.

      Traffic stats keep me honest. ;)

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  2. A 1.5 hour walk home? Man, that's dedication, but you did capture some cool stuff on that walk.

    I'm completely with you on watching the stats. I mean, it's not like any of us are getting famous and making a paycheck off blogging, but (as you said) you want to see what's working and what isn't. It really can put you in a good mood or sour it. However, yes, sometimes it's just good to break free of the chains we place on ourselves and just be artistic, whether that's writing, painting, whatever.

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    1. It's a good walk. It gets a bit windy at the river crossing, but it gives me excellent thinking time and lets me get through podcasts. It took me a long while before I decided to try starting to walk my commute, and I've done it when snow took out the DLR - though I did get some funny looks as to why I was wearing a business suit with hiking boots during the working day!

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  3. I'm constantly refreshing my stats screen on blogger. I've started uploading a blog post and just leaving it for a day now though. It helps to just get it out there and not think about it for a while. It's odd how blogging can really change the hobby from something that you do for yourself to something for entertainment value. I've recently began hobbying for myself again but often forget to take pictures. So I suppose it's a bit of a double edged sword. I suppose actually getting to paint models I spend hours converting would help my viewership but oh well!

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    1. I like seeing unpainted converted models! For me, I like blogs that are a window into what someone else is doing. Even Ironsleet feels like they'd be doing the exact same thing if no-one had invented the internet, just with a smaller, local group of people.

      I don't think the blog does much to change what I'm doing hobby wise - I've got a couple of ideas for things I'll do for the blog that I've not done yet, but there's very little I'd do for the sake of the blog alone. What's more usual is that I'll use the blog as another push on my brain to actually sit down and get something finished so there's a weekly post with a finished model! It just gets me over the hump to get on and do something that I consciously want to do but my subconscious is having a toddler tantrum about.

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  4. What an excellent post. I love your honesty and clarity of thought, it makes for a very good read. I think I'm a bit scared of being so open on my blog, perhaps it's the teacher in me.. I also ponder the art inherent in our hobby, as a teacher of art there are lots of similarities in how we blog our progress, experiments and inspiration as you should find in a good GCSE/A-Level portfolio.

    I need to stop and take stock sometimes too. In fact, just like you did, I need to stop and take a good, long look around.

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    1. I sympathise about the openness and teacher thing. Lets just say that it was only after I got out of doing fraud investigations that I linked anything with my name on it to my blog!

      I didn't do GCSE art - I sometimes regret that. I think there are several blogs I could point to and say "that's art" and you'd be hard pressed to argue against it.

      I would be curious to see what your stop and think leads to conclusion wise.

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  5. Art ? Yes.

    Viewing stats and content trend analysis ? Wot ? Feck'em. I don't give flying shit who or how many read it as long as those who do think a bit. If some people like it, so much the better.

    I'll point you to 'a guardsman a day'. It's art. Hardly anyone leaves a comment, but I'm sure that loads of people watch it, as its a thing of beauty. Definitely not a Stelek type blog.

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    1. "Definitely not a Stelek type blog."

      You mean, 'dead and no-one reads it'? ;)

      Guardsman a Day is great, and is definitely on my list of 'art' blogs.

      I don't mind if only a few people read my blog. Most of the view counts are probably bots anyway! But I'm glad when I make people think, or talk, and I seem to have done that here!

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    2. You know what I meant, smartie pants !

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    3. I know, I know. We all don't want to be "that guy".

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  6. Wow, man. What a refreshing read. As mentioned in the comments, I think this sort of thing resonates with a lot of us, even if it's deeply personal in its own way. Thanks for posting it.

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    1. It has resonated with people a lot more than I expected. I was worried this would vanish into a black hole, but a ton of people have been moved to comment for one reason or another!

      Don't expect to see posts like this very often, but if one is in my head again, I won't hesitate about posting it next time.

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  7. I enjoyed reading the article and the comments equally . Could art be about honesty i wonder._

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    1. Hmm. I am not sure! I think it can be, but there's also the aspect of trying to express something. Is that always honest? Often, but perhaps not always.

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