July 2, 2022

Anindita -

Something I thought about:

  • Honestly? The US. The latest SCOTUS decisions. I don’t like living in interesting times. I want boring ones. Also, I was sick, and while I tested negative for covid throughout, I was completely exhausted and dealing with post-exertion malaise. Everything I did — just making lunch — knocked me out. Not fun. So for most of the week, I raged, rested, and recovered.

Something I did:

  • I was sick for most of the week, so I’ve been rescheduling things as I needed time to actually recover. I kept trying to work, and that didn’t go well.
  • However: a micro collaboration is now live. After the Bishop symposium in Oxford, two of the scholars made a pilgrimage to Bulmer Village in North Yorkshire, where Elizabeth Bishop’s ancestors lived. Jonathan Ellis live tweeted it, and I offered to map their walk. He and Angus Cleghorn sent me photos and locations, and I StoryMapped them. It was a quick and fun little thing. Next I want to do Great Village!

Something I read:

  • I didn't know anything about artist Duncan Hannah, but I liked these extracts from his journal. I also really liked David Hockney's feedback to Hannah (a younger artist) after a studio visit:
… you’re selling yourself short in an attempt to be stylish. There’s something of the zeitgeist in your work that weakens it. You’re probably worried about having a look. Don’t worry about that. That will come by itself. Just work hard, and you will evolve into yourself naturally. Don’t choose who to be—grow into yourself through hard work. All will be revealed. I guarantee that if you paint a still life, it will have your personality in it. You have to trust that. The best things I saw by you today were your self-portrait drawings, because they had no artifice. . . . If I was you, I would strip away all your flashy gimmicks and dare to make “plain” paintings. You will be original, you have to take it on faith. You know what to do. You’ll get where you need to go with time and hard work.