The stuff that matters

A few weeks back I had a little favourite fantasy of what I'd do if work stuff went wrong. Among various options was my favourite: get rid off the flat and use the money to go and study art. It was a nice and good thought.

And I figured that the kind of art I would go and study would actually be quite different to the stuff I'm doing now. What intrigued me most, and what it would probably be about for four years would be life drawing and painting; portraiture; figure drawing: exhaustively, excessively, single-mindedly.

Oil on MDF board, 30x45cm

I may run into problems with my quickly lost patience and interest. But nonetheless, there was something terrifically exciting in this thought: to have all the time in the world (well: near enough: four years) to do one thing and to learn one thing so that it becomes part of you and you find your way around it, intuitively, with your eyes closed.

And that it is about stuff that matters: people. Which are generally left out of landscapes...

On Sunday I remembered a conversation on my favourite radio show: Guy Garvey's Finest Hour on 6Music Sunday nights 10-midnight is my radio highlight of the week. His choice of music is a bit too folksy for me generally, but there is something wonderfully irreverent and all the same comforting about his show. In Spring, he had a conversation with Hal Glebe about the role of music for politics (small p, mind you); and while I was drifting into sleep, they talked about how a good song gets at the things that matter: they called it something like the molecular structure of something just before it turns into being political, but also the moment a kiss turns into a kiss. Guy continued to play a song by Jesca Hoop - Love is all we've left, which she wrote about Hurricane Katrina.

Now, this Sunday, I missed Guy on the radio because we had gone to see him and Elbow play at the Carling Academy. We missed half of the support - and it was only in the end that I realised it was indeed Jesca Hoop who was supporting the band. So, I went back to look for the song after - here is a clip of how she plays the song in front of an audience in New Orleans - she stops several times inbetween, overcome and wrestling with what she's doing.
I'm not too sure if it's a bit cringey/worthy, but maybe that doesn't matter?



Have a bit of Elbow too - here's one clip - that was the best one in the show - Weather to Fly, but also have a look at the very cool official video of A day like this, where a guy has some fun with an obviously redundant sign, advertising condos for sale.... hahaha...[see link here]



And thinking about it: there's of course some of this, that needs to make it into here: