….. why people say that when they were young they wanted to be a train driver! I spent today working with a colleague, stripping the old varnish from the floor of the Unit 9 Gallery. (This is a little group-cooperative art gallery attached to the South Square Centre, in Bradford.) The place was in need of a face-lift, and the state of the floor was one of the most obvious tasks. Our first efforts with a little DIY machine came to naught, as the sander died under the strain before we had got very far with the job. We had to hire an industrial quality sander to do it. What a terrifying beast that was! The weight of the thing was daunting, although necessary to ensure that sufficient pressure was applied to the floor, but the really impressive feature was the sense of real power in it. You certainly had to exert yourself to control it. My colleague, Di Jones, remarked on what an exhilarating experience it was driving it. I remarked that it was probably nothing to the sense of control over power that you must get driving a large railway engine. For the first time in my life I feel I had some appreciation of why being a train driver might be such an attractive proposition. I can’t wait to strip another floor!
By the way: it is amazing, isn’t it, what artists do have to do in pursuit of their vocation.