I may be in isolation in the home but, my word, life is hardly uneventful …. both on the artistic front and elsewhere!
The big news of the day is that in our regular after-dinner game of Scrabble I won after putting down all seven tiles on a triple word score! How about that to make your day?
Because our CD player is still away for repair (and we have no idea for how long) I’m working my way through the recesses of our collection of vinyl and tapes. There are some things in there I had forgotten I ever had. So, tonight while cooking dinner, I listened to Zvonko Bogdan? Never heard of him? That hardly surprises me. His music is a souvenir of the time when I was working in Belgrade in the late ‘sixties. Oddly, it turns out to be quite appropriate for our current situation.
At that time it could be assumed that no Serb was more than one generation from the village, and music using traditional folk instruments and themes was very popular. It was invariably highly sentimental, often on the lines of “things ain’t what they used to be” …. full of nostalgia, but with a feeling that the rural past was a realm of freedom. I can imagine that if this virus is with us for much longer we will be generating much the same kind of stuff here. I am looking out every day to hear Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson on the radio (or should I say “on the wireless”?)
There have been events on the art front too, I’m glad to say. After being woken in the night with a sudden and startling revelation I expect to be able to finish the last of my series of drawings, based on the old “mummers’ plays”, addressing the theme of English identity. I can’t remember ever in the past attempting a political caricature, but this one incorporates an image of Donald Trump. No less! I’m quite pleased with it. Have you noticed his characteristic gesture, putting his thumb and fore-finger together in a circle, rather like the stereotypical chef signalling that what he has just cooked is really tasty? It bears no relation to anything he is saying, but it keeps cropping up whenever he makes a public statement. I decided I would use that. My website is being worked on by a technician at the moment, so when he has finished sorting me out I hope I might be able to put up the series in one of my “galleries”. Look out for them. I think they are fun.