I've had a week of mixed tasks. First was the design of a painting for the Jobling Gowler competition, a landscape which after lots of consideration became an ancient one. That is now prepared but I won't begin painting until next year most probably.
Task two was to research exhibition venues and this proved time consuming. There are lots around. These range from custom built arts venues that support performances, that may be privately or publicly owned, to small council run theatres, to museums of all sizes, art shops, artist collectives with studios in the public eye, or private areas viewed by appointment only, to churches and private clubs. Each show different types of art and select artists in different ways. Fees vary from free to tens of thousands of pounds per week. The curious thing is how few simply exhibit 2D artworks, with many specialising in installations, performance art or sculpture. This task has taken lots of time so far and will take longer yet.
Task three was to compile a book of poetry. At first I became overwhelmed with the task, becoming self-critical and intending a masterwork. I almost became Sibelius, but then I remembered those very failings, and recognised that the solution was to aim low, brainstorm and try each idea. In the end I produced a collection of fifty-two poems that tell a sort of story of life from birth to death. That's all I need but I'll also make up another book at least, so that I can choose the best to enter for this anthology competition.
Task four was to create a panorama image of my bedroom (and studio). I decided to try this out of curiosity after browsing the street level ones in Google Earth (which I used to scout out the distant exhibition venues).
I used free software called Hugin. It took three attempts but it worked in the end. The pictures were made by mounting my camera on a small tripod on by swivel chair, as you might be able to see in my bedroom mirror! I used a Kodak Z1 video camera. If you want to view it as a panorama, save the image then locate and use some software called PTViewer.
