I've felt listless and lost today, a day of too much heat, a constant 26 degrees. Art is my life, a vocation I have been forced in to, my only option of doing something for the world. I work every day all day, and receive little in return. My life feels like one of constant toil for nothing but bare survival, but such are most lives. If, one day I should feel rewarded, perhaps I'd stop. Perhaps the whip and the fear of extinction is as good a motivation as any, and it has always been my only motivation. Like Beethoven, I had my Heiligenstadt moment and chose to live only because I can make some contribution to the world and I feel duty bound to do this, to do my best, every day. As Jan Swafford said, the reality of life for most artists is art or death; and an existence of struggle the only reality, with all of its cons and transcendent pros.
Mood aside, I stuck steadfastly to and worked efficiently at my jobs. First, the task of making a new head for my easel, a tiny improvement to the efficiency of my painting. I was faced with the job of making a wide groove like the base of a triangle, which in the original head was cut by something like a router. I thought that it would be easier to cut some wood to a 45-degree slope, then glue it in layers, thus:
Cutting the 10mm wood at 45-degrees was a difficult prospect. I decided to lean 4 pieces of wood sideways at 45-degrees, like dominoes mid-topple, then held them in that position in a vice and used a plane to shave the tops down until flat. This was an accurate way to cut a slope at a specific angle. I've ordered some extra parts for this: screw sockets, a bolt with a knob, and some hex-headed bolts, so that I can interchange the main canvas holder. The above will dry overnight, then I can cut a recess into it for the main holder part. I need those components to arrived before I can do more.
Then, filing mine, our, memories from 2021, the year of the Wonderland performance as part of Knutsford Music Festival, perhaps our biggest gig to date, and mid-pandemic, and all due to the marvel of Mike Drew. I also promoted our solstice show, Midsummer Frolic, which is a low-key event, a mere 5 pieces as part of the free weekly sing-along in the library. It is our first gig of the year. Still, I've been creative enough.
Then I decided to udpate Prometheus with a new feature I want to add to SFXEngine in future. It colour codes plugins by genre, like this:
It does it by layering icons, adding a 'decal' on top, so saves some graphics space, but it means a second pass when printing. I also added the feature to expand or compress notes, shift them in time, by a specific interval. Until now I could double or half the spacing, but it is sometimes useful to expand or contract by more subtle gradations.
So, the day closes. I must try to seize tomorrow. The cuts on my hand are largely healed, but I have some nerve damage to the thumb, which causes intense pain if I stretch too far (though this diminishes week by week). The trouble now comes from my damaged nails, which are growing out and may split vertically. At times I feel like Seth Brundle.
Onwards we buzz.
