A full day yesterday at the Macc Art Lounge, my last day in the shop. Ché insists that I avoid that term, and instead say 'gallery', but the place feels like a shop to me, and I much prefer the idea of it being a shop. A gallery is a place for art, mostly non-commercial, and a shop is a place for buying and selling things; and the Macc Lounge is much closer to the latter than the former, and I'm there to sell my paintings, not showcase my latest concepts or anything like that. The space is not artistic, or edgy, exciting, modern. The art, as it is in 2023, rarely shows emotion, or personality. The word I would apply is 'sterile'. The examples (and artists) that I like are in a small minority and sidelined. To be as polite as possible, it is not to my taste.
The experience has, of course however, reconnected me with the visual arts, which was a key aim. It was genuinely lovely to meet Ché and the other artists again, to connect with new artists, and the ordinary people who came and went on the days I was there. For me, I enjoyed hearing about them, and the general chatter. I'm rarely social due to my busy and solitary circumstances, so this aspect was a delight.
Deb has had a very busy week, despite her technically being on holiday. Her heating system is now leaking, and the idiot maintenance man removed a cracked pipe, then left leaving it leaking more, so she has no hot water over Christmas, and little prospect of a repair before the new year. She's done so much for me this month and this year, and I love her more than ever.
She drove me home yesterday and I arrived to see my brother Paul, looking somewhat gaunt. Together we watched the hilariously abysmal film Beyond The Universe (I could write a essay on this film - certainly a case of being so bad it's good).
Paul has, it's an understatement to say, ecological, left wing views of the world and has predicted the doom of capitalism in his lifetime. My views are not like his. For me, economic and political systems reflect biological and universal reality; it is an expression of life, not artificial or malevolent. If poverty, power-games, and inequality are cruel then nature is cruel; and nature works in the most optimal way. Life exists to create order from chaos. He talked about stability, sustainability, how capitalism is not sustainable, but the quality of life is that it strives for what is not sustainable. All animals and plants do; they grasp and steal and hoard. They die off if they go too far, but a 'sustainable' existence is stagnation and also leads to death. The optimum is a middle way, but the only way to find it is to strive; the weak elements die off, those which don't die remain, and so the process continues.
The conversations and ideas were very stimulating. We talked about science fiction too, then played a game of Scrabble with my mum. I just won in a hard game where we both scored about 200. I rarely see Paul, so it was a happy time to be with him, a like-mind in many ways.
I slept badly, probably due to eating badly, the strain of the day and of a busy week. I still feel somewhat exhausted, but have many jobs, and many areas of inspiration to pursue. My economic reality is struggle.
One job today is to clean my Behringer amplifiers. The knobs and cable connections are very crackly, which is something I've never experienced or tried to fix before.
Deb is working until 10am on Christmas morning, and back to work next day. I wish we could be together more over the festive week.
Onwards we strive, to do our best, and for a better world and universe.
