My day of mural painting on the Lyceum Square, Crewe. All went to plan, though was (is!) very tiring, complete with over a mile to walk there and back carrying all of the equipment. My mum came with me and helped, helped hugely. I could not have done it so efficiently without her. I'm so pleased, and amazed to some extent, that it did go to plan and worked so correctly. So many plans and contingency plans were made. The days and weeks of planning paid off.
I started work at 08:30 and finished at 17:00. The drawing out was complete before 11:00. A few lines were missing and needed redrawing. I got through two watercolour pencils just for the guide lines. I needed three pencil sharpeners, the first wasn't sharp enough, the second had a fault. The mask adhesion, my biggest worry, was the biggest problem, as feared, but masking tape stuck well. A few masks fell off during painting, but only one (the first) resulted in paint in the masked area. After that, I moved more slowly and used the faults as part of the design. A sort of industrial grunginess, and imperfection, was always part of the idea. Firstly perfection is so elusive; there's no way a smooth design could be done, but secondly, the concept is about order becoming organic, the balance between mathematics and nature. Thirdly, the format of wall painting lends itself to a graffiti-like, raw look.
Photographer Peter Robinson visited twice to take some photographs of the work in progress, and local arts volunteer and co-ordinator David Lidster came by too, to help supervise things, and find me a barrier for site safety.
I needed my bright orange workwear. I needed much of what I brought, though not the staple gun.
My morning began, however, with thoughts about the Higgs Field, after reading about Peter Higgs. A scalar field which is non-zero everywhere doesn't seem right somehow, and there is also the problem of 'too much' zero-point energy. I wondered if the Higgs Field, rather than being ubiquitous and homogenous, could clump, and that Higgs Bosonic Matter of some form could be dark matter.
Earthly concerns now concern me. I'm exhausted and have a second, though lighter, day of work tomorrow finishing the mural. Two of the designs need separate masking after drying. It seems that today is (amazingly) the first non-rainy day of the year, and even tomorrow is due for some.
