Recently an artist contact disclosed to the world that without a studio their artistic production environment was a garage, with the consequence that work had to be disposed off in some way before new creations could be commenced. This implied that the rest of their home was normal in terms of what normality is for those whose lives do not become taken over by their work. Visual and other forms of creative artists are not the only beings whose homes reflect their obsessions and fanatical interests. Programmes about collectors have revealed homes where every nook and cranny is filled with books, with objects and memorabilia of some form, and animals, from traditional domestic pets to creatures of the wild.
I have always been loath to throw anything away as a consequence of regretting the decision in my youth to "change" and dispose of everything which represented the being I wished to escape from. However I assumed that keys aspects of my life until then such as school reports and basic information of my childhood would be retained by my mother and remain available if needed. Alas when in the midst of the illness of severe memory loss with psychosis, and she saw anyone and everyone, including family members as enemies, she destroyed almost everything that I might have wanted to know and treasure. When the aunt who provided mothering died prematurely it was too late and contact with over a dozen surviving first cousins in England, the Mediterranean and the USA confirmed that there were significant gaps in the family history, in that no one had a photo of my mother's father and mother, and no one knows where her paternal parents are buried. It is unlikely this void will be filled although I will make another effort later in the year.
The interior of domestic homes should say something about the lives of their owners, and which they consciously wish to project, even if this is "I am a follower of fashion," or it is all a compromise because of my income, my background, my partner and children all having their say, and quite rightly too because it is their space and well as "my space."
I am revising this having floundered around for a few hours uncertain how to make the most effective use of this day. Yesterday was exceptional and this morning I awoke around 9am, after going to bed after 2am with what can best be described as an activity hang over.
I decided on sorting out the piles of cards waiting to become sets which cover the floor and every available flat surface in this work room. And then guilt struck and I felt physically better and vacuumed the front room and hallway. This is a Tardis house in that is has a narrow front sandwiched between other houses of similar appearance. Having not been inside theirs other than the entrance porch I cannot say if they have the same cavernous spaces inside with four living areas on the ground floor with two large rooms with alcoves, adjacent at the front, with tall ceilings and grand central light fixtures of days when the homes were town houses for sea captains and professionals with servants. Not on the grand scale of those of fashionable London houses and other elegant towns and city centres, but up market compared to the acres of public housing and for renting in the town, and in fact not too far away similar properties have been converted into two flats or used as small hotels.
The secret of the property is that running off from the entrance hallway are two further rooms parallel to the an outside back area which is mostly used for garaging but which in my instance because I have small vehicle, also accommodates a table and chairs, and some vegetation in pots, hanging baskets and window boxes to reminds of when I had a quarter acre site to develop and enjoy. My garage area is covered with some transparent material which produces intense heat as well as light so that during last summer the temperature reached over 100's degrees several times over a period of several days. There is a downstairs toilet which has to be entered from the garage so not ideal in winter, but compared to most such facilities, it has quality fittings and it is not only old ladies who find they need to make it quickly from time to time.
I am digressing from the theme of working environment to report a wondrous new development, viz the all singing and dancing six cartridge printer scanner which I have set up, partially, and scanned and printed my birth certificate to establish for Sunderland Football club that I am over 65 and entitled to a concessionary season ticket. The concessions and disadvantages of old age will be a subject for another day.
The reason why the printer is being set up today is because my second Epson standby printer failed. Both were free from my supplier of inkjet cartridges and both could not be used without technical intervention after reaching a certain use, I think somewhere over 30000 sheets. It only took a few minutes to clear surplus ink and re set and my local agent did both for the price of one, a few weeks ago, warning that the working life would come to an end. Then I had a severe paper jam and one machine stopped working and now the second. This would not have been a problem if my main machine had not commenced to print pink for blue.
I usually rush at making things work my way, but so far having unpacked, then spent more time that I cared for finding where the mains socket was, and tentatively exploring the main features, I discovered that I could copy and print freestanding without the computer.
Having successfully copied I decided to proceed with installing, but did not panic where I received a hardware not recognised notice. Then, for once, the solution immediately dawned. The suppliers had insisted on selling me a printer computer cable, albeit at a concessionary price, although the printer appeared to come with its own. Disconnecting this caused a flutter because for a moment it looked as if was an integral part of the equipment, but once this was solved and new cable attached, the machine was recognised and the installation from the CD could proceed. It took sometime because of the quantity of components and that some old software had to be uninstalled before the latest versions could be added but this was undertaken automatically. There were some further heart stopping moments before everything was in order and I was able to print out in blue the set numbering card called black which is part of a volume of internet information on the devil and all his little helpers which formed research alongside with My Space work, used for writings before Easter. The reason for needing set card number 13502 covering cards numbered 324025 324848 is that I had used set numbering 13546 twice. In order to avoid this situation which happens with greater frequency than I need, but which is not surprising because I have between 50 and 100 separate, but often related projects works, under way. I do have a master framework having originally guessed the balance between output of development work, events, records, confidentiality and creativity and I keep track with two lists which never balance, unfortunately. The first sequentially numbered 0 to 6250 or whatever is the latest completed set in the sequence, and the second list covers completed sets under their sections and this is useful in tracking partially completed sets. I keep records of each signature registration card which also helps to avoid duplication although sometimes it creates mysteries as I cannot explain why a gap has created eg why is there no such set 1824 when I am up to 1870? I also then photo each card individually and jointly with its partner in a volume including writing drafts, but not as in the instance of internet information prints because in theory these could be printed out again, if for an reason the work, or parts of it, is lost. Now wasn't that all interesting! I find it boring and resent the amount of time work housekeeping consumes.
I may be no good as a creative artist but I am working seriously at it.
I would get back to writing about my working environment except it is time to have a shave and put on decent clothes and visit mother. I shall return but not quite in the grand manner of Mr McArthur, or was it MacArthur. I will check that up on return? It was big Mac.
My first working environment was a large house of seven potential bedrooms and four living areas plus two good landing space areas and a double garage to develop as a total art use space. This was to be ArtmansArthouse.
Getting heavy, even when empty, four drawer filling cabinets to the first floor was challenge enough and as the time to downsize approached I settled for housing five in the garage, two in the main entrance hallway, one at the end of my bed, one in the main lounge and one in the kitchen. Two large black display units dominated the utility room, and the spare doubled bedded room was an interesting mixture of display units housing the blue work volumes with blue bedding and curtains. It was a compromise because the walls were bedroom wallpapered and I never got round to using the blue paint which I subsequently used here on the garage patio space and where one giant tin remains unused. I experimented with various combinations of units and a former lounge/dining room was given over to work and the technology experience history. I needed lots and lot of tables and flat surfaces to spread work and work materials, box files in their hundreds, card in their thousands, glue and glitter. I use kids glitter glue which takes 24 hours to dry and even longer if I decide to be creative with a mix of colours on the simple lettering of Artman of which one is created for every display set, but not for those to be locked and sealed in the confidentiality cabinets which I guess is an inconsistency.
I have got things badly wrong with using a fixed outline and format for the artman cards, until realising that I could create free form signatures, and I may switch to using acrylic for those which are the frontispiece for creative work sets, especially as I discovered a shop selling inexpensive packs for me to experiment with. These cards are not only for artman signatures but some use "witness" to my own life and others, and some "guardian" of my life and of others. The working environment and how the completed work was displayed changed and were photographed and I remember why I did not continue with this aspect when I moved here except hating to have to reproduce ideas once they have been worked out and through.
I decided on this theme for the main Blog writing of the day after waking with an activity hangover around 9am and it was an hour or so before I could begin the house clean which I had promised myself, vacuuming the front room, the parlour, which until Christmas had the appearance of comparative normality to any passer by. (I have said this before but I needed to say it again.) It was the only one of the other nine rooms which could be described as such. Admittedly there were three tall display units for books and black boxes housing completed creative work, but there is good sideboard, a settee, a couple of chairs, and my mother's glass display unit with an internal light, if only I possessed objectives worth illuminating.
Then at Christmas the myth of normal existence was destroyed when first I kept UP the 101 fairy lantern lights after January 6th. The initial reason is that it was not possible for everyone who wished to celebrate the 100th birthday of my mother on the day itself, and fortunately as she is within her own world of space and time the birthday can be celebrated at different times. If it is good enough for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth to do so then it is good enough for my mother! Then I had the idea of keeping the lights up during the remaining lifetime of my mother, or my own whose ever ending comes first, to at least until she 101. There is a similar set of 101 lantern lights fixed to cross beams in the garage to create a Mediterranean feel sitting out on balmy nights drinking wine and writing in my head. I could give myself a performance art soliloquy but could I get locked up in a mental institution? It is safer to do so on the net. The second, and greater reason, for ending the conventional front parlour image is that I brought down a single bed base to use as a work surface and then as a base for 101 9.3.39, and which I completed yesterday, but where I need to settle on the 101 dedications before it is ready for showing. Do I dare? Do I want to cope with the ridicule? The bed base has a secret because underneath is a fold up bed which can be set alongside the other to form a double. The idea is that if I cannot use the stairs at some point in the future I can survive on the ground floor. The give away that this was never intended to be treated as a normal parlour is the Black Cabinet in one corner. I use this room to watch videos and DVD's. I have the means of transmitting Sky TV from the next room and I got it to work, with the signal penetrating book display shelves either side of a solid brick wall. The books in here are novels, plays poetry and English Literature. There is also the DVD and video collection.
My Black and White work space has a mauve carpet and a colour poster with ticket for Live Aid 1985 but otherwise there is a combination of black and white units, a dilapidated settee covered in white and which is large and comfy enough to sleep on and where I often nap in front of the telly. I work by the window using a former kitchen table and a trolley to house the second printer, pending communications and cards for printing. There are mountains of packs of white card everywhere, usually 10 ream open and piled on top of a lot level display unit with over 2000 sheets of photopaper, 1000 sheets or so of communication paper and in between the settee and this display unit there is hidden the boxes of printing cartridges about 150 at present plus thirty for the standby printer to go back, and will be credited and then replaced. There are also packs galore of glitter and glue.
At present the floor is covered with piles of cards grouped but not sorted into an order of making into sets. There are about forty binders and folders of sets in the making, ten boxes in two sizes and three colours, of work also in the making and 25 partially made folders which will each hold 100 pages of text and photos on photo paper celebrating the life of my mother. There are two black filing cabinets, behind me.
The are 101 special books together in this room plus books on history, politics, economics ( I studied these subjects when taking an economics and politics course, and then books on philosophy, psychology psychiatry and psycho analysis, sociology and social work, when studies for the diploma in public and social administration and then for child care. There books on trade unions and their history on jazz and other music, on sport and this and that. There are several years of bound copies of New Society Magazine from the first edition, books on art and large travel places photo books not included in the 101.
The hallway leading to the stairs has two units containing 101 framed photos accompanying 101 and the first 150 volumes of development work. There are also 37 reams of white card here. I will have to count those upstairs and work out how long before I need a new supply and if this will be after my supplier brings out another 2 for 1 offer. Along the continuing hallway to the back of the house there are book cases for map and travel books, cook books and D IY books and on top information about goings on in all the arts locally and in the region. I am constantly having to vacuum the thick carpet because it is red and shows up everything light. Perhaps I should do it more often.
The day room is a mixture with a wall to ceiling rustic dresser and a table at the window which I inherited. There is a cavernous cupboard under the stairs and I wonder if the house had a cellar. In the other side I have two more cabinets and the separate Fridge and Freezer and the dryer, so that the room is more functional household although it is not unknown for the table and floor to be covered with work. The square kitchen is functional with coming with the house a gas cooker, a fridge freezer and a washing machine as well as adequate storage and another giant cupboard with shelving. I have an electric oven/grill which is better than the gas oven which I only use for roasting chickens every other weekend, as one chicken provides three or four meals subsequently made up with veg and stock. There is a steamer and two microwaves although one is hidden under the day room table.
And then there is the first floor half landing area, the first former floor bedrooms, my black bedded room, the second floor half landing, the second floor landing and the three rooms and then there is great loft of two room sizes (it has two lights) and a proper staircase, and then there are built in cupboards and wardrobes, about a dozen doubles and some singles. But how they are used must wait until another day.
But here is the thought that haunts having seen the images of the work produced by my friend from the limitations of one garage, it is not the quantity of work space or output that matters, but its quality. I am yet to be proven, my friend does not.
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