I am important. To me
you don’t seem bothered. At all.
You don’t put time in - with me
it’s all work and business like.
I’d love to rescue a piece
of something useful from this -
the history shared by us then
has made us men, and shattered us.
I’m not important. To you
I’m part of brokenness. Trying
to live a better way. But
just tell me how you’re doing.
technorati tags:radcliffe, poem, poetry, pome, esau, brothers, artbizness
After much wrangling, haggling, and placing sealed bids in envelopes from 2 potential buyers, I’ve finally sold “Beyond The Wilderness”.
It’s not so much the thrill of selling the work, or even making the work per se, but the satisfaction of knowing that this life does work - that it’s possible to make a living doing the very thing that you love the most.
I’ve sold it to some patrons who are also good friends of mine (and who’ve also bought my work before). Most work gets sold through previous clients. I agreed to sell this work at a slightly reduced rate, provided that the client threw a party to welcome in the work, and invite 15 of her richest art-buying friends.
It’s funny - whenever you talk about art in relation to money, it always makes people laugh incredulously. As if artists shouldn’t soil themselves with the dirty business of money. It’s true that I would do it for free if I could, but the reality of life is that you can’t do it for free and pay the mortgage.
Anyway, it’s interesting hanging artwork in someone’s house. It’s a different thing to hanging work in an art gallery, as the work takes a different life. What I’ve always liked about this work is it’s physicality, and how you have to move around to look at it. The stairwell was the most obvious place for it, as it’s a place where people move, as well as look up/down at. It’s in the right place for being able to see glimpses of the work from a distance, as well as being able to get right up close. Jane was very accommodating, asking where I thought it would look best in the house. How do you answer a question like that? It’s not my house!!!
If you would like to commission me to make a piece of work for you, then feel free to e-mail me at giddy@f2s.com.
technorati tags:radcliffe, art, painting, artbizness, beyond the wilderness
I wrote this sonnet ages ago. I needed to find it again last night, so naturally I came here to look for it (hey, I don’t store these things!) and couldn’t find it.
I realised that I hadn’t actually posted it. Horror of horrors.
After frantic digging through old notebooks, I finally re-discovered it. So here it is:
The park I take my kid to every day
has always got a scar or two from nights
before when older kids graffiti spray
between the scooter runs and knifing fights
and bites were taken out of children’s swings
by fighting dogs to sharpen up their teeth.
The morning’s fallen leaves and other things
disguise detritus lurking underneath.
My little girl knows nothing of this world.
She loves the slide, the sandpit, climbing frames,
the roundabout from which she’s often hurled -
just innocent equipment for her games.
And over there beside the broken fence
she’ll carve a better space through innocence.
technorati tags:radcliffe, poems, poem, poetry, agnes riley gardens, pome, agnes riley, sonnet, artbizness,
..and it would go off for two hours at midday, and we’d all stand up and sing the national anthem.
Hat tip ffffound
Hi All! Sorry about the lack of blog posts - I’ve been on holiday for the past week, down in Frome in Southwest England, staying with relatives..
I stayed with my aunt (Caroline) and her family - I mention this because they are a very musical family who a) I don’t see enough of, and b) I haven’t done much music on this blog, so I thought I’d share their music with you:
Caroline and Nick have a CD out at the moment under the name “Three Corners”, a beautiful melodic work that is a mixture of acoustic pop and jazz, which you can check out here.
I remember reading about their band, The Impossible Dreamers in Smash Hits when I was about 14. The reviewer compared her vocals to Tracey Thorn, which is both flattering and accurate, in my opinion.
They also have a myspace page.
Nick also plays trombone in a band called “Blue Midnight” which you can find here.
And when they’re not doing all that, they’re hosting Acoustic Plus - a music night for various local talents to play. If you’re down that way, you should definitely check it out, as the quality of acts is very high.
Say hello from me when you go.
technorati tags:radcliffe, three corners, blue midnight, acoustic plus, frome, caroline, nick waterhouse, music, the impossible dreamers
OK, I need some help here please - a quick straw poll.
I’m looking into different t-shirt styles for the chess-piece designs for women. What sort of t-shirts do women like to wear? Do you like:
a) the racer-back vest style like this:
b) a strappy top like this:
c) or one like this:
or d), none of the above.
e) something else entirely (please describe!)
What do you reckon?
technorati tags:radcliffe, women, t-shirt, racer back, racerback, strappy top, strappy vest, strappy t-shirt, ladies, artbizness
…and a great night it was. He’s put a lot of work into the show and it’s paid off. I’ve always loved Nic’s cartoony/street art characters. At first glance they look quite cute, but the more time you spend with them, the more unsettling they become - just like good art should be. The images have got a slight manga-y feel to them and are a mixture of painting and collage, some with newspaper, and others with post office stickers. My favourite was the one called “TING” - there’s something about the mania of it, with the gesture of the hand and the word “TING” in large letters that really appeals to me. Stupidly I didn’t get a photograph of it. Although it’s not easy shooting framed works with a camera flash anyways, so perhaps it’s better that I didn’t.
The show contained various small framed works, but the centrepiece of the show is the end wall of the room. It’s taken up with a floor to ceiling mural (in the photo above) that Nic did for a commission, which the owner has thankfully lent back to the artist for the show.
Apparently he’s sold about 5 of the works with another commission in the bag, so the kid done good. It might be worth picking up one or two of these before he takes off, as I really think he has the ability to go far. I wonder if he’ll bater a painting for one of mine..
Also - I had a nice chat with one of the co-owners of the venue, Paul Dungworth. The Fleapit is one of those lovely venues that London is all about - a real find, slightly away from the Hoxton crowd, but still unmistakably Old Street. As well as free Wifi, good food, good art, and good music, they have a great selection of unusual ales, which is right up my street. I had the Power Station Porter beer (never miss a chance to sample Porter beers if you can). I also bought my mate Tim a rather unusual Mexican dark ale. It came in a bottle that was possibly the most phallic I’ve ever witnessed. You’ll have to ask Tim how it tasted.
The show runs from now until 15th of April, so go see.
technorati tags:radcliffe, artbizness, =spico=, nico yates, street art, the fleapit, stickers, paul dungworth, hoxton, old street, street art, art, painting
My good friend and co-designer of t-shirts, Nico Yates has managed to get himself a solo show at The Fleapit, a bar/gallery venue in Old Street.
He will be exhibiting under his tag name, “=SPICO=”.
The Private View for his show is tomorrow night and he has asked me to let you all know about it. Not only is his work very good, but he will also be responsible for the music and general ambience of the whole evening at the Private View. During the rest of the show’s duration, you’ll only be able to see the works in the bar area, so for the full =SPICO= experience, you’ll have to be there tomorrow night. It’ll be a great event for all you Londoners who haven’t managed to get away for the Easter weekend.
The venue is The Fleapit in North London (details here.)
Nico’s Flickr Page is here.
He is also one of the artists who exhibited in Beyond The Wilderness.
The show is on from 6pm FRIDAY 21ST MARCH until TUESDAY 15TH APRIL, Private View Friday the 21st March 6pm - 11pm
technorati tags:radcliffe, =spico=, spico, nico yates, the fleapit, london, street art, painting
They called you Robbie.
That wasn’t what I called you back at school.
You had a different tag back then, with friends
and you and I were eight. You played the fool
at my expense in front of all the kids.
I want to hurt you
and now I have the chance. You’ve no idea
how often I returned to your assaults
that time. The sound, the looks, the memory’s clear
from frequent re-rehearsals ever since.
And now we’re older
I stop. Your face has sadness. Looking coolly
you don’t see me. I see your life is written
on your shoulders. A life of being a bully
with humour made you suffer more than I have.
technorati tags:radcliffe, poem, poetry, pome, artbizness, robbie
I’ve just submitted my first poem for publishing. It’s going to go in to a theological book, by a friend of mine called Ian Mobsby - the book is called “The Becoming of G-d” and will be published soon.
I’ve read a lot of the book, and it focuses on recovering a better understanding of the Trinity. It gave me the idea for writing a large chunk of the poem in dactyls, which have a kind of ONE-two-three rhythm, which I could then break up with iambs, as the idea of interjection by writing takes hold.
A dactyl consists of three syllables, with the first one being slightly stressed. Some example of where this crops up naturally in the English language are words like “Happiness”, or “Perfectly” you would naturally say “PERfectly” rather than “perFECTly”. Trying to construct an entire poem out of dactyls is a bit of a task, but I think it has some merit. Here it is:
On Friday nights we went to clubs
until we noticed something that
night when the three of them came and took
over the regular dancing. So
Did the Creator throw shapes on the
dance floor whilst dancing a salsa that
turned all the heads of the punters there?
Vogueing away while the other two
scattered. They took up their places but
somehow remaining together there
How the Companion perfected that
fight in a way that was calming them.
Making them friends from thereon until
Now. The Revealer is reveling
showing us all just a little too
much how its done by his lead for us
Dancing together while beckoning onlookers
come on and join us, and have a good
time. Doesn’t matter it’s happening.
Keeping the rhythm up copying
maybe looked easy as no-one would
dare to reject their advances then
in pairs we couldn’t make it work
and groups of us tried sussing out
as individuals put together
were fitting triplets into four time.
We stopped the dancing, getting going
on paper noting down what happened
as dancing disappeared while writing
and scrapping round some bits of paper.
technorati tags:radcliffe, ian mobsby, the becoming of g-d, poetry, artbizness, poem, pome, dactyls, perichoresis, dactyl
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