A belated post I wrote before Christmas…. I’m not a very timely blogger, my first post for 2013 is a late one.
Christmas is a very stressful time of year.
Everything seems to speed up hysterically, rattling away towards (the usually anti-climactic) finish. House to be tidied, a variety of Christmas/Thanksgiving parties held in advance, secret Santa’s to be organised, presents worried about and hangovers to nurse.
The ex wanted my bubble-wrapped stack of framed drawings lying in the corner of the living tidied up and put away. Originally only 2 were to go up on the walls, eventually just to get them off the floor, 5 went up. Rather a win for me!
I optimistically thought I could manage this all myself. I mean, how hard can it be to drill a few holes and screw the paintings in? They were already prepped with mirror plates left over from when they came down from my end of year M.A. show.
I put up the living room one last Saturday.It took:
4 hours, 2 trips to the DIY store, 2 broken drills bits, and lots of shouting from my largely unhelpful helper.
Most of the shouting was:
“I told you to get a handy-man to do it!”
and
“You’re ruining my walls!”
and
“I don’t CARE!! Sort it out yourself!”
So I got a very nice handyman (Tony) to come in on Thursday morning and 8 paintings went up in an hour and a half.
He liked my paintings. I liked his good taste. Got to skip 2 hours of work in the morning.
Done.
The Bedroom: Themed as bathing
The Bedroom: Themed as bathing
The Kitchen – Themed to be about food: The Tea Party & The Picnic
Pool Painting Up
And now for some photos…
Westbourne footbridge on a fine crisp morning
A frosty web from a few weeks ago during an arctic blast of cold weather.
Lovely Jubbly Christmas Graffiti from Only Fools & Horses. A show before my time. Not really a fan.
Portobello on a very blue-grey day.
A building in the fog.
The Hammersmith & Circle line tube speeding away below the footbridge
By the warm sunny glow of an advert on the tube.
The lull before the crowd lasted only a moment.
The Christmas stalls at the Southbank. These guys come over from Germany peddling the same junk every year.
Southbank looking very pretty.
The Merry-go-round near the London Eye. Looking a little small and lonely from a distance.
The Merry-Go-Round glowing
A rather legit looking Santa. His Mooch perhaps a little TOO white and pristine.
Feeling much more Christmassy when the tree went up.
Your work looks great framed and up on the wall– glad you got it up despite the grumpy attitude of your assistant. Also, that Santa does look legit, but I wonder about his accent… I am pretty sure that the authentic Santa has a thick Boston accent (Santa: American?) and slurred speech from whisky.
well the grumpy assistant was pleased once I got in the handy man. To be fair. It was have been less work If I had just hired a handy man to begin with. (But they are expensive and I wanted to save a £100)
Santa has to have a Norwegian accent. or something European but all the hollywood films have confused me.
Well, Hollywood is just the worst, isn’t it? My pop’s wife is Finnish and she claims that Santa is from Finland. I am not entirely convinced that he isn’t just some advertizing scheme for the Christian faith. Do you know the work of David Sedaris and his Santaland Diaries?
Also, I love that London actually has legit Handyman services! If any, all of the ones I have known here have “come with the building” and usually smoke tons of weed and are not very timely, helpful, or anywhere to be found.
Happy drawing and hope your year is off to a good start!
I love David Sedaris, but only through his short stories on This American Life (I did hear on story about being an Elf which was really hilarious – was that part of it?)
Actually Coca Cola I think is to blame for Santa Claus as I vaguely recall from a documentary. (Santa may possibly be finnish but his current reincarnation was a Coke re-brand)
A good Handy man is hard to find. But I think these guys were good. Esp since they all have bikes (No parking charges, no congestion)
Glad to hear that you know and like David Sedaris. I love his work and have seen him read a few times which is always really fun. He’s got a great stage presence. Also, yes the elf story is from when he was young and living in NYC and wrote the Santaland Diaries.
You are totally right about Santa being a Coke invention. I remember that now! Also, even funnier I recently saw a documentary that gave evidence that Siberian shamans would visit villages while dressed in red and white (like an amanita muscaria mushroom cap) and climb down the chimney on the winter solstice to give out shots of reindeer urine– where the reindeer were made to eat large doses of the mushrooms. (Something about passing through their system enhanced the psychedelic effect– who on earth figured that one out?) Anyway, over time it led to all of these old Santa Claus collectables of Santa with magic mushrooms. I remember when I was a child my grandmother had antique glass Christmas ornaments featuring Santa sitting atop a red and white polka dot mushroom. Isn’t that strange? Hooray, Santa, the Christmas drug pusher!
I don’t know anything about this website, and haven’t read the who article, but I just googled it and at first glance this seems to be a good summery of the history of St. Nick.
http://www.thedailytransmission.com/2011/12/26/755/
I would dispute this assertion “Some scholars argue that this is the origin of the phrase “to get pissed,” as this urine-drinking activity preceded alcohol by thousands of years. (For those not familiar with the expression, “getting pissed” is English slang for getting drunk.)”
I think its more reasonable to argue that the slang evolved because drunks can literally piss themselves than than more convolution explanation (although rather neat)
I agree that it’s all to be taken with a grain of salt. I have always taken the meaning of getting pissed in the same way as you.
oh that is an excellent version of santa! I didn’t know about that so thanks! I;m going to google it. I’ve been googling glazing with acrylics all afternoon so you’ve been VERY informative today.
Haha– I’ve either been very informative or VERY long winded with my theories about oil painting. It’s funny because my new years resolution is to “web less, draw more” and today is supposed to be internet free and only art making. Ok, art now!
well at least your home is well decked out for the new year
sure is! its nice having them up actually. I was worried after I put the first one up that it wasnt good enough to go up (i could see mistakes) but now i dont care.
1. Your art looks terrific all framed up and hanging on the walls.
2. This is a stellar set of photographs! Observed with an artists eye. You are doing great things with that new camera.
thanks Karen
(the frosty web one does make me think of your wintery ones)
fingers crossed for the new year and lots more drawing and photos
Two problems with hanging stuff over the headboard:
1. When do you actually get to look at it?
2. What happens when there’s an earthquake?
1. Obviously you won’t always be lying on the bed, in fact walking in an out of the room most of the time.
2. the wall is brick and properly drilled. if there is an earthquake the least of my problems would be the paintings.
DIY in our house is a bit like World War 3 lol. Happy New Year
I go shopping and the cats visit the neighbours – Husb gets very loud and swears profusely……
Your pieces look great all framed and hung! I especially like the pair in the kitchen. My only piece that’s up in my apartment is taped to the wall.
Thanks Caitlin – I think you need to invest in a nice frame! (Although I have to say, these frames were a right pain to store and to lug around)
Haha, someday! I actually bought a frame a few days ago, but it’s for a painting I haven’t done yet. So maybe once it’s done, and I get it back from the gallery…