THEY WALK
That regular daily walk has been, as it has for many others, the smallest of small releases from the staleness of existing within the same four walls most of the day. As the current lockdown progresses towards a time when we might have the freedom to travel further, the sense of railing against restriction grows internally, with frustrated intensity. We have days when for both of us our anxious sensitivities become gossamer thin, when no amount of walking along the Sheringham promenade prevents the odd leak of tetchiness. In life before Covid, we would simply climb in the car, drive off to Wells or Walsingham, to anywhere that we love. That venturing outside our normal landscape was a useful safety valve, often sufficient in itself to lift any emotional cage we may have found ourselves caught within. However, in lockdown this has been impossible, so often we have to do the best we can at holding our stir crazy feelings.
THEY WAIT
As the 12th April possible day for reopening non-essential shops grows nearer, the list of things we would like to do in our shop before then can appear a bit daunting. I think we are treating it a bit like a re-launch of the business. New stock, new merchandising, refreshed decor etc etc. There is also a sense that the next few weeks will be our last opportunity for a while to make a few improvements on the first time around. There is still an air of unreality about our one morning a week working on the shop,in the shop, reorganising and carrying out plans. Until we actually are open I don't think we'll quite believe any of this is grounded in reality.
We are continuing to find our Art Day keeps us a little bit saner than we would be without it. I've been working on trying to be receptive to wherever my painting wants to go and not to be too severe in my directing or censoring. Its in the nature of any artwork that is in a state of evolving, that you have to judge where the best place to stop is. What has happened with my current piece is it has accumulated through a series of decisions a result that is more of a riot of kinetic lines and colour than usual. Really it is much more chaotic than I tend to be happy to live with. But then that's indicative of the time we are living through.
But, I recently found myself saying, go on accept this, embrace this, just do what it says, treat this one as a hidden intention, I dare you! What I like about the painting, is that it is unfocused, its harder to read exactly what is going on. However, it fair fizzes, it possesses an energy that my paintings rarely get near. Everything in my previous work has often been so carefully considered and evaluated before I carry anything out. The end result static with nothing out of place. They are beautifully executed designs, controlled and unruffled things. What has happened with this feels for me quite liberating. My usual caution being thrown to the wind, is like a bird imagining what will happen when the cage door is finally left open
THEY WRITE
Regular readers of Cornucopia may have read one of my Family Fragments. A series of short pieces where I use a person or event from my family history as a starting point for an imaginative flight of fiction. Where this writing appears to take me is to towards a deeper sense of empathy for the person or persons I'm writing about. Even though what I'm writing is, by and large, made up, it inevitably fleshes out my understanding of the real people I knew and what their inner life, desires and motivations may have been like.
THEY REFLECT
So far I've largely avoided subjects or events that pertain to my own life. But recently I started work on a piece called The Dropping Well, that has its starting point in an event from my early childhood. Though the way I've decided to develop it has no basis in what I know, it does seem to possess an ounce of imaginative truth. It explores one possible origin story for some self views and views of others. It has felt to have a quality of release to it. The story is a bit longer than is suitable for one posting, so like Dickens its going to be released in episodes. The first part will be ready to be posted next week, and if I'm feeling bold enough to launch it into the public sphere I will.
THEY WALK
In the first lockdown we took to regularly walking to the end and back of our road, mainly because it took just half an hour. We met a few local residents from the village, to politely greet and have brief socially distanced 'how are you' type chats. There was Peter from over the road taking his dog for its early morning walk, and the middle aged lady with long dark hair with a husband who possessed the most miserable face in Christendom.
Recently we were out walking in Sheringham Park. Our next door neighbour Phil was sat on a bench talking to this couple. We had a brief jocular conversation between us, as is common with Phil. In the process we discovered, that because we always take our mornings walk with a travel cup of the dark caffine elixir in our hands, she referred to us as 'The Coffee Gentlemen'. Our coffees appeared to her to be such a civilised thing to do. This has now become our favourite nomenclature - we are The Coffee Gentlemen.
SO WE ARE
THE COFFEE GENTLEMEN!
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