AUGUST

Time does keep making that “tick tock, tick tock” noise and here we all are in mid 2020. One very messy year all considered. My arrival way back in mid 1960 is all a bit fuzzy but most people say the same thing about their birth. If they say otherwise and refer of details about the event I think they are just being silly. For myself the difference between way back then and now is not too much I guess but I am now larger and I now have a  fluffy white beard. As a tiny person I was fond of messing about with coloured mud (paint) attempting to create worth-while pictures of what I saw and what I thought. I still do the same thing but now it is a rather complex profession. 
Over these years I have collected a great many experiences with the help of many people and many passports. Tick tock, tick tock… I thank all those who have helped to shape me along this little adventure. For amusement here are some passport mug-shots.
1981 = 21 yrs.        1986 = 26 yrs.     1994 = 34 yrs.
2000 = 40 yrs.        2007 = 47 yrs.     2016 = 56 yrs.

A very fun party occurred in the shed/studio to celebrate and celebrations did occur I am told. Even a flock of black cockatoos came to screech a chorus of happy birthday squawks for my pleasure. I managed to sip on Polish Zabrovka Vodka and sucked on clove cigarettes while performing a few tropical moves. A sort of sloppy, jolly sailor jig with occasional drunk convulsions including a type of capoeira waltz… Not easy to describe or to watch such moves. 
I have been on the planet now for over 21,900 days. A fair amount of time really and a lot of geography has been covered. A long way to here and now.  
Luckily most of those days have been pretty good except that day I lost my favourite Micky Mouse doll for some hours and that other day I recall in Ouagadougou the capital of Burkina Fasso when I was rapidly and annoyingly emitting blood, pus and avocado simultaneously from my mouth and my arse. 
On a more positive note I recall a very worthwhile day when I stepped into an elevator in Paris and met a wild Mexican woman. I eventually discovered that Carolina was from Argentina but she still does look a bit like FrIda Kalo and surprisingly she still seems to find me amusing after all these years together.

Otherwise its all go, go, go as usual but in the new slow, hesitant and strange Covid-19 world. In our immediate world art is being made and Boab pods are being eaten while I ponder texture and wonder when it will be easy to travel further than to the local shop and back. Don’t get me wrong I love the local shop but I know there is more to see and I do have a few people to catch up with here and there. I patiently wait and hope to see many folk in the future. This pandemic has made me consider all the bits of the world that I cannot see which is I must point out …most of it. In particular I ponder the minuscule micro world full of bugs and amoebas and viruses which are all very difficult to see. It is a “small small world.” I think that was the title of a book or a song from my youth when I was a slightly smaller myself.

 X2 WORKS ON PAPER - SMALL SMALL WORLD. (2020)

LONG WAYS.   Link below to a short film about some recent wide vistas.    
  https://vimeo.com/439849105