Good morning. I present to you: some stuff.
I enjoyed writing my last blog post, which contained a bit more information than normal - it’s inspired me to document more often and in greater detail. If it interferes too much with the illustration content of this blog then I may start a new one just for personal journalling.
I spent the first half of yesterday doing a few things I had been meaning to do for a while. The first was to count all my spare change that’s been lying around for probably about 3 years. I counted £20.50 which was pleasing. I also found a lot of foreign coins, which I took a scan of (see below).
I’ve toyed with the idea of scanning and throwing away a lot of the detritus that’s collected in my drawers over time. I reason that I just think they’re pretty and like to look at them occasionally, and now have a document of them to appreciate whenever I like, without need for referring to the objects themselves. But then as physical objects they serve as more tactile reminders of experiences - holding them can evoke strong sense memories of the places I was when I first received them. I guess I just talked myself into keeping them.
I’ve also got a collection of shells that I wanted to document similarly. I don’t think I was seriously considering throwing any of them away, but I did like the idea of scanning them anyway. I think another reason for wanting to scan any of this stuff in is to begin a rudimentary visual catalogue of things that I take with me; things that I’ve decided not to throw away for particular reasons and have travelled with me wherever I’ve lived. I will feel more inclined to put them into deeper storage (ie the high-up boxes that don’t get opened) now that I have an immediate reference if I need it. Progress of sorts…
Whilst I counted coins I was kept company by the existential, emotional musings of Jesse and Céline from Before Sunset by Richard Linklater. I watched Before Sunrise the evening before, and Waking Life the evening before that. I am a big fan of these films, and interviews with Richard Linklater posted on YouTube provided the backdrop for rest of my morning of organising and scanning.
The content of these films made me wonder whether every conversation could be categorised as a conversation you’ve had before, or a conversation you haven’t. ‘Small talk’ is typically a collection of conversations you’ve had before. Anyone who has spent a substantial amount of time around me will be aware of my predilection for conversations I haven’t had before - about identity, perception, purpose, etc - conversations in which I’ve learned something about myself by the end that I didn’t know, or couldn’t express as succinctly, at the beginning. That’s not to say that the two categories don’t appear together in the same conversation (in which case it’s probably better to read the term ‘conversation’ as a particular collection of exchanges within a larger talking session), or that one is inherently better than the other. Conversations you’ve had before are probably an essential precursor to conversations you haven’t had before. But I do prefer having conversations I haven’t had before, and so do the characters in many of Richard Linklater’s films.
Other news - my latest model is finished (see below) and today I’ll probably do some Photoshopping. I set up an Etsy shop for my work, although I don’t have a lot of work on there right now.
