This and that

Last week, I sent an email to Werner Herzog asking whether he'd like to film my comic, but strangely I've not yet had a reply. No doubt he's a bit daunted by the prospect of filming planes towing a black square to block the sun from the main pyramid in Mexico (not to mention the rest of it). It's understandable really.

Today, I've added a nice slideshow to the right there. I'm also gradually adding pics of paintings and exhibitions. There's still the 2004 and 2005 paintings to go, and I'm considering doing some tidying up (i.e. getting rid of duplicates and crappy pics, and replacing them with better ones where possible), but I'm in no hurry. If you click on the relevant labels (handily listed on the right there - just scroll down a bit), you'll see all the posts with that label. Okay, that is stating the obvious, but I've found that sometimes it's not a bad idea.

Eek

Nine months seems like a long time, but I've got a fair bit to do in that time. I've got to redraw, colour, and publish my comic, and I've got to prepare an exhibition.

I'm thinking of doing a large painting for the latter. The composition is taking shape in my head, and I'm pretty sure how I'll go about it. There is the minor detail that I can't afford the canvas and paints needed at the moment, but that's not a big deal cos there's still lots of studies to do before I actually start applying pigment to a surface.

I'm also thinking of ditching my website, which I haven't updated since the end of last year, and incorporating the stuff on it into this blog. It'll mean that the blog'll suddenly look older than it is, cos I'll post the 2001 paintings with a 2001 date (and so on). However, this doesn't worry me in the least. I serve a higher truth than mere factual accuracy.

Oh yeah, and the best suggestion for the comic so far has been to include the words 'Emergency temporal shift!' (If you don't get the reference, then shame on you.)

Final instalment

I've got over my evil mood. (The glorious summer weather may have helped.) It also occurred to me that, if I want you to make suggestions for improvement (which I do), you should probably read the whole thing. To do so, go here and work your way up from the bottom (of the posts, that is, not the pics). I've also included a draft of the cover.

Something in Auckland to go to

Song for these days

Fascists are all I see

One too many buttfuckers controlling me

But suicide or vigilante

To up the ante - which is my way?

Ain't but the one way

Ain't but the one way

Ain't but the one way... (gunshot)

To be free

Step into view... and about time

Make yourself some enemies + step out of line

We need a deadly assassin

And we need to do it today

'Cause the greed inside the greedheads ain't ever gonna go away...

Grab yourself some friends, man

And grab yourself a good plan

And get yourself a hitman

And work out a time span

And aim for the Headman... Then lie low

- Julian Cope, 'Ain't but the one way'

Smoking

In New Zealand, tobacco smoking causes more illness and early death than using any other drug. Tobacco smoking causes more than seven times the number the deaths caused by car crashes.

- the warning on my tobacco packet

I say, good work!

Finished

Well, I finished the graphic novel last night. Cos I'm feeling evil, though, I might not post the final instalment – make you wait for the printed version

Hikoi

They're not very good photos, but they give some idea.

Exciting!

I've got half a page to go before finishing the first draft of my graphic novel. With any luck, I'll do that tonight (though I've got a pesky flat inspection to prepare for).

I'm looking forward to getting stuck into some painting for a change. The graphic novel's been fun and all, but pencil and paper just doesn't cut it.

The proper way to work

If you devote yourself to the ascetic life, if you renounce all worldly pleasures, all human things, you may, I suppose, attain a certain concentration: but for the same reason you might dry up. Now, on the other hand, if you plunge headlong into the arms of passion, you may just as easily burn yourself up! Art, love, and passion are very closely related because everything revolves more or less around knowledge and the enjoyment of beauty in one form or another. And intoxication is beautiful, is it not, my friend?

- Max Beckmann, Letters to a Woman Painter

Quote of the day

I know very well that in the realm of pure concentration your greatest enemies are the evils of the big wide world: motor cars, photographs, movies – all those things that more or less consciously take away from people their belief in their own individuality and their transcendent possibilities and turn them into stereotyped men. ... The important thing is first of all to have a real love for the visible world that lies outside ourselves as well as to know the deep secret of what goes on within ourselves. ... Remember that depth in space in a work of art (in sculpture, too, though the sculptor must work in a different medium) is always decisive. The essential meaning of space or volume is identical with individuality, or that which mankind calls God. For, in the beginning there was space, that frightening and unthinkable invention of the Force of the Universe. Time is the invention of mankind; space or volume, the palace of the gods. ... One must have the deepest respect for what the eye sees and for its representation on the area of the picture in height, width, and depth. We must observe what may be called the Law of the Surface, and this law must never be broken by using the false technique of illusion. Perhaps then we can find ourselves, see ourselves in the work of art. ... So, with all this work before you, your beauty culture and your devotion to the external pleasures of life must suffer. But take consolation in this: you will still have ample opportunity to experience agreeable and beautiful things, but these experiences will be more intense and alive if you yourself remain apart from the senseless tumult and bitter laughter of stereotyped man.

- Max Beckmann, Letters to a Woman Painter

Sixth instalment

Here's a link to the fifth instalment. When we last saw our heroes, they'd defeated the Spanish fleet commanded by Columbus and returned to the New World with new settlers.

Auckland etc

I've just returned from a week in Auckland. I had a really good time, saw some good paintings, had lots of great conversations with people, and watched heaps of Doctor Who. If you're there and haven't yet seen Matt Hunt's show at Ivan Anthony, do it now. It features the largest paintings he's ever done.

I have been disconnected from the Internet for the duration, which was quite nice, but I do have the next instalment of my artist comic (formerly known as my graphic novel) to scan in and post. This will probably be on Monday.

Update on Monday: It turns out I've left the comic up in Auckland, buried in a pile of books. Plonker.