RESOLUTIONS

Here is another video experiment, deconstructing and reconstructing parts of the first image from my ever-in-progress gnovel . One of my unspoken New Year's resolutions is to do something with this idea, maybe turning it into monoprints for an artist's book, or perhaps abandoning it altogether. Things that are left too long on the shelf tend to disintegrate anyway, according to the law of entropy, but declaring that you are giving up on a long-delayed project might just re-start its motor.

To embed this video, I'm trying out an extension I've downloaded called the Dreamweaver Video Inserter. If you don't see the screen at first, try again later. I haven't got the hang of using it yet and am getting some help from the makers. 

Here's the VIMEO permalink in any case. 

 
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A MOVING POEM

My blogging report card this month is shameful. I'm standing in the corner, dunce cap on my head, red-faced and staring at the floor.

Digressed again, off-piste again, 7ism resolutions postponed again. I don't have a valid excuse except that I really have been thinking a lot and trying to see where I'm at, as they say.

But I couldn't let November end without a modest ode to falling leaves and darker days and the melancholy of approaching winter. Another rough experimental animation, started yesterday afternoon and finished at about six o'clock this morning, without a break. 

I didn't choose the music beforehand but as soon as I watched the silent video I remembered Bachianas Brasileiras, by Heitor Villa-Lobos, sung by the extraordinary soprano Bidù Sayao. I've only used a short extract from Number 5 - if you've never heard the whole thing, it's definitely worth looking up. There are many recordings of it but Sayao's interpretation is my absolute favourite. 

This is the VIMEO permalink in case you don't see the video here. 

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REAL CHAIRS, UNREAL CHAIRS.... PROCRASTINATING

Took the photo in a nice Camden teashop where the chairs have personalities. Painted this abstractified version while "resting" - ie avoiding finishing the last episode of La Vie en Rosé.

Why is it that when something needs to be done, other things seem so much more inviting?

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PRISM PAINTING IN SLOW PROGRESS

I've been working on it and staring at it so much that I decided to take time off and make a slideshow of some of the stages up to now. There comes a time in every painting, for me anyway, when every part of it is frozen and something radical must be done in order to get the flow going again. That's where I am at the moment but I haven't yet taken any radical steps.

Do you see a black rectangle?  The slideshow will start playing in a minute or two. If it doesn't, you can watch it over at my blip.tv page. Unfortunately, the shape of the video screen doesn't allow for the whole height of the painting to show and the panning effect distorts it even more. Ach! Next time I won't use it. 
For some reason, the music doesn't play over here but it works on the main Blaugustine and at blip.tv.

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A is for Alternative Reality

Click to Play

It's a rather large file so please be patient while it downloads. Watch the little circle moving along the bar at the bottom of the screen. If there's a problem go to Blaugustine, as usual, or to this page on blip.tv.

I crawled on the floor on my stomach to get a worm's eyeview of the room, resting the camcorder on a thick book which I slid along the carpet. I then manipulated the video in iMovie to make it more abstract and graphic rather than photographic. Finally I made up the soundtrack on a virtual keyboard inside Garage Band. It's just an experiment but I like it. Next time I'll know how to make it flow more smoothly.

Dedicated to my dear, talented and lovely niece Indira for her birthday today.

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