Not very, I was weeping profusely earlier because I did not get to work. That is another story altogether.
I am hoping to return as soon as possible.
So, this year the first six months were of course taken up with Haram Bawbag, the person rather than the artwork.
For those who do not know the story, Bawbag was Bawbag’s favourite word. It was an affectionate rebuke at the time, because he was behaving extremely badly.
As a celebration of our failed attempt at friendship, partly because Bawbag feels he ought to be responsible for women, and partly because I no longer have time to pander to particularly pointless arguments, I am working on the artwork regardless. It is also a rendering of the piece that he managed to take unfinished because I could not return to finish it without having to listen to a lot of nonsense.
The tagline for the artwork is ‘Until we can insult each other, we cannot be friends’ and it is a very important and subtle statement about Islam in addition to the more personal depiction of the inside of Bawbag’s head.
My work all relates quite directly to people, so it is effectively Haram, although technically because there is no actual image of a person it could be decided that it is fine. It will be interesting to discuss it with more serious Muslims. I usually have a fabulous time with scholars, less so with people who have not really thought about their faith.
Anyway Bawbag and I were super close friends, but sadly it was brief because although I believe he actually understood what I was doing, he would have found it easier if I had been a bitter womany type that wanted to bonk him.
I have had, and continue to have a lot of very long term, deep friendships with men, whom I see very rarely but know very well, so I often find that recent acquaintances find my open affection confusing. As I have previously talked about, a clear conscience means there isn’t a bar to friendship because there isn’t so much of the sexual tension people find problems with.
I do miss him terribly, but I have no doubt that he wouldn’t understand any better now than he did then, so it is safer to avoid him.
Because I have been grieving for my mother throughout the last couple of years, quite dramatically at times although I wasn’t terribly concious of it, I moved swiftly on to Two Grapes, Another Bad Investment, which took an enormous amount of time and money, and was adorable right up until the dude turned out to be a rather weak character. It was not a particularly deep piece of work, but considering it was a failed project too much time and work. Worth doing for the learning experience, but not practical. I will not be doing that again.
I was at full speed on Little Shiva right up until the sewing was complete. I remember on the last day thinking that I had had enough of it, so I measured my stamina at nine months pretty precisely. It is a very heavy piece of work and I am not surprised I was tired of manipulating it. I met a lot of nice people because of Little Shiva, however, and it will be a huge statement once it is complete. I will be renewing my fight with it tomorrow, amongst many other important tasks.
And then I met Grumpy, who pitched a fit of comedy fury and asked me what I was doing, which is a remarkable bit of EQ. This has led to the opportunity to move Ina into a new phase altogether, and certainly I am impressed by some new tricks displayed with the cushions so far. There is still a fair old bit of work to do, particularly on the beanbag, but I am ready to start the heavier wool work on them, which is quite exciting.
Grumpy is a very positive person with a big aura, so I am finding this process quite freeing, although very exacting. Grumpy has promised faithfully not to like everything, which is a wonderful thing to say to an artist.
As a reward, I am considering a crochet course to make him a jumper sometime in the next year or so. Far too busy at the moment. Grumpy makes up for a lot. He’s not at all empty, which makes a nice change.
So that is 2019, which is unusually intense for me. 2020 will make me look more hardworking, however, as a lot of new stuff will be complete in the early part of the year, and I will be following that by massively expanding Ina’s range of goods. I am working on some courses at the moment, and once I have sufficient output, I will have to look harder into marketing, since the performance element is off at the moment.
I also have a lot of writing to catch up with once I am artistically tired. The grieving process has been very intense creatively.
My commiserations to Little Shiva, who appears to be vacationing in Slough. Boke, as we say in Glasgow. I used to live down the road.
