04. PATTERNS AND DIARIES

This time of year makes most of us reflective. At the same time, we find we are looking forward into a new year.

It started me thinking about diaries.

Though I still use a paper diary for upcoming appointments and events, I have NEVER managed to keep a written diary documenting my daily life. When I was young I tried really hard to develop the habit - but all of my diaries, started with great gusto at the New Year, were redundant by the second week of January!

The nearest I got to any sort of regular record was a book of line drawings I made in 2013. I am right handed, but decided to make a note of an event, or how I was feeling, with a single small left handed image each time I went into my studio.

I have always been fascinated by ambidexterity and left handedness, and what happens in our brains when we physically use our less dominant side.

I heard a story that the brother of the Bronte sisters - Branwell - was SO ambidextrous that he could write 2 different letters to 2 different people at the same time. What a brilliant gift!

In 2015, I taught myself to make monoprints. I used my ‘Diary’ as source material for the prints and continued to use my left hand.

For those who don’t know, the process entails inking up a sheet of glass (or similar) and placing a clean sheet of thin paper over the top. You then make a drawing on the upper side of the paper and when you peel it away from the ink you will have a drawing - back to front - on the other side.

This messed with my brain even more that the left handed drawing, and my left / right co-

ordination was really tested.

I did a bit of research during this time about left-handedness and dotted a few of these findings into a finished artwork of 99 small monoprints (both drawing and script) called ‘Dear Diary’. By its nature this is a very personal piece of work but for me it was also a chance to work with my lifelong left/right ‘confusions’. I am sure I am not dyslexic but I can do Codewords more easily upside down… is that weird?

Anyway, some dates for your own diaries right now are:

The Zombies Fourth Nomination in Five Years

December 9th - Fan vote for The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame closes. You can still vote for The Zombies every day until then. Go to: rockhall.com/fanvote. Later in December we find out if The Zombies will be inducted. If they are, it will take place on March 29th 2019.

February 10th-15th - For those of you on Justin Hayward’s the ‘On The Blue’ Cruise, you can see prints of ‘Dear Diary’ in its entirety there. You can see a few individual images right now on Instagram.

Until next time...

PS: I would like to thank those that are leaving comments on these blogs. I have no way to write back individually on the website, but I really appreciate it.