Confusing times

Would you pay a quarter million (in any currency) to enter a dilapidated tin can that would take you into a cold section of the ocean near a famous wreck to see this wreck only through the projection of a camera, which you could see just as well by just sending that little boat-y-thing down unpeopled? Yes, the Titanic has a reputation, and its sinking was a catastrophe. But these past years we have had several ship wrecks or catastrophes in the Mediterranean, and the number of victims taken together is far larger than the numbers who drowned in the Titanic catastrophe. Our newspaper today printed the sob-story of the widow and mother of two of the victims, and how she is affected, as she told it in a BBC interview. I do feel very sorry for her, it must be terrible to lose two family members at once, and in a situation like that. But who is talking about all the widows and mothers and children who lose their relatives in the Mediterranean waters, and often they don’t even know what happened, contact with their relatives just stopped. 5 rich people dead in the North Atlantic (who is paying for those search missions?) – thousands of poor and desperate people dead in the Mediterranean, and the EU is paying heavily to maintain Frontex patrol boats to keep these people out of EU waters, ignoring distress calls. There is speculation now that push-back boats may have caused capsizing by ramming – my tax money is paying for this, and I am finding it distressingly difficult to think about it.

Then there was this fake? thing in Russia – or do you believe this was a real live rebellion, when nobody held them up, and everything was settled by negotiation within a few hours?

Germany has a first district governor from the very right wing party that is being watched by Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, and support for the front ruling party Social Democrats on a Federal level is plummeting … What is happening in the world right now? How can this multiconfusion get stopped - or even only endured?

In situations like this my making procedures tend to turn to the small-smaller-smallest, in terms of pieces I am thinking of assembling.

 It's all more a thing about keeping the hands busy rather than making art. When the hands have something to do it keeps the mind from wandering...

And then grand ideas have a hard time keeping their head above surface. But I do want to start on a piece to enter for the challenge for the Brno festival, an idea that has been hovering in my head for a while, and that I have gathered material for. So cross your fingers that I will get around to it.

Last Tuesday the 20 Perspectives group had the internal reveal of our pieces for the ‘Monochrome’ challenge. Today the individual blog posts were published on the group blog. For the reveal mine wasn’t entirely finished, and I thought all I needed to add was the facing, but when I started on that this morning by measuring the width I realized that once again I have a size issue. I use the parquet tiles on my floor to ensure straight edges, and realized it is one inch too narrow to meet the required width.

 

Although I was working with a preinstalled ‘frame’ on the design wall… it just doesn’t seem to be my strong point. And despite the fact that this is not a juried exhibition where a piece just a bit too narrow will be excluded simply because of this formality, I have decided to cheat just a little while on the ‘finished’ photo on the Perspectives blog until I have repaired the lack of one inch and then replace the finished photo with the new one.

Readers of this blog will know, but who will notice for real?

Amidst all this outside confusion and my son’s High School Graduation Ceremony I did manage to last-minute-enter my SAQA Benefit Auction piece. 

 

Red Eye of Reflection - Donation for Saqa Benefit Auction 2023

And immediately sent it off, paying dearly for airmail and global package. €58 for a parcel of less than 300 grams – this quilt better sell at a high level to make it all worth while!