I have been drawing on post-it notes
Reluctantly and then, er, luctantly, into a diary
And also for art/illustration/whateveritmaybe
And I have been scribbling and drawing on top of drawings. I am not someone who is very sentimental about drawings (📍: recycling bin) but have been enjoying it more since reading Roman Muradov’s notes about crossing out.
Cross out!
“😡” out !
I think I used to cross out things as a child but more like I was marking a workbook - this is bad. Now - this can be changed.
And some other drawings I’ll share with you. Drawing owls, thinking about grapes
Much more than grapes, I have been thinking about sounds. I think about and enjoy them more than drawings. In this minute I enjoy being an observer more than a creator. There are sounds which have always been a treat to hear, savour a little.
Sounds inside and outside of cars
We moved into a house by ourselves and now I sit in the silence (outside’s noise, the house’s noise). I listen to music less, I try to only listen when I really want to, or really need to avoid an external noise. I have been re-reading Pauline Oliveros’ Quantum Listening, practicing. It is good, it is good to notice things with purpose, to use the skills of an anxious-styled mind for good.
I watched Annea Lockwood / A Film About Listening. (I was very moved!) Before this I read an interview with her in this book about her river field recordings, her theory of why bodies of water are so calming to hear. Poorly paraphrased, it is repetitive, but always changing. Enough to peace out, enough to engage, to not get bored. I hadn’t realised prior that she was the artist who burned pianos in the 60s. Before, I didn’t like the taste of that, I imagined it too conceptual, too mean. Hearing her talk about it, I realise the humour, the kindness, the curiosity. How does a piano sound when you’ve packed it with kindling ?
Dex so kindly gave me a field recorder for my birthday back in March (📍: Aries). I call it my Zoom HS2. I wasn’t able to use it much for a while, the weather being so windy and rainy and not having the tools for that. That hasn’t changed too much now it is August (📍: England). In March on our holiday in North Wales I wanted to record the sounds of Dinorwig power station / Electric Mountain, the hums, the goats and the slate cracking underneath their hoofs. Torrential rain, 100 other Easter tourists, “which button do I press” “you know the recorder can hear you say that” and so on. I considered taking it to the decommissioning Trawsfynydd nuclear power station on our way home but was shy as usual, didn’t want to get into trouble for some imagined reason, despite being on a public footpath. “Sorry officer, I am just a distant noise enthusiast! And this isn’t very high tech at all!”
Love heart stickers,
-MF