Come on in, sit right down and make yourself at home

Took two loverly yelllow curvy dining chairs into the studio yesterday. they were being thrown out by neighbours in the hard refuse collection that the Council runs regularly for waste / reusable items too big for bins. The idea is that they go and get sifted and sorted and recycled where possible. From my experience little of it is rejuvenated and sold as what it started out as (eg. chairs reupholstered and sold back as chairs), but more liveley that materials are broken down and reused as metal, wood chips, etc). Which is definitely better than landfill, but not as great as having an extended life at a higher beneficial use, before being broken down etc. Long way around saying I have no qualms whatsoever in taking things and putting them to good use before the truck comes :)

Anyway, hoiked these off to the studio in the back of a cab. He said "are you moving?" and I thought - hmm interesting new house I'd be having if I was - 2 chairs and a drawing folder....
He also said "Nice house - how much do you pay for rent?", which I always love. I reckon some cabbies should double as financial advisors because there seems to be a small subset who think that their customers' financial situations are fair game for conversation and comment - I figure you may as well be getting informed advice if you're going to be getting comments. It could be a good way to be very time efficient. Can you imagine, all the advice type jobs could happen in taxis. "Hello, I'd like a taxi to the domestic airport, and can that be a conveyencer please, I have some house questions I need answered". It could be called "Advice in a trice", or "Words and wheels"... yeah.

Anyway, off to the studio with chairs, and had a good session. It alll feels really new still, like the first day of school, and the combo of having other people around, and it being quite open plan add to the feeling of 'eek, I'm on show here, better get my shit together and do something, erm, something good', which is of course the antithesis of the approach I am trying to have which is 'this is about fun, process and skill development, and it doesn't so much matter what I make so long as I go and give it attention'. It is intended to be something along the lines of inserting back those double lessons of art on a Wednesday afternoon at school, that helped me get through subjects I liked less, and gave me a chance to daydream and play. This is just a structured approach to making space for the daydream and play.

So, yes, still a little nervous. I remmind myself of choir though, when I was singing ina choir in the mountains, and how at first it was terrifying, I literally thought they would have to ask me to go because I would be blithely singing along off key and putting everyone off, but that never happened, I was fine. I also remember the warm up excerrsises and games at the start of choir and tell myself that that's what I'm doing, I'm just getting warmed up. You can't just walk in and be ensconced in some majestic project, it takes some settling, some decorating, some little things to make room for and pave the way for bigger things; 'From little things, big things grow'.

Anyway it was a nice afternoon, and when I left the sun was on its way down in the backstreets of a cosy inner city suburb, people were in pubs and walking home with takeaway, walking dogs, the jasmine was out smelling nice along with people's dinners from houses, and bouganvillea flowers were painted thick across sides of houses, in a red-purple that was luminescent and made me want to touch it, run my hand across whole lot, ever so lightly, and soak in colour.