Month: October 2019

All Hallows’ Eve ‘Wasn’t something supposed to happen today?’ 7.30 pm: Breakfast time: 8.25 am: Off to town, by way of a supermarket, towards the School. 9.10 am: The first of the day’s two Abstraction lectures. We went to the Armoury Show (1913). Who wrote this?: This is the last time that I’ll be delivering the module at the School.…

8.30 am: On arrival at the School, I discovered that I’d left on my digital recording device yesterday. Remarkably, the batteries were still functioning, but I’d accrued a massive 23-hour long file: I wondered what it’d recorded. Had the School’s ‘ghosts’ whispered into the microphone? During the ‘Noises of Art’ conference, held at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in 2013, I…

Sunday, October 27. A jaunt to Powys Castle, Welshpool, via Mr Backhouse’s cottage. He is, now, a retired piano tuner. In the past, Martin had served our domestic, as well as the School of Art’s, instrument admirably. A modest, enthusiastic, and genuine man: Presently he continues to restore by assembling (more or less constructing from scratch, if truth be told)…

7.00 am: Arise. 7.30 am: I headed, into the semi-dark and rain on a mild morning, to the Pelican bakery, where they make delicious croissants. I pass it every time I walk to the railway station to catch the 7.30 train. The proprietor gets up at 4.30 am on weekdays and Saturdays to begin baking. It’s the cosiest of shops…

7.45 am: Breakfast: 8.30: A communion. 9.00 am: An overview of the day, a second cup of tea, and an opening of files. Back to the composition descriptors. (This feels endless.) ‘Persevere, John!’ I’m attempting to maintain a balance between formal description and rationalisation. Too much of the latter, and I risk giving the appearance that everything is program music.…

7.30 pm: I cleared the drainer and prepared for breakfast: 8.15 pm: Off to School via Tesco Express, where one of our former MA students works. It’s a joy to know some that they’ve not all flown the nest quite yet. 8.45 am: I set up for the morning’s lecture on Abstraction. Today, we dived deep into Abstract Expressionism and…

There is a thin thread of gold that stretches far (elasticity). The connecting filament, through which an electricity passes (Text, 23 09 19). 8.15 am: I pushed out from the harbour with a little admin, and prepared for a day of PhD tutorials. The weather holds. 9.15 am: Down Llanbadarn Road, round Pound Place, up Trinity Road, and on to…

7.30 am: The salmon-pink underbelly: 8.30 am: A communion. 9.00 am: Tuesdays and Wednesdays are dedicated to MA and PhD teaching and admin. VPN frustrations continue. I’d successfully installed the new software, but the sign-in window will not recognise the password that my phone app generates for this purpose. The greater a system’s complication, the greater the possibility of error.…

Sunday, October 20. 1.30 pm: Monday, October 21. We took our boys to galleries, museums, theatres, concerts, and cinemas even before they could walk. They were taught the value and benefits of culture. (Religion and politics were discussed at the meal table too.) Today, as young men setting out on their careers, they continue to visit the same, along with…