December 2011

24th: Wouldn't you just believe it. Yes after much research, many phone calls, loads of driving about I finally decided to be done with it and buy a safe light globe (light bulb). Yes, it was blooming expensive. Yes, I did nearly faint as the kind lady with the sweet smile banged the precious little box on the counter with enough force so that you could hear the glass of the globe clinking against the thin membrane of the cardboard box. Yes, I managed to keep the smile on my face whilst forcing back the urge to say 'What the !#*%?, are you bloody stupid, you could have broken the filament banging the globe down like that'. I kept smiling as I handed over the cash whilst all the while thinking to myself, 'please don't be broken, please don't be broken, please don't be broken'. Thankfully it is not but......two days later, rummaging around a hospice shop, what do I find?

Yes!!!!! It is cracked near the top. For some reason the power lead is less than a foot long but it works. Finally I am back in business. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ..........

Christmas Tree Update: A couple of years ago I made a tree put of offcuts from another project, the geosic dome camera obscura.....well he tree received a facelift this year and is looking funkier than ever.

13th: Drum Roll please.....Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you my very own safe light. As you can see I have used a fetching piece of yellow plastic which gives a woderful urea glow to everything that it illuminates. The question I am sure that you are all dying to ask is does it work well.....

....the light looks nice, in a rough made for a job and not to make anything look nice kind if a way. The reality is that as a safe light go it is pretty useless (see below). Piece of paper on he left was the control and was thrown straight into the developer after been taken from the packet. Piece of paper on the right was left in the dark room with the safe light for ten minutes before being thrown into the developer. It just didn't work.

November 2011

24th: Wow its almost been a month since I started work n my latest camera. I am still just about finished. All thats left to do is the final coat of varnish and then fitting the lenses. The pic below shows camera with the back open. At the moment the biggest problem I am facing is trying to get hold of a safe light. If I was in London - no problem - just phone the supplier and I would have one within a week. I can get hold of a light bulb but they are just way too expensive for what they are. So the search goes on.

Good news from the feline show. I sold two prints of the Voortrekker Monument piece. Yip thats great but as usual after all the deductions and what not, what ends up in the pocket is just enough to cover materials for the next project.

10th: I'm not sure how long it is before I am going to melt and turn into a puddle so I thought that I had better write this message before I do. Catpals exhibition, Saturday 5:30pm at Trent Gallery @ Cameo Framers, Waterkloof, South Africa. Proceeds of the exhibition will be used for the feeding, sterilisation and veterinary costs of a feral sanctuary in Pretoria.

October 2011

29th: So what are they? Nope they are not portals to another cooler dimension. Although with the temperature on the ambient furnace set to 'Roast Yee Bastards' it would be nice if they were. But as my skills only extend to carpentry and photography and not to the manufacturing of inter dimensional portals, they are just going to have to remain the beginings of a new camera. Yes after months after not doing much I have finally made some time to do something. As I write the camera is actually almost finished. Almost but not quite.

17th: Well the halfway point has long gone - what have I been up to? Well work, but I have already ranted and raved about that quite a bit. Looks like I might get a bit of time to do my own stuff next week, which is hopeful. Tomorrow I will be delivering the plan chest that I made for Stuart from Cameo Framers. These are available to order and as long as it doesn't involve anything kinky they can be made to spec. I have posted more pics on facebook if you would like to have a look. Just click on the pic below.

September 2011

28th: So anyway got a comment the other day from the mysterious BlackArks - they have a blogger profile but with no info other than they have been online since September 2011 - hmmmm - it made me think - well not much actually - that has been the problem over the last while it has just been work work work work work I am an automaton and I just work work work work work I get up out of bed and I go straight to work work work work work and I only stop work work work work work when it is time for bed work work work work work it is just work work work work monday to sunday work work work work work the life of an artist work work work work work. Yip I know life is not supposed to be easy but this is just taking the piss.

Below is the flyer from the Assembledge fringe show (my name is in the far right corner). All in all I would say it was a pretty cool event. Anyway I am just going to go back to work work work work work.......

15th: Some times I seriously wonder about the validity of calling myself an artist. With the amount of time I get to spend on my practice it hardly seems like a hobby. Sure I have ideas that I want to execute but looking at my work commitments for the next month or two I am going barely going to be having the time to sit on arse to take a quick five minute breather let alone do something productive. The worst thing about this all is that the money that I am bringing in doesn't even cover the bills. Yip I guess things feel pretty hopeless.

On the bright side I have been selected to take part in a show that is being run by Assembledge. The title of the show is titled 'The Art of Assembledge'. It is part of the Johannesburg fringe which is running concurrently with the Johannesburg Art Fair. The show runs from the 21st till the 25th September.

The image below is the piece that I am exhibiting. It is titled 'The Boxer' and is a self portrait which I took with Helga. I stood her up one way to expose half the photograph and then turned her over to take the other half.

4th:  So after getting the call on thursday to come and collect my rejected piece for this years Tahmi Mnyeli Open I went out to get it today. After wandering around the space to see what had been selected I went to go and take my piece of it's easel...'what are you doing?'...'I'm collecting my entry'...'you got your receipt?'...'No'...'You can't take that one it has been selected'...'Ok its just that I got a phone call telling me to come and pick it up'...'someone has been making phone calls to the wrong people, all the ones with a green sticker have been selected'..'oh ok'.. and so after the initial WTF? to laughing about the fact that I hadn't got in to the final I finally ended up having to leave my work as it had actually been selected...oh well.

3rd: Well went to the opening of Sasol New Signatures. As an event it was pretty cool. Good food accomponied with the usual scramble etc etc. The work was ok, saw a couple of pieces that I liked, but to be honest on the whole I found the show to be a little underwhelming. And the catalogue? While it is great to have a record, it would have been nice to see a truer representation of ones work.

I don't know whether I should be admiting to this but my work for the Thami Mnyeli Open got rejected. My Voortrekker piece. Yip....WTF!?!?! In the words of the great Mutley 'Shagafraghashaga' or something to that effect. Yes it is the ultimate humiliation. So yes now I am going to have to go through the humbling experience of picking my work up whilst trying not to think 'how the hell did that get in?' as I walk past some piece of rubbish. Anyway,this brings to mind my experience of walking round the Tate Modern and then the National Gallery in London. With the work in the National Gallery you do not need to be told how good it is. To be considered great it needs no justification, nor do they require you to like them. With the work in the Tate it is different. With some of the works you need the confirmation, to be told that they are great pieces of art, and of course with personal taste coming in to it, it is easy to dismiss one piecs of work as being a joke. The same can be said of some of the works that are selected for ABSA, Sasol, Thami Mnyeli etc etc. Sometimes the justification required seems to vastly outweigh the quality of the work. At times it is all to easy to pick holes in some of the selections. If you are not selected this is no reason to get upset as it is just the way the it is. Best to just shrug your shoulders and say - oh well.

So what else, there is the group on at Fried which I am a part of and then the Altered Pieces group show has moved to Pandora.

August 2011

24th : Just had a peek at the Sasol New Signatures website. Finally this years entries are up and can be seen. Looking at my own entry I have to admit that it doesn't look great. At best I could only describe it as a black murky mess without any artistic merit at all. I am sure that there are plenty of artists out there thinking 'I can't believe it - how the hell did that get in?'. As you can see below it does not look good.

While I have been here in the UK I have work going up at Fried as part of their Aperture exhibition. That runs from the 27th August to the 1st October. I have also had a piece entered into this years Thami Mnyele open. I decided to enter something a lot less low key than my effort from last year. Who knows I might win something...ha ha ha....yes. Anyway thanks to all involved for making it all happen.

July 2011

19th: Three is the Magic Number. At least it seems that way. I think that the selectors at Sasol have decided that I may only succesfully submit a piece of art every three years. Since 2005 the sequence is as follows; yes no no yes no no yes. So for the next couple of years I shan't bother. In 2014 I will try again and of course get in. The pattern is so obvious.

The great thing though is that I didn't have to face the ire of the Nandi who seems to be able to make anyone who steps out of line quake in their boots.

More good news website is back online www.kritikalmass.com So yes today three is really the magic no.

18th: Well things are finally starting to settle on the home front, although is still a shed load to do, plus got a trip to the UK coming up. So what of my Sasol entry, well I don't actually know. Yes I got my entry there on time, I have to add with all the right paper work, but I just haven't got round to finding out if my entry got in or not. My excuse, well non really. I did try to phone them today but no one answered. I just hope my entry got in otherwise I am sure that I will find my self dealing with a mighterly peeved Nandi when I do finally get to talk to her.

Noticed the other day that my website was no longer online. Bloody bastard service providers took it offline for non payment of bill. So anyway, after reminding myself to remain completely and utterly calm during the whole process, I decided to pay the bills online. Despite all the old tricks of refusing to recognise my name/email address/password or giving me the option of paying over the intenet were thrown at me I managed to get there in the end. The most amazing fact is thatI got there without getting to the psycho smashing the keyboard and shouting out wankers stage. Fantastic - only problem is the link is not working - wankers.

11th: Things have been really topsy turvy the last few weeks. Had to move house, which ordinaryly is a mission but this time round the problems just seemed to multiply exponentially. A move that should have only taken a couple of weeks has evlved into a two week affair. At least the worst of it is over but it has mean that I had completely lost touch with the real world. The result of this has meant that I have got my dates mixed up. I though the deadline for Sasol was the 14th but no it is actually tomorrow. Yes so on Sunday there was an 'Oh fuck' moment - a call to the framers which garnered the sort of response which was polite but had echos of a weary school master, with his cane gently swaying behind his back, looking down at one of his many miscreants whilst they babbled some poor excuse for their failure to have done their homework. Thank you Staurt I look forward to seeing the work framed tomorrow. So to cap off a thourougly unprepared week here is one that I succesfully submitted in 2005.

June 2011

19th: This is going to be my entry to this years Sasol New Signatures. I worked like a demon to get it finished this weekend. It has everything that you could ever need, windows, a door, a bed, a chair and a mat amongst other things. Its all very spacious and comfy. For those considering building their own homes it only takes ten minutes or so to assemble the whole thing. I have titled this piece 'Together We Can'

The title comes from this years ANC by election byline 'Together we can build better communities' It just struck me how far from the truth that this statement seems to be. In South Africa you have such a large proportion of the population living in shacks that are no better built than the one I have just made. For me the question who is the 'we'. At times this 'we' seems more like a royal 'we' in that our leaders are completely detached from the realities of day to day survival that the citizens of this country are facing. Sure now and then they may may visit a township as part of a photocall to show that they care and are listening. In return loyalty is expected and received and you have to wonder why? How much do these people actually consider the costs of the lifestyles they live. Are they able to weigh up the benefits that may come about if they reduced their costs to the populus at large and invested this money back into their local community. Rather than buy a Gucci suit instead buy a woolworths one and then put the money saved into helping someone build a home for themselves. A democracy is only a democracy when it serves the people and not when the system is abused to serve the interests of a select few.


18th: Well here is my tea bag in the sky shot from the other night. I have to admit that I was feeling really lazy, pointed the camera at the sky, set the focal length to infinity and just pressed the button. As you can see the result is a non descript orange haze in the middle of a lot of black. Yes I do charge people money for taking pictures for them.

Anyway, handed in my work for the Leonard Cohen exhibition. I wasn't to happy with the final piece. The print came out great (thanks Tammy), but the sticking down turned into a farse. The result being that an empty can of spray paint was launched across the garden where it remains for the moment. The spray glue went no where, as in what was in the can was barely enough to stick down two sections. So I ended up using double sided tape, which was ok but in some parts the image has not stuck down perfectly so a little rippling can be seen. All in all a little tardy, but if you are interested I will be happy to create a whole new piece that will be way better, neater, smarter, nicer, cleaner etc etc.

8th: Here is something that I started on a year ago. It is a series of images of the boundries that exist outside of properties. I became interested in this imaginary line that extends beyond the fence, and of how some people claim it by tarting it up and others just leave it to its own devices.  The connection with the Voortrekker Monument comes with the fact that these are all tracts of land that line Monument Avenue, a road, that if it continued on its way would eventually come to the monument. So anyway to join the dots; on the one hand we have this huge lump that is a memorial to a peoples desire to create a nation for themselves. Then on the other you have this manifestation of a personal desire to define a homeland for yourself being repeated continuously along a road.

So anyway I have the choice of black or white to go with. What do you think? Personally I did like the white version, but that was last night and now I am leaning to the black one.

May 2011

10th: Finally got going with taking some test shots with Trinny. Exposure times are looking to be more or less the same for her as with my previous cameras. Images though are looking like they will be much smaller than I had anticipated. The one below has a diametre of about 30mm.

Had some good news from Tam today with regards to the Leonard Coehen altar piece project. She recorded Hallelujah for me today. Going to go and pick it up on Thursday on the way to the Intoto opening. If the live performance I heard her give was anything to go, this recording should be amazing. Thanks Tam

19th: Work is slowly progressing for the Lenoard Coehen altar piece. To be honest though I think that Trinny might be a bit of a dud. Admitedly its early days and she could do with some tweeking. Right now the photos that I am taking with her are lacking the wow factor of the photos that Helga produces. Some of the detailing is nice, but nice is never good enough. They need something else.

I picked up Tams recording of Hallelujah last week and it sounds awesome.

There was an opening at Intoto last week. An exhibition of portraits. I had two works on show. One was hung below a Diane Victor piece which was cool. My other piece The Fight - part A was reserved. The potential buyers just want to see if it works in their home. Lets hope so.

24th: Progress report; I didn't like the photos Trinny was producing for the Leonard Cohen altar piece project, so I have decided to, with the aid of photoshop, cut and paste the images into something that I want. Its not finished yet, I have a very old slow computer that I am forcing to work its arse off to get this to work, but I should be ready on time.

News from Intoto is not good. The option on The Fight - part A wasn't taken. Bastard's, don't they understand that their thousands of rands could have fed a kind of poor, not really starving but shit they could really do with the money artist living in the suburbs of Pretoria. On the upside there is buyer for another piece, They are just proving to be a little ellusive at the moment. You like it? just pay the cash and be done with it.

One last not for the day, apparently I am going to be getting a mention in House and Leisure (South Africa) as part of a story covering Intoto.

 31st: The last week has been a bit of a pain in the arse. Boh of my dark room safe lights died. My new one because I bumped the poxy lamp and then the other because it was old I guess. Had to finish unloading, loading, unloading Helga in the dark; and then of course there were the photographs to process. It looks like I managed to fumble my way round succesfully as the pics came out ok. I also avoided head butting Helga which I did last week. She wasn't happy about this and I was fuming as not five minutes earlier I had managed to violently connect my forehead with a roll of paper. At the time of the second incident I was busy reminding myself to be careful.

The image above is a detail shot of a set up I did of some Jacob Zuma posters. The whole photograph looks like a series of police mug shots of the president. Although this was not by design I suppose some would say that this result was quite apt. So anyway I now have a rather expensive non funtioning light bulb that I just can't face throwing away as it was so bloody expensive. I guess they cost about 25 times the price of a regular one.

April 2011

2nd: Well despite all glitches and stuff ups work on Trinny (the three panel camera) is going really well. Am onto the finishing stage of the/her body. This involves a lot of sanding and patience. When that is done I can get on to fitting the hinges that will hold the sections together. After that I will be making and fitting the holes which means that she will be ready to go in about a week or two. Hopefully no longer than that. The image below shows her closed but with the back panels of the two side sections open.

 7th: Well I have finished off sanding and varnishing Trinny. Busy with the lenses while trying to work out a system for keeping all the panels and wot nots secure and in place. I am trying to make the lenses in batches. Making them one by one seems to take forever. It does mean that you get a lot of duds but if you are careful there shouldn't be too many. To make my lenses I am using drinks cans for my lenses. They have been sanded down to make thge metal thinner. I have then used a biro point to make a slight bump which I then sand down. Usually this creates a tiny hole in the crown. To give an idea of scale the squares in the image below are 10mm x 10mm, the hole in the square in the top left is far too big.

Went up to the Vortrekker monument yesterday to take a photograph of  it with Shirley and then today went into to Joburg to take a photograph of  the Ponte Building with Helga. Going to develop the pics tonight so we will have to see what comes out.

 8th: The photo of the Ponte Building came out alright and while the one of the Voortrekker Monument came out so so. Think though I will do them both again just to see if I can get better shots. I know that the Ponte building image shows some signs of fogging. Maybe because of the covers that I was using as a lens cap, we will see.

 10th: What is it? Well 'it is a box from the olden days that people used to sit on and shit', needless to say Shirley wasn't best pleased with this discription given of her by a passing tourist. We had to go back to the Voortrekker Monument as I had forgotten the battery for my camera in the library. This provided me with the perfect opportunity to try and reshoot the monument while dodging the entry fee. I have to be honest as impressed that I am with its size, this is a building that I don't ever forsee myself falling in love with.

22nd: After a bit of a delay work on Trinny is getting on again. I have started to fix the lenses in place. 

As you can see it is an 'Uber' sophisticated bit of technology that is being used for this particular part of the process. The plan is to start trying to take phtos with Trinny next week. I still have a couple of things to sort out. At the moment the two 'door' sections are just catching a little.

Had an all new South African Experience this week - traffic fines or at least the process of trying to pay for them. The one was a breeze. The other a right pain in the arse. I tried three different points - including the local traffic department - and each of them turned me away. Now I understand why paying bribes to traffic officers is endemic to this country. Its not because the fines are expensive, its just that with the effort that is required to pay a fine it simply not worth the bother of trying to be  a law abiding citizen. Why waste a day trying to pay a measly fine when you can just get the pain and misery over with within the space of a couple of minutes. The benefits are two fold; both money and time are saved. Very tempting indeed.

March 2011

6th: The image above is a photograph taken with Helga. I continued with the experiment of opening half the holes. And then flipping the camera and opening up the other half. This time round I asked our gardener, Big Boy and his wife, Grace to first sit and then I sat with my wife for the second exposure. We are the left part of the image and they are the right.

I have to admit that I often if people here have any idea of the difficulties facing the staff they employ when they scream and shout at them for being late. I had no idea the distance that Big Boy and Grace had to travel until last week, and then I was just gobsmacked. They live some two hours away by taxi (south africa style). it seems ridiculous that they travel so far for work but I guess when you have no other option that is what you do.


 13th: Veni...Vidi...Recordabar...Life eventually catches up with you when you are trying to juggle too many things at once. Fortunately this time round it was only an egg that slipped through the net.

The Intoto opening went well. It was very different from any other opening that I have been to. Usually what happens is that a good percentage of the people that go to openings are artists themselves.  We are there to support, socialise and drink. The opening at Intoto was very different , while every one that was there was supporting, socialising and drinking, a good proportion seemed like they could actually afford to buy something and did not view the snacks as a cheap way to dine out.



27th: Work is underway on a new camera. The idea is to take photographs with it that can then be used in the Leonard Cohen Altar piece that Gordon Froud is curating. As is usual with these things you start off with the idea, then comes the drawings, then you buy the materials, then you start working on the materials and then you screw up leaving you with two options; A: buy new materails or B: curse the gods of fuck ups and just redesign the whole thing. In this case I have gone with option B. Hopefully there will not be any further screw ups as there is no option C.

So how will it work? The camera has three sections. These will close in. As each of the sections is a camera it will take three images when opened up. The two side panels will take photos that will be half the size of the one taken by the central section. 

29th: Plodding along with the three screen camera. I haven't given her a name yet but I am sure that I will think of something in due course. I am still being beset by errors, it has to be said that this is mainly due to a lack of concenration. A couple of the pieces made very good frisbies and actually flew a bit further than expected. As you can see the one section has since been claimed.

February 2011

6th: So finally we have progress. I was thinking back to my years at college and of how I got fed up with the whole thing. Looking back at it now I realise that part of the problem was finding myself in this system where you just had to produce. The feeling was more akin to working in a sausage factory. There was no ebb and flow. Of course it suited those who were able to produce all the time but then some of us don't. No judgement it's just a fact of life. So anyway I have cut a load of paper to use in Shirley. Decided to start taking portraits with her.

In the meantime we found an old barbie, some kites and some string and had some fun.

 14th: After, well it must be near on five years since I last took a photograph with Shirley. Somehow that doesn't seem right. Its also been almost two years since I last used Helga. Yesterday we took Shirley out on a safari through a local nature reserve and then today I tried to take a self portrait with Helga. What a mission. I forgot what a fight it was to get the paper in. In the end the image I took with Helga was a little over exposed but the Shirley one came out just fine. I am going to try and redo the Helga one again as the background which used was the same for the two cameras.

23rd: Wow - art really is like catching a bus - nothing comes along for ages and then within the space of two weeks you find that you have sold six pieces. Two helgas have been sold and then four shirlies, three of those were snapped up Standard Bank for their collection. The sad thing was, rather than being able to pop open the champagne to celebrate I had make do with a chocolate milk shake drink from woolworths. That champagne is just going to have to wait a bit longer.

In the mean time I have been busy taking more pics. Mainly self portraits, I have been experimenting with covering up different sections of holes. The pic to the below is my new shutter design for Helga. It features, of course, all the latest trends and innovations in design Using an old folded up sheet and a curtain I have been covering up one set of holes while opening the other. After exposing one set, moving the camera i have been swapping over the arrangement to open up the rest fo the holes to light. Thus one half of the paper is being exposed differently to the other.


28th: Thanks to Tristian Hall I have just been published in the March 2011 edition of photocomment, a local photographic mag. The printed version is only available in South Africa but it can also be viewed over the internet.

January 2010

18th: And yes it is a new year. Not much to report other than since my last entry things have been busy busy busy. Then there has been the Xmas holiday. So now we are back into the need to make money while finding the time perpetual quandry. At least the year has started off on a good note (ignoring the problem of increasing debt) Sold my piece at the Pretoria Artists Associations annual members show. Which was cool but as ever there is that greedy side which wonders would I have been able to sell it for more?

31st: Well the first month of the year has gone. In terms of making stuff, still to pull the preverbial finger out, but then that has never been my style, making stuff for the sake of making stuff. So I do go through these periods of inactivity. I assure you that as soon as I can get my lard arse into gear great things are afoot. In the mean time here are some pics of Shirley that I took this morning. She is looking a bit rough. No I haven't been abusing her its just she has been living in a garage infested with rats for the last couple of years.

November 2010

22nd: Well whats been happening? Not much to be honest. Still trying to organise with Jacques to get some stuff through to his new gallery as well as a time to take his portrait. The exhibition at Pandoras is going to run for a little longer. And well thats about it. Got some stuff planned but want to hold on with that until the new year.

6th: And so we have netered into the penultimate month of the year. As ever in gauteng the heat here is relentless. But at least the rains are starting to come.

So what has happened over the last couple of weeks? Jacques popped around to have a look at what he would like to take to put up in his new gallery. Unfortunately the pic (The Judgement) he chose was too big for his car so we are going to have to make another plan.

Put some work up for a show at Pandora (Back Home). The venue is a nice spot. A ramshackled house that offers up more questions than a traditional white walled gallery would.

On the work front things aren't so great. Plenty of quotes given out but no one is prepared to pay. It seems they want things at cost which is just not possible nor worth the effort. 

October 2010

30th: Lots of ideas for stuff but no cash at the moment. Meanwhile I have built a frame for a coffee table made from the finest quality scraps of shutter ply. Its for a client who has showed me three different designs. So I decided to make something from what I had available. Truth be told in the best traditions of well thought out design, I have just been mading it up as I went along. It is going to be stained a dark brown. It will get a glass top and then a shelf out of wood at the bottom thus hiding the cross struts.

Tomorrow I have to go and hang some stuff at Pandora. Not sure what I am going to do. The invite talks of new stuff by so and so artists but like I said all I have are ideas with no money or time left to do them. So maybe have to dig in the cupboard to find some stuff I haven't shown yet. 

9th: It has been a while since the last blog. the time has been well spent. Went over to England for just under five weeks. While I spent most of the time working, to be honest after the franetic couple of months that I had leading up to the time away, it felt like a holiday. So now I am back in South Africa. November looks like it is going to be a cool month with regards to exhibitions. For me at least. Jacques Michau is opening up a gallery and is keen on including some of my work in his opening show. The Pandora gallery have invited me to exhibit in one of their shows...and well thats about it for now. But it is nice to get invited.

September 2010

12th: Well Hardus came and took delivery of the camera obscura. I gave it a go just to see if my calculations were ok etc etc. It seems like it will work all right and he seems ok with it all.The grain in the pic is from the wood upon which the image was being projected onto.

6th: Took the dome down last week. Delivered Magnum to his new owners. And ummm have been carrying on with the Camera Obscura drawing aid. Almost finished just got to put the doors on and complete the housing for the lens. The cool thing is that it looks like it is going to work.

Off to England at the end of the week for a month where I will be doing ummm........well there is no plan as yet .

August 2010

26th: Managed to get a bit of press coverage for the dome in the Beeld, a local South African paper. Unfortunately my Afrikaans is not that great but I am working on a translation. In the meantime here is a link to the article: Klim binne-in Fuller se kuns en visie

Camera Obscura Progress: Decided to work on something else for the moment, but it should be ready next week.

23th: Welcome to the mess that is my garage. It was clean on the weekend but life being what it is.....

Camera Obscura Progress: As of today I am really starting to feel like I am eating this project. For some reason, with everything thing that I try and do there is some sort of cock up involved. Underestimating materials required, cutting pieces wrong, gettin smacked in the face by pieces of timber spat out by the saw. Every day there has been something that has inspired visions of stuffing the contraption into a corner and forgetting about it. I suppose I only have myself to blame. I should have just made him a box with a hole in it rather than giving him this pimped up version.

So next week the dome is coming down. it seems like only yesterday that I put it up.

19th: This is something that I have been commissioned to make. A camera obscura for an artist. I am still tomake the box that sits on top and houses the lens and mirror. Still have to make the doors and the drawer as well that sits below the drawing area. Oh and the legs too. the red table is not what it is going to be standing on.

19th: Here is a little something I have been doing for an exhibition at Cameo Framers. At first I just did the Barbie. But it just seem so wrong to have a Barbie without a Ken, so I made a Ken. Strictly speaking he shouldn't have a little todger but I thought that I would give him something to make hime the envy of all other Kens.

The exhibition opens on Saturday sometime in the morning I guess.

11th: These past few weeks have been a mixed bag. There was the installation of the Sphere at the UJ gallery. That week proved to be a logistical nightmare with trying to enter work into Sasol New Signatures and then having to pick it up all in the same week. Didn't get in, but I did manage to get some feed back re my entry which was good. Going to make a few changes and then enter it for something else.

Last week I heard that I had sold Magnum. This might be the way to go - creating cameras that have their own value beyond that as a functioning object. Hmmm might be time to investigate those ideas that I had a while back but have failed to do anything about.

July 2010

22nd: So ABSA is finally over. Well for me it is. By the laws of the competition I am too old. This years entries formed the usual rag bag of stuff; stuff that should have won; stuff that just seemed rubbish; stuff that was nice but that was about all you could say for it. For the second competition in a row I have had plenty of pats on the back with people telling me that I should have won something. This is becoming a habit for which I think that the only cure is to stop entering competitions. There are still a couple that I dont fall foul of due to age. I am grateful though that I am not a judge and that I dont have to suffer the evil eye of all the unhappy artists. I am sure that there were plenty of us in the audience wondering why so and so won and not me. Must go. Have Sasol to prepare for. Need to get proof of ID; plinths; frames; artwork done.

13th: July July July. Work Work Work. Got the dome back from the Coen Scholtz Centre. Tried to see who was resonsible for the crusty shit. No luck, but I am learning more and more about it. The fact that it won a prize just keeps getting more suspicious. The person responsible won the same prize last year. The piece is about owls, yet eagle feathers have been used. It was chosen for the peoples prize, but the show wasn't open to the public until the night of the prize giving. I think that this calls for one of Dan Brown's splendid cospiricy waffle books. I am sure that the Illuminate are behind the whole affair and that the feathers were arranged in a way so as to direct the local masons to an ancient relic which has remained hiden in the basement of the Coen Scholtz Centre for years. Now at the direction of the Owl/Eagle/crusty shit person the truth is going to be revealed. Ha ha but I am on their case. Losers

Just over a week to go till the ABSA. Ho hum

9th: Well its July now and things are really busy. Got to take the dome down tomorrow, bring it home on monday and then move it to its new place at the end of the month.

Umm nothing much else to say other than things are really busy.