“It ain’t about how HARD you can hit, it’s about how hard you can GET hit, and still keep going!” so sayeth Mr. Balboa. It is my dark and guilty secret that, once in a while, when the house is empty, and the beer is gone, I’ll sneak out, and rent a Rocky film. What can I say? Sorry.
But did I speak too soon about the stars in the last post? My bike has just been stolen from outside the gallery I work in. Not normally such a bad thing, really. I’ve got added context though!
For a start I’m a disabled artist, who gets around on a groovy prosthetic leg. Anything longer than trip to the kitchen, though and I’m stuffed. So I’m glued to my bike. Or was. These ‘people’ have effectively immobilised me. Nice.
Which is pretty much the icing on the cake for this last 8 weeks. Starting when we had to cancel our wedding 24 hours before zero hour, as my father-in-law-to-be was rushed in for some emergency surgery on a brain tumour. (recovery is going well) Then, coming back from a ‘honeymoon’ spent in hospital waiting rooms, I was made redundant on my first day back. Next day, found out my mum has cancer. She’s just had her tumour removed, thankfully with great success. Next up, my dad is going in for open-heart surgery in a couple of weeks, before his valves collapse completely. Last week a slight infection resulted in me having a tooth extracted, which failed to heal properly. We’re trying to move house closer to the Chapel residency, but have run out of dosh, and now my bloody bike has been stolen.
“And why do we fall down, Master Bruce?”
“So we can learn how to pick ourselves up, Alfred”
True enough, and this is what I feel my installation work has prepared me for. I try hard to look at the bigger picture. To see things in terms of process, and explore the contingent nature of things. That along with working with a medium imbued with the tendency to get itself damaged, destroyed and interfered with by outside influence every five minutes, has indeed effectively prepared me to roll with the blows.
I have to be very grateful for that, because sometimes, they just don’t seem to stop!
Suck it in. Keep going. Get in that studio and make the most of what will be a great year.(eventually)
