Next Phase

First phase of cleaning up, which means remove the large things, a little painting left to do. I paint a lot. Anthony came over to repaint the pedestal tops he had painted black to better display his plaster casts in the Construction show, now the ped tops need restored to semi-gloss white. He volunteered. Bless his large heart. Mostly what I did today was add things to my list. D again tomorrow and we'll mount labels, focus lights. When the show comes alive. Magic time really, when the curtain goes up, even after all these years, I still enjoy that moment. Even in the tactile arts, finishing a house, or that moment, when I was a letterpress printer, printings an edition of a few hundred, of which maybe 30 would be hardbound, lettered and signed and a couple of proof copies, that moment when the first hardbound copy was tipped into boards, was similar. The stirring of jubilation. A little jig across the floor. Anymore it's a kind of slow shuffle, over to the island to roll a cigaret and get a drink. Josh, a friend of the pub owners, is a great guy, a fireman, on 24 off 48, and they all have a second job; he's a builder, and he's hanging D's sign at the pub. We three go over for a pint, and he's attaching the bracket that will hold the sign. The sign is heavy. I wonder about his attachment. Not my job, but I have an ongoing fascination with methods of attachment. He notices my concern and explains his take on the sub-strate. There have been reports of Tap-Con failure in old brick, so he's setting lead sleeves for the Tap-Cons, I approve of his method, too strong a word, I concur, that his consideration is correct. This is hard to explain, but I looked at the method he was using to solve a problem, and found it similar to my own. An affinity. A deep-seated connection. I think we'll probably end up serious friends, I'll know his wife and kid, and way too much about their personal finance. Spare me. You get to know anyone, patterns come into play, the background, what you hadn't thought enough about. I was thinking about snakes. I don't know why. Yes I do, there was dog around.