The Art Life

On a hot day like today, perhaps three summers ago I went down to the Isle of Sheppey to help two artists I'd met in Sittingbourne to build a rag tag kind of lighthouse to be part of the annual carnival.

It was really hot, I was sunblocked to the moon and back but I didn't have a hat with me. My hosts gave me a baseball cap. I never wear baseball caps. But I was grateful for that extra protection and it helped me to pretend to be someone else for the day.

As an artist, I often have to pretend to be someone else for the day. Being me is just not enough. Playing pretend helps me access things that are in me, but I don't feel comfortable showing if they are directly associated and attributable to me. Yep, insane.

This week I watched the documentary about David Lynch "The Art Life" - it's great, it's a bit like "What Do Artists Do All Day?" in that it reminds you that what artists do is make art. He tells the story I've heard before of meeting a guy whose father was a painter and having his mind blown by the idea that you could do that for a living. But it's also a lovely insight into an American childhood, adolescence and young childhood (We leave off while he's making Eraserhead in the early seventies).

So for a few minutes at a time, I'm currently pretending to be David Lynch, an English, balding, non-smoking, not very good at meditation, has never made a feature film version, but nonetheless one who showed up to work today and made some art.