whoosh

I had another surfing lesson this morning, and not only did I stand up, but I actually stayed stood up all the way in to the beach. More than once! In a vaguely kind of controlled fashion! It was awesome.

This was especially pleasing as the lesson started off sufficiently crap (due to Bad Surf, or at least Bad-for-Beginners Surf) that the instructor had decided to cancel it. Which met with my great approval, as I was having a very rough time and had completely lost my nerve. We were on the way back up the beach when he noticed that there was Better Surf out the back of the swimming half (Bondi has a surfing half and a swimming half), and cleared it with the lifeguards for us to go out there for the lesson. Where the waves were significantly more friendly. And I surfed all the way into the beach! Repeatedly! Did I mention that?

Other than that, I have mostly been working this week, I think (many commissions atm, which is nice). And spent yesterday pottering round the Museum of Contemporary Art (the Simryn Gill exhibition is fantastic; and I loved the Gail Hastings piece "To Make A Work of Timeless Art"[0]) and the Rocks Discovery Museum.

I had vague intentions of doing something useful this evening, but I don't think that's going to happen. I hadn't worked out what exactly I wanted to do, so perhaps not too much of a loss.

[0] I wanted to try to describe this, but I fear I can't do so particularly well. It's about the intersection between viewer, artist, and piece of art. There were watercolours (hung on wall in customary fashion) with instructions about how to create Art by standing in a particular place and filling in blanks in the pages; and a seat (to sit on whilst making your work of timeless art), and a long yellow cuboid, the meaning of which I forget. Described as such, it sounds odder and less successful than it actually is (or was for me). The construction-of-space worked, I thought, really well. The best bit in the Simryn Gill was a series of works wherein she gets people to give her books that have meaning for her, and then she makes them into beads and gives the necklaces back.

whoosh

I had another surfing lesson this morning, and not only did I stand up, but I actually stayed stood up all the way in to the beach. More than once! In a vaguely kind of controlled fashion! It was awesome.

This was especially pleasing as the lesson started off sufficiently crap (due to Bad Surf, or at least Bad-for-Beginners Surf) that the instructor had decided to cancel it. Which met with my great approval, as I was having a very rough time and had completely lost my nerve. We were on the way back up the beach when he noticed that there was Better Surf out the back of the swimming half (Bondi has a surfing half and a swimming half), and cleared it with the lifeguards for us to go out there for the lesson. Where the waves were significantly more friendly. And I surfed all the way into the beach! Repeatedly! Did I mention that?

Other than that, I have mostly been working this week, I think (many commissions atm, which is nice). And spent yesterday pottering round the Museum of Contemporary Art (the Simryn Gill exhibition is fantastic; and I loved the Gail Hastings piece "To Make A Work of Timeless Art"[0]) and the Rocks Discovery Museum.

I had vague intentions of doing something useful this evening, but I don't think that's going to happen. I hadn't worked out what exactly I wanted to do, so perhaps not too much of a loss.

[0] I wanted to try to describe this, but I fear I can't do so particularly well. It's about the intersection between viewer, artist, and piece of art. There were watercolours (hung on wall in customary fashion) with instructions about how to create Art by standing in a particular place and filling in blanks in the pages; and a seat (to sit on whilst making your work of timeless art), and a long yellow cuboid, the meaning of which I forget. Described as such, it sounds odder and less successful than it actually is (or was for me). The construction-of-space worked, I thought, really well. The best bit in the Simryn Gill was a series of works wherein she gets people to give her books that have meaning for her, and then she makes them into beads and gives the necklaces back.