Diary Of An Artist In A New World

Real Refusés XII

The afternoon was busy with hanging and dealing with the difficulties artists present hanging crews. It seems many artists think that somehow magic is involved in holding an artwork on a wall because sometimes there is no easy way to get excessively heavy, warped, and poorly constructed "stretchers" hung in any kind of professional looking manner.

Miracles are necessary. A little swearing sometimes helpful. But some how, some way, the last of the paintings were hung just as the first visitors arrived. Just enough time to quickly change into a suit and get presentable for the show.

My role from there is to greet visitors and speak. Lesley welcomed everyone, then I did a small talk and thanked everyone and then introduced our official opener - alternative media publisher Lawrence Gibbons.

At the exhibition opening visitors vote for the Peoples Choice award. This year it was a thousand dollars donated by a lawyer who likes life drawing and remaining anonymous. Her generosity is appreciated by all.

The Wait For The New Computer

Photographed in isolation like this it doesn't look like much does it but that is the new Penryn processor I was waiting for. It is the first of the new generation of processors made with the new 45 nanometer technology. I know some people find it hard to get excited about that but I find it fascinating that this chip now has 500 million transistors and that 100 of them could fit inside a human cell. 45 nanometers is small. Very small. The wavelength of red light is 700 nanometers, and the shortest light - violet is 400 nanometers. 45 nanometers is way smaller than the wavelength of visible light. The most powerful optical microscopes can see down to only a thousand nanometers. 45 nanometers is very very small.

So whats the big deal? Well besides more power from fitting on more transistors it is far more efficient and uses less power. That means more battery life. It seems like I hung out forever for these new processors to come along. Well they did - at the end of last month and the new Macbook Pro's included another option I was wanting - LED back-lit screens in the Hi-Res display I wanted. They also included a multi-touch track pad like on the Macbook Air, although that seems more gimmick than necessary.

My Friend Clarence

Dr Clarence Rainwater was my friend. He was my best friend. He died recently not long after his 88th birthday. Over a few months whenever I phoned him I could see his decline. He would repeat himself and at times was confused and toward the end found difficulty in relating a voice on the phone with someone he knew well. I spoke with him 4 times while he was in hospital. It seemed to me he was getting better, but then the next time I tried to ring I discovered that he had died.

I first met Clarence in the late 1980's in Cairns. He was interested in drawing, I was running a sketch club. I soon discovered he was a wonderful artist with the camera. I loved his individuality, his love of books, his love of fascinating things like crystals and old microscopes and cameras. I built his darkroom for him at Boden Street at the end of his garage. He gave me a Graphlex camera in return for it. I also bought a Speed Graphic from him. We generally spent Tuesday nights together talking science and philosophy and art. In the country it is rare to find someone really interesting to interact with.