Old Friends & Struggling With The Computer Age

I couldn't sleep. The change in weather does that, but I had also suffered from nightmares. I was in a car being driven by a woman I did not know and she decided to commit suicide by driving at high speed into oncoming traffic. I don't think her death wish had anything to do with me - I was just the unwitting passenger who couldn't do anything to stop events unfolding. Hate that and especially hate that a dream like that stops me from sleeping.

I had had about 2 hours sleep at most but since I couldn't sleep I started to do emails and catch up on some things. It was fortunate really because ordinarily I would have been asleep at the time, but being up I heard a voice from the street calling out to me. It was an old friend from up the country who had come into town unexpectedly. It was Saul Munro and it was wonderful to see him and have him in the studio for a few hours. Friends are such a reassuring aspect of reality after nightmares have earlier been unwelcome guests. 

I have known Saul since I was 20 years old. He is a sculptor (very talented) and with an admiration for Zadkine and ancient Middle Eastern cultures. Over recent years he has dealt with the digital revolution by ignoring it. After all clay and stone are timeless materials that existed long before modern electronics and will continue to exist long after humanity has morphed into something else and things digital are long gone. Can't argue with that - it's true.

Yet even those happiest when making things in clay and committing their creations to the fires of the kiln have seen culture expanding online and very recently he started to embrace the inevitable. I remember when I first started using a computer and the mixture of frustrations as one learns new processes and skills but also the joy of discovering the community that is the internet and starting to feel really connected to humanity in a magical new way. I remember it well and I also remember the transformation in my life and artistic practice that was the inevitable result once I mastered the machine and learned to get the most out of it.

This photograph of Saul while writing an email is a sight I figured would happen eventually, but not until traditional postal services for letters had ceased to exist, newspapers and books were no longer printed on paper and so on which would take a few years yet. I did not expect it would happen so soon. I wish him well (as do, I am sure, all of us who have been enjoying exploring the online world for a few years now). 

Equally extraordinary was being able to open ArtRage on the computer, get out a Wacom tablet and introduce him to digital painting. It is difficult for anyone who has never painted on a computer before to imagine how it could be possible and Saul had been the same. When I handed him the stylus to try it for himself I think he was amazed at how the colors mix on the digital canvas and he could draw and paint so easily. I think he also surprised himself as to how much fun it is and he could see a whole universe of creative and communicative possibilities opening up before him. It is a brave new world and a perfect playground for the inquisitive mind.

It is good to have old friends. Old friends make it easier to navigate all of the difficulties of this world that we share.

Comments

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*How long can you think of life to the moon?

[saul munro]

visited and put photo on facebook aug. 23 2011 much regards saul xxxxxx

[Supra Shoes]

I'm getting a lot of this lately. My baby is 14 days old and is sleeping 6 hours straight at night already, eats and then goes right back down for 3 more hours. I'm always told that I'm lucky...or...even worse...I get nasty little "nice" comments about how it must be so nice to formula feed and that the formula is the only reason she's sleeping (these are usually the same women who complain that they can't bathe when they have a newborn...WTF is that about? I have 2 kids and never had a day where I was so busy that I couldn't shower...put the baby down, shower, and stop whining!).

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[Moncler jackets]

Yeah the phrase, "you get what you pay for," seems operative here :). Having taken some art classes, I assure you that at least 95% of the people who want to take their clothes off for you are not people you want to take their clothes off :)