Mx.D.P

I am a self-styled Contemporary Dadaist. I try to make art without making art, without creating more waste and consuming more resources. I try to use up what I already have and reuse everything I can. I have, like the planet, finite resources. My art practice is networking and weaponising art to Save the Earth through The Network. The network is one of those durational artworks that takes time to build and maintain, and you never know what it will bring. So far this week, there has been talk of establishing a new MA at my local University looking at art grads going into tattooing. I was talking with my newly ‘Doctor’ed’ friend, Dr Tiger Sue, about her thesis. I also had the opportunity to discuss with Sue’s supervisor the intersectionality of psychology and the applied art of artistic self-harm, that is, tattooing.

I’ve been approached about an art festival in Aberystwyth and linked that up through cooperative art with Borth Fest.

I still have workshops with Andrew and Clem in the early developmental stages.

If this were a 747-400 flight deck, I would think at some point there will be an avalanche of work rate as we approach our destination… normal then!

I am continuing to collate my 4000 designs, though what happens is I stop and draw something new or, at the very least, tinker with it. I think I will put them in a book; I am at 85 pages so far…

The art studio is still in chaos after the move round, and I’m getting antsy about not getting in there, but I have plenty to do in the digital world. I am running a workshop at 2 London Place this coming Sunday for creatives about social media, collaborative posting, reel making and the algorithms!

The tattoo studio is up and running again. Public Health Wales and the National Assembly want to look at understanding applied health measures within tattooing with regard to licensing, but I won’t have time for that until mid-September.

Meanwhile, at Dr Tiger Sue’s Doctoral dinner, I was asked what kind of art do I like and why?

Well, I am rather partial to the Romantics, and I love this painting, in particular, The Wounded Cuirassier (Le Cuirassier blessé quittant le feu) 1814 by Théodore Géricault, French (1791 – 1824) it lives in the Musée du Louvre it’s an impressive salon sized oil painting on canvas 358 cm × 294 cm and depicts the Cuirassier in his splendid uniform leading his frightened war horse away from the battlefield that you can see in the background. The title suggests he is the wounded leaving the fire, but he has no visible wounds. Is it his pride that’s wounded at the loss against the Russians, more likely the horror of battle plus the dishonour of defeat?

Why do I love it? And I do love it… because, for me, it is a time portal to another world that I could never visit. No documentary or Hollywood film can take you to that place, but this painting does. It was not well received at the time. Its portrayal of the emotional harm of battle was unheard of in painting. Hero’s and winners were the stuff of the Salon… not this… it was extraordinary then, it is breathtaking now. With the huge political consequences of geopolitical climate crisis and the maelstrom of the upcoming US elections aligned with the instability of Europe’s political landscape, Art can help us understand we are never far from the fire of the battlefield.