What a day. The idea when morning arrived was to shake off the cold and work on a story in the Community Outrage Journal and then to begin another level of work on an existing small chicken painting on board. This one was never finished
The story was a very complex one and had taken a week to get written. I was to go in and write a new entry passage and begin updating the journal and rewriting other stories on there. The story is gone. It does not seem to be anywhere on the machine or on the net and so far it is in none of the external drives either.
That journal seems to have been hacked and the password changed although it may be I was using some incorrect detail as the constant cold is pressing me hard and my edge has disappeared and left me clumsy. I worked on trying to get in for several hours and then the site crashed altogether and is presently giving me a 401 message.
There were hundreds of emails to businesses and I suspect it was being used as a zombie spam machine. It is fixed now.
VentraIP are the present web hosts and their staff has been patient and very helpful. They ended up costing slightly more than the service they replaced but I have learned to trust them. They are presently loading their backup and with any luck we will be back into a working blog soon.
The NDIS has been sent a quote for some services we discussed in their meeting here. Money I have paid for other services has appeared in the account as well so the plan is beginning to work.
Now we have a little time the files, both digital and physical, need to be better stored. There are many loose boxes of physical files. The email receipts need to be printed and placed in their file cabinets. The four drawer cabinet is almost full so I have been looking at second-hand units in GumTree but without a car I am unsure how to get the local ones here. The price of new units is too much.
The printer needs ink. I am thinking about it because the files online need to be hard copied so I have them when the rotten machine crashes again
The Priests of Mammon image has reached a stage where the planning of the parts needs reviewing. I am unhappy with this image. It is a huge step for me on the level where I have not had the strength to do large works for some time but the limits on space and materials in here make me feel a bit like it is paint by numbers. The texture and motion in the way I mean to paint would create the integrity and interest of the work but it is sadly missing.
The row of cabins indicates property without real identity or emotion. They reference the simple homes which should have been residences of ordinary people but in the rush of investment became precious beyond their real value denying many people a roof over their head. The little street closely resembles those in the Insomnia group of works where I painted my late night wanderings among the tiny cliff-side rental houses near my home. They indicate the changes to the status of the homes and my own changing conditions. The cabins in the original works looked snappy because they had a strong perspective but working on my bed with this broken body it was impossible to get that feel back or handle the straight edge rulers with any deftness. It upsets me. I enjoy making perspective work. Way back I was in the one or two top students of drafting in Australia. (drawing blue prints and engineering plans by hand) because it is something I enjoy. The next version of this image I will make a more complex street
The top-hatted Priests of Mammon are based around the Monopoly Man. Their activities diminish the human value of our communities and treat them in the same way as the plastic game pieces. The figures are not representing people but the effect of people who invest and manage without ever being made responsible for cost to tenants and townsfolk.
The circular road is wide at the point in our present and thins and becomes less as it passes into the future
There are some very beautiful parts of this work
After a search through the supports leaning against the wall it turns out there is another board of the same size and material. The 9mm plywood from Mister Plywood is good stuff and makes a great base. It is heavy and I have not built the habit of setting it up to be hung yet. There are enough materials to both finish the existing painting and make a second painting with the same message.
There are a few efforts leaning on the walls unfinished because I lost the vision or because I lost the technique and put them aside until working on other images restored the memory of them or new skills took me further into the possibilities. The small chicken was one of those and I suspect I have discovered the method of taking it further
While removing the plywood from behind a pile of paintings I fell. I could not let the ply go and it is heavy so I was hurt and will suffer tomorrow. There was nothing needing care. I had a lot to say but the day has been ridiculously intense and I am not coping with things. I will fill in the rest with the next post
The day went for about 16 hours while I tried to be available for each stage of the repairs to the Community Outrage Journal. That is about four times what I can bear. Next morning all my energy was sapped and the cold felt brutal. I struggled until midday to overcome the lack of energy and then managed to get up and eat. It wasn’t until six in the evening I had the energy to pull some fleecy pants over the pajama pants and by then my feet and lips were blue.
Back in bed I realize the new duvet is not really capable of keeping me warm at zero degrees despite what the blurb on the package said. I can buy another level of bedding but for a few days it is close to zero in here at night and I cannot get to a store. Today was better generally but I feel absolutely dismal.
I booked a service from one of the carers for later in the week. I have to get that going again or am stuck here without help or human contact. The problem is they want to run a service like a bus route while I can never be sure when I am well enough. Pushing myself through a service when my heart is failing to keep me upright has to be dangerous I guess