A letter to Sir Nicholas Winterton

Dear Sir,

I would like to come to your defence over your comments of there being a "totally different type of people" in standard class train carriages.

You couldn't be more correct sir.

You are certainly poles apart from any person who travels in standard class. I for one, who travel cross country in standard class, find it extremely hard to relate to you at all.

I'm sure if you are reading this (and although I doubt it, I hope you are as any responible MP would), you have worked out the purpose of my email.

Yes, us mere mortals in standard class definitely do have a different outlook on life. And I am glad of this. I highly doubt I could look at myself in the mirror, or any other highly polished surface for that matter, or sleep at night if I shared a similar outlook to you.

As a final point, please don't feel like you are not welcome in standard class. Just please don't expect people not to look over your shoulder or distract you with their mere pathetic existence. Having said this, I'm sure you won't be needing to make such long, arduous journies much longer. That seems to be the nature of 21st century politics, one can no longer voice their opinions on the common, disease-ridden, working class scum with their filthy offspring and their vocal chords which make noise.

All the best for your retirement. (I can recommend some good books to read, films to watch and parks to sit in. Do you play golf? If not you may want to take it up.)

Yours indignantly,
Tim Hodge

18th February 2010 13:30

As I write this I am still sat in bed. I am certain to miss my crit group at 2pm. As both crits and reflection seem integral parts of my course, or my "practise", I feel I should reflect on why I am not there.
Answer: I slept in.

Why?
Because I was watching the Winter Olympics until gone 4am.


"You know why kids love athletes?" 
"Because they screw lingerie models?"
"No, that's why we love athletes. Kids love them because they follow their dreams."

-Up in the Air, 2010

I guess I still do love athletes and partly because of this very reason.

Hopefully the drive, determinaton and ambition of these athletes can rub off on me as sitting in bed now at 13:47, I clearly don't have any.

 

Reflection.

Ok, I'm under more and more pressure to do this reflective journal. I need to start it now and I need to stop neglecting this blog. Whatever I write here from now on shall be going in my reflective journal.

I'm fed up. Fed up of painting and art and society and everything. Blaaargh! Art school is so detached from reality and it annoys me.
So in an attempt to create something that has even the slightest value or relevance to anything I've decided I'm going to move into making short films and/or videos. I'm looking at buying a camcorder and I'm going to film various scenes that catch my eye. I'm going to write scripts and monologues for voice overs. I feel it is important to emphasise that the scripts are what I'm really going for here, I want to get back into writing. It's more useful to me than painting and I think it's more appropriate to the subject matter I am tackling.

I am reading up on some film theory and semiotics and doing some research into relevant British short films. Hopefully I can carry on writing and get hold of a camcorder and get some filming done soon.

Sorry if this isn't the most coherent post but I'm trying to bash these words out while they're on my mind so I don't keep putting it off. 


Anything else that pops into my mind should be abruptly plastered all over this sorry excuse for a blog.

A few little collage pieces in my moleskine sketchbook.

Check out my other blog.

http://timhodge.tumblr.com

Too Many Pubs for a Town That Size

Apologies for the lack of updates again, I promise to work on this.
I have done a new painting entitled "Too Many Pubs for a Town That Size". It is 200cm x 77cm, it is on an old solid wood door. I had the idea of painting on domestic surfaces and I thought I could incorporate this into my idea of creating a history painting.
The painting is an original composition of a British street party scene. The characters in the composition are from various photos taken by myself and others that I have drawn from.
It was a difficult piece to create and I'm still unsure as to its success. I like some parts of it while I dislike others.

I have tried to keep a rough and fluid approach to it, sanding over my loose marks whenever possible. I have also tried to incorporate more symbology in this piece though I fear I may have concentrated too much on the meaning of the painting. I'm on my Christmas break now so will continue to think about new compositions to move this work forward.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated. (Please click on images to enlarge.)

not disastrous, but extremely unproductive.

I've realised I need to pay more attention to my blog and with mounting pressure to produce a reflective journal on my course I am going to try and write here everyday, or maybe every couple of days. So if I seem to have disappeared, please send me angry messages!

Okay, my reading week was disastrous. Well, not disastrous, but extremely unproductive. I took two empty sketchbooks to fill and managed a whole three drawings! I just became so lazy and unmotivated!


I've got back into my work now though and created 37 drawings in one day, drawing on pages of The Times and The Financial Times. It was a fun experiment. I may include them in the painting I'm planning.


I've had a tutorial recently and the idea of creating a history painting has come up. I'm looking at Jorg Immendorfff, specifically his Cafe Deutschland series and In Meinen Salon Ist Osterreich.
I'm also looking at some older history paintings such as Washington Crossing the Delaware.
I've started trying to create my own composition using some of the photographs I've taken as well as text and some other images. I've decided to set it out around a table as in Immendorff's work but with a more British street party theme. I'm setting it against a night time city scape under light of fireworks.

I'm planning on painting it landscape on a door. I had the idea of painting on domestic surfaces but so far it hasn't really happened but this is a challenge I'm really looking forward to getting into.



Here are some of my first drawings for the composition. Any suggestions or critique is welcomed.

I really want tips on composition/symbology. So please speak up if you know something interesting. I will be back soon with more news/work.