another look
A BUTCHER'S #20
A BUTCHER’S hook/look (Cockney rhyming slang)
seeing things
I picked this postcard out of a pile recently just because it’s so fantastic! It was sitting on a stool at home when I walked by, and as I glanced down, I realized what it reminded me of - it was so clear: a famous painting. What do you reckon?….. it’s at the bottom of this post.
the other side
I started thinking differently about jigsaw puzzles after reading George Perec’s ‘Life, a user’s manual’ when it was translated in 1987. It made me aware that there was more to a puzzle than the generic uniform machine-cut jigsaws of today - where the challenge only lies in the number of pieces and image complexity. The real world eye-opener was when I came across a box of old puzzles from the 40s at a yard sale on Long Island. (I’ll go into some of them in a later post)
This one has no image (not missing, never there) and it is also double sided. A challenge! First things first, try to work out which side is which, with no idea what either side depicts. Fun
Once I had completed the horse fair scene, I had no idea what the other side of the puzzle showed. Carefully flipping it, I found it to be of an 1839 print: The Melton Breakfast by Francis Grant, depicting a room full of 19th-century ‘distinguished’ men (or ‘knobs’) having breakfast before the hunt.
During COVID, I definitely felt that I didn’t need to be filling up more space with artwork when I already had a studio full of it. Plus, it was hard (for me) to come up with work that had relevance or ‘reason for being’. I had previously made a couple of pieces using jigsaw puzzles, so noting the characters along the left and right edges - and thinking about how many people were busy making puzzles during that time - this naturally became my ‘COVID piece’: socially distanced in every sense.
socially distanced
3 in a row
focus
looking back
With my older photos - most of which I remember where I took them - there are times when I have to figure it out. I might only have a vague idea. Take this one: starting with the number 245, I looked for clues—the position of the fire escape, the neighboring building, even the remnants of a sign. It took a bit, but you can just make out Lenny’s Boutique.
That’s where the search began. I couldn’t find much on Lenny’s (definitely from the pre-internet world), but I did discover that it was at 245 Broome Street, which is now home to Artist’s Equity Gallery - oddly enough a gallery I often visit, run by Michael Gormley, who was a founder of Limbo Lounge gallery…. where I exhibited back in 1986. Small world.
it’s how you look at it
and this is what I saw.
Yes!
Love this so much. Shared it on BlueSky and with Brant 😱😱😱