Exciting week this week. I’m getting the first two songs for the Cottonwood Shivers mastered! Hooray, huzzah, festivities and celebrations. It feels so good to be doing this. I may not have written about it here, but I used to be in a band - Patch William - back in London in the late 2000s and early 2010s. It was an interesting experience. It had its ups and downs, and I certainly learned a lot. But I remember when I consciously chose to disband the group in 2011, I thought to myself, I want to do this again, and do it right. I wanted to start from the ground up; build something authentic, let it grow naturally, let it be real. I thought it would take… A year? Maybe two? Three was unthinkable. Five was like, well maybe I’ll be done by then and will have retired after having had a nice run of it. It’s been eleven years, and after many tries and fails, adventures and misadventures, I feel like I am at the beginning of that point. It’s satisfying.

Why is art so expensive? I mean… I know why art is so expensive, and I don’t begrudge artists. But I’m talking about even what Al likes to call “hotel art” is still expensive! We were at a garage sale (oh garage sales… How I love you) yesterday. It was just a feast of cheap things. Pure woollen sweaters, cardigans, suits, $5 each. A huge woollen blanket, $10. Delightful sets of painted wooden chairs, $6 for all three. And then this one painting of a moon shining over water, with a cracked frame. $65! Sixty five American dollars. I just couldn’t do it. I liked the damn thing! But it was too much. There was other art too, art that will end up who knows where, all of it over $25.

This relentless extortion in the third or fourth hand middling quality art market has left me with only two choices… Have no art, or make my own! And I do not intend to have artless walls. So now my quest begins… I am actually quite excited to make my own art. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. When I was a nipper, I thought I would go to art school. I’m a not incompetent sketch artist. I typically fail at painting, but who knows. Maybe I’ll make a collage! Maybe I’ll make something from wood! The world is my canvas. Stay tuned - maybe I’ll even post a picture of something I make on here.