Collage: Nervy and Depressed? / Media Scare Virus / Book: Pedro and Ricky Come Again: Selected Writing 1988-2020 by Jonathan Meades

RTomens, 2022

I hope you're not - but you could be if you catch the mainstream media virus, the effects of which are not only nervousness and depression but anxiety and panic because the world's about to end in a nuclear war, covid infections are rising, inflation is sky high and 'you can't put food on your plate' because of the cost of living. 'If it bleeds, it leads', or in the current climate (change crisis, of course) if it will spark horror in your soul then it's an article we'll run - in fact, it's not necessarily 'news', just the type of article we encourage journalists and columnists to write.

Meanwhile, from my private sanctuary in which creative activity helps maintain a sense of equilibrium, two collages on postcards...

RTomens, 2022

RTomens, 2022

I sometimes make them at home, but more often than not in the shop, when it's quiet. I find that some of the best 'therapy' is provided by making art and of course, reading (or just looking at) books. The woman in the collage could be the 'best therapy'. That or it's her declaring that books are. Take it how you want. Talking of books, Pedro and Ricky Come Again: Selected Writing 1988-2020 by Jonathan Meades...

...is one thing I'm reading right now. The first section is called 'Art and Artists'. Here's a quote from his speech at the Royal Academy of Art dinner in 2017: 

   ' ...the power throughout the art world has been seized by a managerial caste which exercises patronage, which commissions rather than creates, which edits rather than makes, which does deals; empire-building impresarios and entrepreneurs, curators, so-called enablers, operatives who style themselves gallerists - clumsy neologisms are essential to any cult.'

That sounds right to me, but as someone who has nothing to do with the 'art world', I can only speak through impressions, rather than actual experience. I probably wouldn't turn down an offer by one of the art managerial class, or a gallery-owner, should they tempt me with enough Haribos...

TTFN