Vispo/Drawing/Typewriter art: C Breaks Free / Be Thankful For What You Got?

RTomens, 2021

C Breaks Free was finished this morning since it was pure typing done a couple of days ago until I decided to add some ink lines. I haven't drawn a great deal on typewritten works but since thinking about it recently I'll be doing more. It's possible for a kind of tension to arise between the lines and typed letters, as well as lines enhancing letters, they could overwhelm them.  I shall be experimenting with the density of the lines. The background marks are from rain drops. When it started I thought, for a second, it would ruin the piece, but then I went with it, let it rain and smeared the drops. Turns out I like the effect.

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'Be thankful for what you got' sang William DeVaughn in the classic of the same name. It's something I try to remember when I get fed up. We all should, but it's not easy, having to admit that whatever's wrong about your life someone is suffering more. As I thought about this today I compared myself to my friend who's been on the doles for decades, then compared him to a rough sleeper, then him to a starving African and finally I skipped across to a very rich but thoroughly unhappy man. Imagine being able to own everything but happiness? Down from him on the material ladder I could see an upper middle-class type who was never fully satisfied because with one more leap he could join the super-rich. 'Below' him are the middle-class masses but it's impossible to generalise about, or really surmise, their overall state of well-being because there are too many variants, likewise with the working class. Then I realised I was going about it all wrong talking about classes and groups because contentment and success are individual traits although any surveys done would no doubt reveal patterns, even patterns within patterns, such as working-class people in the North compared to the South and internationally one country to another. Now I'm regretting ever starting this comparative misery thing. Note to self: just be thankful. (This tune was always in my DJ box though the 80s and 90s. I liked to play it at the end of the night).