Other lives

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Middle of Winter

The winter of 1985-86 was spent discussing methods of suicide. Could he wait for ten years or so, to see if circumstances changed? No. The two years of recovery after the last episode had seemed endless to him. When I pointed out that previous overdoses had inspired vomiting, so maybe the physical body had a strong life force, I was apparently ‘sick’.

The aftermath of an overdose isn’t as calm and peaceful as it appears in novels and films.

So many options, so little time

I thought I could go out for twenty minutes at a time, and would be back with suitable first aid skills. The kitchen knives were hidden. The washing line had been discreetly removed. There wasn’t any strong alcohol around, and he hadn’t been able to get a doctor’s appointment or any useful medication. He hadn’t been outside for weeks.

Who would find the deceased? When the plans seemed to be inevitable I suggested he should be close to a hospital at the end. Other people, who wanted to live, could benefit from healthy discarded organs, couldn’t they? This thought wasn’t well received.

Mostly you are the main character in the story. Sometimes you are helping someone else’s tale to unfold. There again, you might unwittingly be in the background of a much bigger drama. Your actions might affect the audience for many years hence.

Wrong shoes

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Advertisement for regular school attendance

“What starts in school?” you may ask. There was a lot of nonsense about ‘fitting in’. This was illustrated by the difficulty of buying suitable black shoes for the offspring. Three children, two with wider feet and one with narrow feet. It’s possible to buy school shoes in the right sizes if you travel to a city with more choices. Otherwise, there were telephone calls about detention because of the ‘wrong’ shoes. The ‘correct’ shoes (after the local shoe shop had ordered the right size especially) were often in a bag, to be changed into after walking to school in a more appropriate pair with sturdier soles. There were threats that “this will be added to the pupil’s records!”.

“Oh no!” I tried to humour them. “Not the record!”.

I was summoned to a meeting: “Mrs X wants to see you on Friday morning!”.

“Does she?”. Regretfully I declined, having a prior appointment that day. The receptionist was unhappy, nervous about what to tell Mrs X. I advised that the meeting should be with shop owners who weren’t stocking the correct sizes of uniform stuff, not me.

“One size fits all” does not apply to shoes. Nor should it apply to education. Now that the young people have completed their studies (despite various obstacles), I’m seeing advertisements about school attendance. We often received an A4 sheet describing the perils of missing a day (or more!) of school. Nobody misses being bullied by a teacher. Nobody learns much by using obsolete methods. Hopefully the lessons learned in Pembrokeshire have helped our family to never collude with madness.

Propaganda about school attendance

I’m bemused to notice that the auto type suggests the next word after ‘school’ should be ‘shooting’. No, it really shouldn’t.

Green Fuse

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Linocut test print. Two human shaped trees with a spiral of leaves.

There’s often an imaginary gallery in my dream landscape. Various prints and drawings appear on the walls, some of which I recycled years ago. A few months ago, this woodland scene was on display. I didn’t like it but it kept getting in the way of my dreaming walk around the gallery. Maybe if I make a version in the real world it’ll disappear from my dreams? Cutting the lino took a long time. A drawing would’ve been much more direct but it wouldn’t have looked right.

I’m very fond of folk tales and legends. The thought of making pictures of tree spirits didn’t appeal, there are enough around already. I suppose this is a depiction of the life force of the planet we live on. We don’t think about our connectivity until it’s under threat.

The theory of bad workmen blaming their tools comes in again. Blunt cutting tools won’t cut fine lines exactly where you plan them to be. Badly made rollers/brayers won’t pick up ink smoothly. I thought I’d use a second roller to add blue to the upper corners of the tree. It didn’t pick up any ink at all…

Back view of a print in progress
Lapis lazuli?

Sometimes a tiny detail isn’t in contact with the paper. A wooden spoon or the edge of a coin is useful to rub that section more closely. My usual beach pebble had disappeared so a piece of lapis lazuli was employed instead.

Sunset

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Watercolour of a sunset at Freshwater East

I thought I’d make a quick splashy sunset picture. It took longer than intended. Some of the layers reminded me of making a lithograph.

Beginning the sunset

The photos I worked from were taken while smoke blew across from a recycling fire. I didn’t notice the black clouds at the time.