July 9, 2021

Someone's playing bagpipes in the park, directly opposite the house. Cool, no biggie. This is Wales, it's 10pm; entirely normal, nothing to see here.

Found some clarity overnight - woke up knowing it would be a massive mistake not to carry on with the degree if I'm allowed to carry on studying remotely (am still waiting to hear about that). 

If I dropped out of uni and then didn't immediately relocate to New Zealand, I'd just go back to the job I grew tired of about five years ago. Why move backwards into something old and stale when a new opportunity has presented itself, one that will usher in freshness and change? It's madness even to consider it.

With these positive thoughts in mind, I checked emails while eating breakfast. Here was the monthly newsletter from the head of the art school I went to in New Zealand in 2004. Full of inspiring tips and interesting tangents, it's always an excellent read. Today it discussed Marcel Duchamp and how the Impressionists ushered in modern art, which tied in perfectly with a book I'm halfway through, John Higgs' Stranger Than We Can Imagine.

Is the book available in New Zealand, I wondered? Should I send it to this guy? He'd find it interesting - it talks about the exact same stuff, just from a slightly different perspective.

I carried on reading. And nearly choked on my banana on toast.

Underneath figure 2 (Duchamp), illustrating Dadaism, was figure 3 (me):

Woah. I was not expecting THAT.

The image is a tiny part of a collage I made during induction week. We were each given a huge piece of mounting board, the freedom of the magazine cupboard, and a working title: Where You Are In Your Life Right Now And Where You'd Like To Be.

Here's the whole thing:

It made sense at the time. Sadly, I had to bin it in 2008 when I moved from Wellington to Invercargill because my worldly goods didn't all fit into my car.

At the session where we presented our collages to the group, this man had found mine so fascinating he not only filmed it/me for a special presentation at the end of the week (he didn't ask if I wanted to be filmed and I still haven't forgiven him for thrusting me into the spotlight like that), he also nicked a bit of it to use in his book:

 

 

And now here it was in this email a hundred years later! Cool, no biggie.

I took this as a positive sign from the universe that having finally made some sort of a decision regarding my future, things were aligning my way. Because moving from Auckland to Wellington to attend this art school after literally years of prevaricating about it ushered in the best time of my life.

In other news, I watched La Haine tonight for the first time. It's very good - intelligent, angry, suspenseful, beautiful to look at and unexpectedly funny. Soundtrack's not too shabby either.

Today's Photo: Jusqu'ici Tout Va Bien