Today I was thinking about how much of my life I’ve compartmentalised, kept a clear division between my art and music, day job and real work, work and family. Here is a beautiful piece of typing from a painting class I once took by Aileen Elliot when I was a teenager. I keep this on a clipboard above my desk – I have several clipboards, one for each collection of projects I’m working on, it keeps the scraps of paper that I’m prone to produce a bit more organised. It is one sheet of hand-typing about the basics of portraiture, and I read it way more than I paint, in fact, I haven’t painted a portrait in earnest since taking this class. It’s taken on a sort of talismanic form, it speaks of light, shadow, construction, form, logic, likeness, proportion and detail in a way that is useful and works for me, as much as any music text I’ve ever read. The last line reads:

“Remember again to blend in exessive detail at the end of each sitting.”

Such great advice for the overworked, a reminder to let things bleed, and blur into each other, influence each other, like the magnets of your life-compartments.