unofficial

Due to the rain I was at the Rooms, tried to get in for free by shaming them with the fact that there is no reciprocal museum arrangement – but forgot that they have no shame.

Was there to show Carol around, the view, the café, the hectares of useless space.

There also was a retrospective of Anne Meredeth Barry’s work – an artist that I was not fond of in fact a couple of years ago mentioned to someone that she was the forerunner of the new tourist art in the province.

That hasn’t changed as her late work still fit the bill, I do, however, have a respect for the work she made when she first came here.

What I found more interesting – as everything revolves around me – was her “unofficial” work, the artist books, the sketches, the note books – now that I write this I wonder why I call them unofficial – at first it was due to their size and what I perceived as less inhibition but I could be wrong. It could be my prejudice that anything that isn’t big and painting is unofficial as she did have large text based diaristic images.

These are what I preferred , the images that demanded that one take more time with due to the amount of information. The books – again horribly displayed as one could not read them, only appreciate them, I wonder how one appreciates something when there is no access to it – with extensive text to go with the image There were books that were collages – although she was an accomplished printmaker. They weren’t poorly made - actually they were made quite well – but they felt much freer. They also felt less demonstrative. While most were staring at the big stuff I was craning my neck to see the smaller works. To me they seemed better when they were less majestic.

This leads back to my stuff. While the official junk sits in rolls in three lead line bags, I have been making snaps and returning them to those poor sods that I was lucid enough to use the digital point and shoot with. In my depressed state to-day did manage to make a book which most people will probably think is my “real” work. Maybe I have it all wrong and should be following what I liked about the Barry work.

The show was a series of completed circles of my life on the Rock. The curator of the show was the first person in the arts that I talked to – we’ll leave it at that – when I asked for a Gros Morne residency application. The culminating part of the show was Gros Morne Time Lines which Kendra and I were at the CBC/Gros Morne unveiling at the Discovery Centre in Woody Point – saw the video again and they have finally put out a trade edition. Saw people that we knew and the Parks House we stayed.

Later that day in St. Michael’s print shop, I run into John who remembers me as the barkeep downstairs at Eastern Edge a chat asked if I were in town for a bit then spoils it by wishing us a safe trip back. Despite this, these are the tenuous links that make me feel at home here.