HOODED CROWS PICKING AT A SWASTIKA IN KETCHUP..,

.., was the sight which greeted me early the other day on a bright and warm spring morning when on my way to the local super-market, which indecently is being run-down, soon to become ‘Tesco’… Anyway, crows lapping up a huge swastika someone had fashioned with ketchup on the pavement near the apartment block - a strange yet fateful image perhaps, for I’m optimistic that the fundamental right-wing mood in Poland can’t prevail. What will replace it however is another matter. Dominika’s thoughts on Politics here aren’t unusual for instance. A liberal in the best sense of the word, she, like many other caring, intelligent people in Poland has learnt to be wary enough not to trust anyone with ambitions of power, so the ‘liberal’ opposition appeals little more than the current administration (although a recent poll suggests a certain amount of support for change). The general hatred of communism is more than understandable of course, and the transition on the way to a rounded democracy is clearly a shaky, swastika shaped one, but for the sake of Poland and its people let’s hope it happens and democracy wins the day without the seemingly perpetual cruelty with which this country has had to endure.

AND AS IT HAPPENS..,

..,life here endures regardless anyway and remains more than decent enough (as long as you keep your head down and avoid doing anything to annoy the authorities that is - for I still haven’t managed to find out what happened to Dorota Nieznalska), and despite work being a bit stop - start again, the future promises to be as bright as the beautiful weather we’ve been having of late. Neighbours here in Broniewskiego have turned out to be first-rate, belying my worries a few weeks back about any forthcoming mayhem when I first moved in. The flat itself, although tiny, is fantastic after all too. Quiet, peaceful with great light, it allows for the kind of working practice which I haven’t enjoyed since having a ready-made studio back in the northeast of England years ago – If only the guys who are supposed to be knocking up my canvases would get a move on and get them done then stuff right now would be just about perfect. To be fair to them however, then it’s not altogether their fault. They too are waiting for their own suppliers of cotton and the timber needed to knock up the bloody things to

deliver the goods to them… Still, I ordered them over four weeks ago now and am getting just a little worried that they might never appear.

Nonetheless, there’s still plenty to keep me busy while I wait for them to materialize. I’m currently working on a couple of new ideas through drawing and reworking a couple of small canvases (as shown); the show at Filharmonia comes down tomorrow also, and on balance went really well, with two paintings selling – one from the show and one on the back of it, and I must begin reworking a couple of videos which I hope to show in Poznan in the not too distant future.

AND THE DESPAIR..,

.., my previous despair regarding the lack of any real contemporary venues in Warsaw that is, has thankfully been laid to rest by a recent discovery of two quite tasty looking commercial galleries which for some unknown reason we never came across when living in Warsaw ourselves.


So, an approach for showing at local 30 and Program (shown above) is also on the agenda as and when the two planned canvases are started and resolved.