I find it is very easy to get bogged down in minutae – cleaning the smallest crumb from an ostensibly clean table; wiping round the sink every time there is a bit of a smear; focussing on content and forgetting to check punctuation and spelling.
For some, paying such close attention can be a productive way of life: surgeons, lawyers, artists for example. If they did not focus on the small stuff then the bigger stuff might never happen or go terribly awry.
When I visited Emma while she was living on Mull, and after a bottle of pink fizz, giggles and perching precariously on camping seats she marvelled at how the weeds and bushes were beginning to reclaim the tarmac where he had parked her caravan. I questioned that maybe her world was getting too small, when in fact she had bigger plans to turn her observations into stunning pieces of work, and certainly some of her best.
I went to the SSA (Scottish Society of Artists) exhibition today to locate 2 pieces of art in particular: a sculpture by Andrea Geile and a photograph- Maiden Voyage by Katy Hundertmark. Ironically I have just released that they are both of German descent, as am I – in a very small way as my great grandfather was German. More later.
Much of the artwork pleased my eye and one or two I would happily have on my wall. Some of it I just don’t get. The most amusing piece was created by the recipient of the Emma Herman-Smith Memorial Prize: Ewan John for his piece entitled ‘Blackburn & Breich – Colour Swatch’. A collection of amusingly titled paint swatches such as Corned Beef, Pensioner’s Purple and Nit Nurse. Go see for yourself. Emma would be very proud, I know, of such a worthy winner.
Minutae – a poem
so small
tiny in fact
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