Forty Years On

A new mixed media piece which was inspired by my memories of the first moon landing, the 40th anniversary of which was this July. How time has flown.

I was watching the very wonderful Alan Bennett the other night on TV. He was talking about the writing process and 'being a writer' and how one is only a writer when one is actually writing. Research, all the hours spent in contemplation and creation, are just postponing the actual act of writing. Having published a book merely shows that you were a writer, once, not that you are one now.

He was, of course, being ironic but also touching on something that most creative people either feel themselves at some time or other or have foisted upon them by those who would like them to get a 'proper' job and stop mucking about. My own feeling is that people who choose not to develop a creative path as a writer or artist which, by its very nature is most usually a solitary affair, do not understand - maybe do not care to - that not everything is achieved by being outwardly busy amongst lots of other busy people. And if you are engaged in creative endeavours it's also not uncommon to feel that the muse might, at a moment's notice, pack his or her bags and leave, never to be heard from again.

It's hardly a  new notion but one which, from time to time, bears restating I think.