The Self-Isolation Residency 16th may 2020: Day 48

'The Distance of the Moon', Italo Calvino.

Today I decided to return to a slightly different project, it’s something I’ve been considering for a while, I’ve even made other sketches in the past. I’m going back to it today for 2 reasons, the first is that I wanted a change and as it’s my residency its up to me what I do! But the second reason does have greater relevance to the blog as it addresses a specific aspect of the way I and indeed most artists make work; and that is the notion of inspiration.
 
In some ways I am quite different from a lot of other artist as my practice covers a wide number of disciplines; most artists tend to stick, loosely, to one area, painting, sculpture, print making etc. I on the other hand, and as I’m sure you’ve already realised work within a wide field within the visual arts. Not only does this free me to respond to inspiration in many ways, it also frees me to draw that inspiration form a wide variety of different stimuli. Often my work references art itself as its subject, but I like to think that I can draw inspiration from just about any aspect of the world. An area that I am very interested in but have seldom had the chance to explore previously is for want of a better word, ‘illustration’. No, there must be a better work, but this will suffice until I think of it. By illustration I mean it in its most literal term; visually illustrating a written medium.
 
It has to be said that I am a voracious reader and I read from a wide range of subjects. If I have a preference it is for what for what might be considered somewhat ‘surreal’ literature, particularly work by the predominately French Oulipo group. These were writers who generally gave themselves, ‘restraints’ in their writing technique to produce fresh approaches to the genre. Perhaps the best known, and certainly my two favourite members of the group were Georges Perec and Italo Calvino. And its to a Calvino short story that I go tonight. ‘The Distance of the Moon’ is one of my favourite short stories by Calvino, it’s actually one of his ‘Cosmicomics’, which I’d highly recommend you read, which is his main collection of short stories. Unlike seemingly similar collections of writings by other authors these all are linked, and it is that link that gives the collection its unique charm. ‘The Distance of the Moon’ is also available in the Penguin Modern Series with a couple other Cosmicomics for just £1 including delivery, so if you want a taste of his writing without an initial expense, I would also recommend this.
All of the above said I’m not going to go into detail about the story itself , you should read that for yourself, other than to say that the wonderful and unique imagery has need in my head for quite some time and now at last I have some time to explore it illustratively. It creates an image of a time when it was possible to travel to the moon by arcane means and reminds me of HG Wells ‘The First Man in the Moon’ and the wonderful film ‘The Mouse on the Moon, humorous and surreal, or do I have to call it steam-punk now? Anyway, as you can probably tell this is a work in progress, from initial sketches to a development drawing and then to a variant idea that I will probably pursue next. Watch this space for more developments!