Yesterday it was Umph’s wake, it was sombre but everyone was glad to see each other as it is difficult for everyone to be in the same place at the same time. I saw some old friends and spoke to some people I may have met decades ago. I was there for a few hours and got a lift back to Surry Hills. It was very sudden with Umph to pass away, nobody expected it, he was healthy and was in a great point in life with good support. He had overcome a lot of obstacles over the years and from what I heard and had never been happier the past year. It is hard to believe really and may take a while to sink in. I am tired today and need a good rest. Tomorrow I have nothing on and I think I need to have a bit of a health kick. I am not doing too badly but have been a little loose with food. What I really need is some rest and quiet.

It is the next day and I got a good rest, had a call from a friend in jail who told me his mother died recently. It seems death is pretty common at the moment, people are tired from the pandemic and the elderly are at higher risk currently. There are a lot of different ideas floating around why the death rate is so high. My Tai Ji trainer said people’s T cells are low from the past three years and that leaves people susceptible. I know I need to rest and take things slow, I think I need to eat out less but overall I feel pretty good and I just have to keep my cat company. As far as art making goes I am taking it slow at the moment. Over the years it is hard because people don’t get excited about what I do. It is art for me mostly but I would have thought people would find some interest in it. I am still actively making work but I don’t feel like sharing it as much on socials. The problem with socials is you think of what you want to say and plan it out but really your audience is mobile and out in the world. They can’t really take it in or understand your point. It is like you are talking to people randomly dispersed in many situations when in your head when you devise a post you think the people are simply waiting around for the show to start. The channel is split through variable levels of attention mostly. You can’t expect people to get it, or understand what you are saying. The cheapest price as Chuck D says is paying attention. 

I was thinking about in 2003 I would make slick aerosol work based on digital art that I made. I did a graffiti piece based on a digital work a year or so ago but it wasn’t slick. It was messy and intertwined with levels of line work. It is the same principle but I was showing a different side to digital work. I love work by Felipe Pantone but I don’t see the world in the same way as him. My visual world is skewed and disorganised it is obscured like if you were in a jungle with no compass. Every shadow could be something, there is potential, not for being organised but for knowing the jungle exists and you have to leave it as it is. That way it can nourish its inhabitants and even the greater world. An A to B logic doesn’t have to be applied to everything although that is how the world is going. Just look at the Amazon forests for example. A to B to extinction. My message is leave things as they are, let them happen without having to conform to certain logic and patterns. It looks good to follow a certain logic but it isn’t good in the long run. It isn’t popular but it is necessary. There is always a threat in the shadows, or so we think, that can be true but there are threats potentially anywhere.