the art of running without pictures

one sunday morning last july my friend anna came over for brunch and on a whim we decided to work up an appetite by going for a run. the last time i had run was 7 years earlier and even then i lacked conviction. that sunday morning in july i was out of shape, but we continued to meet up for conversation and runs around haggerston park.

haggerston park was created in 1956 on the site of derelict housing, an old tile factory and gas works. something about the park feels slightly older though, and i always assumed it was laid out in the 1930's. the area of the park i ran in is surrounded by a wall, which gives it an intimate and timeless feel. the people who come to the park seem to have a purpose, they are there to exercise, walk their dogs and occasionally to shoot up. there is less of the sauntering that goes on in nearby london fields.

summer drew to a close, anna left london and i was still running only 2 or 3 rounds of the park at a time. then came along my friend flip, who works for the nhs (that beautiful thing the tory government is trying to disassemble). flip is fit, she runs effortlessly and although she managed to build up her routine without it she recommended the nhs couch to 5k podcast.

the podcast does exactly what it says on the box: it takes you from your couch to running 5k or 30 minutes continuously. someone called laura talks you through every podcast, accompanied by the best soundtrack the nhs could buy. laura's voice is soothing and calm and without her i may not be running now.

haggerston park started getting small and soon flip, laura and i found ourselves running around london fields. london fields' claim to fame is its mention in the song being a dickhead's cool, and although there are still plenty of dickheads there, if you're nimble enough they are easily avoided. however when it comes to parks and running size does matter and since finishing the nhs podcasts i have graduated to victoria park.

victoria park was created in the 1840's after 30,000 people petitioned queen victoria for a park in the area. the park was supposed to increase the quality of life of the local working class population. to call myself working-class would be a stretch, but a loop of the park is about 6km, and the effect on the quality of my life is larger still. the increase in my lung capacity has been accompanied by an expansion of the space i have to think in.

and after listening to 9 weeks of nhs classics perhaps the biggest reward is to run to your own playlists. my current list looks something like this:

• the seed - the roots
• i saw her standing there - the beatles
• my sharona - the knack
• where is love - eldridge holmes (featuring the lyrics: here i am, but where is love?)
• e-pro - beck
• kom in de cockpit - spinvis
• this charming man - the smiths
• don't mess with my man - irma thomas
• warsaw - joy division
• i need a dollar - aloe blacc
• paarse overall - het klein orkest
• via con me - paolo conte
• wolf like me - tv on the radio
• isla de encanta - pixies
• i wanna be your man - the rolling stones
• lapdance featuring lee harvey - n.e.r.d.
• posters - jack & jeffrey lewis
• dom, lomp en famous - the opposites featuring diwa
• evil - interpol
• seven nation army - the white stripes

when i was very little my best friend's mothers played paolo conte. run, dance, eat; there is very little you cannot do to his voice.

bruno

the german based mexico born artist erika medina asked me to contribute a drawing to her thesis project 'many brunos'. she invited people from around the world to interpret a character called bruno, a detailed description of whom she provided. if you are in need of distraction from failed new year's resolutions, or if you need to be newly inspired to keep one, why not spend some time with the many faces of bruno.

beauty

last week i walked past a car. a bmw, it's engine running, a man behind its wheel, head tilted back, eyes closed, mouth ajar. i peered through the window and saw the gentle rising and falling of his chest; alive.

since 2004 i have tried to spend a bit of time in new york every year. and every year i try to visit the american museum of natural history there. although the entire museum is full of delectations the akeley hall of african mammals is part of what draws me. the diorama's are startling; they make it that much easier to agree to pretend the animals in them are somehow alive in death. mr akeley did his best.

half a floor up however just behind the mezzanine overlooking mr akeley's work there is a small corner dedicated to american or maybe new york state mammals and birds. suddenly gone are the beautifully painted backgrounds, no more skins stretched over anatomical casts shaped just so you're not quite sure what stage of life or death you're looking at.

nowhere has the term 'stuffed animal' been more thoroughly done justice. the birds in this forgotten corner of the museum look as if modelled on those in anders nilsen's 'big questions'. however nilsen animates birds, these animals are dead, and they will not pretend otherwise. and you are alive and looking at them. somehow the matter of fact manner of their display makes them look all the more vulnerable. there is an exhibit simply titled 'carnivores', but these beasts harbour no blood-thirst. they're tired and are waiting to catch their breath. i made a drawing of them for a comic.

whilst working for an artist i did some taxidermy on insects. relaxing their limbs and then pinning them into positions they normally would only ever have held for a fraction of a second. if a leg snapped off it could be superglued into place.

the amnh research library has put their photography collection online. the exhibition preparation is a particular treat, no superglueing there. and no need for further elaborations, just look.

although better in print, you can find some of hiroshi sugimoto's interpretations of the amnh dioramas here.

and if what people do to dead animals still interests you after all of the above here's a great article my friends mary and kramer wrote and photographed for last exit magazine.

enjoy.

feeling aimless?

feeling a little aimless? not sure who you see when you look in the mirror?

come give your life some meaning today by protesting the proposed government cuts to higher education. go here or here for more information.

i am a slow cyclist, but yesterday i got stuck behind a cyclist even more laid-back than myself. a big man, wearing a business suit and a black woollen cap on a black bike was slowing me down. efforts to overtake him were in vain as he aimlessly veered from right to left and back again. at long last we were both stopped by traffic lights. moving up alongside him i glanced over and realised who i was waiting next to. it was boris.*

'morning, boris!' i said, 'morning' said he with a sad look in his eye. and as i cycled off it struck me that boris doesn't really want to be london mayor. it's a respectable job, but what boris really wants is an allotment, a glass of wine and to vote green.

* boris johnson, london's conservative mayor

site cite

just to let you know i have finally finished my website, with the kind help of hin chua and the feedback from friends whose opinions i respect (not that i keep any other kind).

a selection of my work is on there, some of which i feel a little ambivalent about, but we all need some skeletons in our closets to keep us running towards the light.

i don't always manage to work on my stories consistently, a lot of brooding and mulching and passing of time goes on. and it is necessary to create a rhythm, some times that means drawing every day for an hour before work, other times it means every sunday for as long as the local coffee shop will have me. i don't know what it'll be now, maybe straight after school for as long as i can muster. whatever the rhythm slowly everything reveals itself. above is one of the images i've been drawing for the story i am currently trying to figure out.

business

who hasn't been busy lately? i worked six day weeks from mid july till last week. both my waking and my dreaming life were consumed by my source of income.

since this week i am studying 5 days a week and working one. doing a post graduate diploma in (paper) conservation at camberwell college of art. today is a self study day, and i finally have a moment to write about some of the other things that have been and are going on.

firstly: the whores of mensa launch party, which was held at my flat on thursday 9 september. ellen lindner took care of every conceivable bit of organisation from booze to bogroll and of course the first copies of 'whores of mensa 5'. i didn't count (it's impolite) but i estimate we were graced by the presence of 50 or more able and less able bodies, and as far as i could tell they all had a good time. thank you all for coming along. and ellen, another big thank you for all of your hard work!

exhibition view

what's next? a chicks on comics exhibition in buenos aires! it opens tomorrow and features guest appearances by ole otero, ale lunik, camila torre notari, daniela kantor, ernancita, elene, julieta arroquy, keki, maría alcobre, ol díaz, sophia pankenier and tita.

the beginning and the end

the inimitable ellen lindner has been labouring on the latest issue of 'whores of mensa'. the theme of which is 'parties'. to make sure this anthology sees the light she is asking people (that includes you!) to pledge any amount of money you can spare here at kickstarter.com. please go have a sneak peek at the new issue and pledge a dollar or two or ten or twenty-five. the issue will feature stories by lots of great artists as well as a 5-pager by yours truly.

unfinished page 1 'found'

my contribution is a story chronicling an encounter i had last summer on the streets of london.

the drawing style i chose is quite simple, i couldn't really draw it any other way. less straightforward and more time consuming was the end of the story.
using mainly stories based on true events i usually know how my stories end. the points of a story can some times be harder to figure out, but in this case they were relatively clear to me too.

studies for 'found'

what troubled me was finding the right pace and carrying this through consistently. i decided to use a map as the lay out for the story and this limited me to 5 pages. as it turned out i could have used an extra page..or two. initially i solved this problem by upping the pace from slow to high in the last page and cramming a lot of information into the running commentary. an obvious mistake.

there was no time to alter the format, so i had to edit the ending itself. because the story is based on true events this meant using a bit more artistic licence than i am used to. i had to re-examine what events were important and which were less so. some elements could fit into dialogue but other information still had to be conveyed through commentary. i ended up taking out a lot of detail which was important to me, but which i realised the reader could live without and material which told the reader more about me than it did about the story.

it isn't yet possible for me to tell whether i managed to make it work. get your hands on an issue of 'whores of mensa 5' when it comes out at the end of the month and maybe you can tell me.