ONE SELF PORTRAIT EVERY DAY in 2020 : 136

Sue Heap, Jim Bunker and I used to meet up once every couple of months in London to go to an exhibition and have coffee and a chat afterwards. Sue would often cancel last minute but say that she would owe us a pizza.

On one of these Art Club get togethers we went to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and I eventually ended up owning this object.

As an experiment, I have emailed Sue and Jim today (15 May 2020) asking them to tell me what they remember about this occasion. I will then carry on writing what I remember and as soon as they both answer me I will add their versions of the facts even if they contradict my story or, worse, if they confirm them completely. Hopefully this will happen today but if their responses come later, as long as it in 2020 I will take a photo of myself holding the art object in question and post it.

So. here goes.

I can’t remember who suggested we go to the Summer Exhibition but I had never been to it before or since. I do remember that we were in playful moods; we talked about entering it the following year and working out what kind of subject matter would sell best (judging by the red dots). Cats and dogs were the most popular and sold best in 2009. We also thought that an edition would be a good idea so that to keep prices low but make some money “If we screen print cute dogs and cats and make an edition of 1000 and sell them for £20 each, we might do quite well”
I was surprised to see works by artists I knew personally. I am not sure I would how I would feel if I had work (apart from cats and dogs prints of course) in the Summer Exhibition.

There were some works that were quite cheap. I remember this work costing around £20 and it was an edition of a few hundreds. It was like a notebook with reproductions of the artist’s paintings inside. It was in a glass cabinet with the book slightly open so that you could see that they were oil paintings but you couldn’t see enough to see what the paintings were like.
I thought it would be fun to make a partially blind purchase and decided to put Sue’s address as a delivery address. I can’t remember if I told Sue at the time that I was to have it sent to her address.

A few weeks later, Sue tells me that she received this strange book and that she thought it was quite shocking but not in a good way.
The next time we met, she gave the book back to me.

when I saw the content for the first time I saw what she meant. I don’t want to say more about it as it would be unfair to a serious artist but I would like to say that I was shocked too and I’m not easily shocked.

I put it in my cabinet of “art droppings” but made sure it was out of reach from my kids and forgot about it until today when searching for something for my photo of the day.

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This is Jim’s recollection:
I remember the day, and have a vague recollection of obscene artwork?
But, I can’t come up with anything useful for your project I’m afraid…maybe Sue can?

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Here is Sue’s recollection:
Sadly, I can’t find any reference to the ‘horrible’ sketch book in my 2009 diaries.

This is what I remember:
RA Summer Exhibition, Arts Club outing.
The walls were packed out with pictures and
metal sculptures on the floors.

We were making our way to the small paintings room.
The sketch books were in a glass case on a table
We all gazed into it and were taken aback when Dan bought one.
A blind purchase- a bold move.
I thought it had cost £50.00.
The pictures in the small paintings part of the show were mainly of dogs and cats.
I suggested we all submitted something the following year.
I remember some small Humphrey Ocean prints . They were street scenes.
I wanted to buy one. Tracey Emin etchings hung close to the ground.
We were all in high spirits and being ironically ‘ARTY’ or was that just me ?

I reckon I kept the sketch book for a year or more .
Why was I given the book ?
It stayed put on my bookshelf , I’d even thought about throwing it out.
Then I’d remember I was simply a caretaker .
After a few years I handed it back to Artist Daniel Devlin at one of our ART club sessions.
We all laughed at the contents and the garish, horrible
sketches. And it must have been the first time you and Jim had seen the contents.
But why was that ?
Dan, I don’t recall sending it to you.
If I come across the handover meeting in my diaries I’ll report in.

I hope this is helpful.

I love the idea of your project.
I AM STILL ALIVE

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I AM STILL ALIVE

16.5.2020.

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