June 2020:
Lockdown feels like a thing of the past. The traffic surges back to normal. Nature’s chirrups and peeps subsumed under the shudder of HGV tyres on crumbling British roads. I cannot deny feeling a sense of profound loss from those early weeks of the lockdown. Yes, things were dire with death tolls climbing hideously, but there was a real sense of a deep-breath and a grasping for something calmer among everyone who could take a bit of time to just. Pause.
Life is returning to how it was. But with more confusion than before (how is that possible?!) and an ugly overt self-centeredness. Deliberate misunderstanding of the goals of Black Lives Matter being just one of the pillars of the freaky society we are cultivating. It all got a bit much for a while but I am trying to inject a little more hope and whimsy into what I’m working on.
Chronic Neutrophilic Leukaemia
But first: A friend has been diagnosed with this incredibly rare form of cancer. She is probably patient 212 in the entire world (no joke) so I have pulled some work from the #artistsupportpledge in order to try and send some funds her way. Whether that is for research or just basic help to go and travel to specialists. The latter being unlikely as she now definitely cannot leave the house in these virulent times. I have chosen work from my High Ground Series as it came from thinking about personal struggles and injury. The paths we take literally and figuratively to try and work ourselves out. If you buy any pieces in that series from my shop then at least 80% of the sale cost will go to my friend’s needs. If you contact me directly we can circumvent some web host’s commission charges and even more goes to her. Reach out to my via Instagram @christopherjbooth if you want to do that.
Dark Mountain
‘Let go’, one of my large pen drawings from 2019, has been published in issue 17 of Dark Mountain.
I have been a fan of the Dark Mountain Project for several years now and so it’s a real honour to have a piece of my work published in their printed volume. Plus, it is wonderful to see my work published at all.
‘Let Go’, 2019, ink on paper - published in Dark Mountain Issue 17
Romney Marsh Project
I have continued delving into the Marsh with some long hikes and long meditations on what I’m discovering and learning. As a result there are four new pieces of work in progress. One heavily impasto oil painting that has already consumed over 1 litre of Titanium White, two maps being altered, and a metal box full of soil I pilfered from the Marsh under a Strawberry Moon. Watch this space for updates.
I also found that the old cliche of walking and poetry is real. On one 22 mile walk I noticed my brain responding to the rhythm of the plod by putting words into poems. It started with place names, like an invocation for the Marsh. I got home and a few days later remembered that I needed to write these poems down. They aren’t much good but they are:
Whimsy
I wanted to bring along the joy that walking gives me. It is a deeply satisfying pursuit and I feel that doesn’t necessarily come across in my artwork. Undeniably half-baked, amateur, naive, but I enjoyed them all the same. Here’s one of my shit poems to finish off this month’s news and to usher in what will hopefully be an uplifting, rewarding, productive, and also somehow peaceful July.
Hexden, Caldecot, Swallowtail, Tore
Rainbow Petty, Wainway Wall
Snargate, Brenzett, Snave and Stone
Dengemarsh, Lower Wick, Kentpen, Appledore
Promises by grid-bound concoction
Suckered onto wide marshes
Footpath, byway, my way clear
Consuming deep draughts of the potion
Exploration is a funny thing
When the names are only that
Nodes, synapses, on a map
There’s no defence ‘gainst ordnance hexing
— The Spell, Chris Booth, 2020