Arboretum

I thought the "Stand" cut-out looked a bit too boringly regular, so I merged it with elements from its close relative, Arboretum, in the hope of making something a bit more pleasing to the eye. I think this does work better. It wouldn't make such a good cut-out book, probably, but it's easy to forget that's not really the point. This was something that I was reminded of when, on impulse, I ordered a "print behind vinyl glass" of the original version from an excellent German-based printing setup called Whitewall, partly because they were having a sale (who isn't at the moment? It's vulture time... Hang in there, guys!), and partly because I just wanted to see if it really would work, presented that way. It's a handsome thing, no doubt, but – as a 40cm square slab of shiny vinyl – the intentional irony of its cut-outness takes a closer examination to be evident. First and foremost, it's a picture to mount on the wall.

We're having a change of scenery at our Bristol flat this week, which is always good, but particularly welcome after nearly six months at home, or skulking around the streets and supermarkets of just one suburb of Southampton. It's always quite a dramatic change, as the flat is in a block that stands on one side of the Avon Gorge, with an uninterrupted view across to the other, heavily wooded side. Even knowing that the busy A369 road lies just over the tree-lined horizon, you can easily imagine the view as virgin territory, inhabited by wolves and bears, as the uncrossable tidal river rises and falls twice a day in its long cradle of muddy rock, and the buzzards circle overhead. For some reason, this week I became fascinated by the clouds that pass along behind the trees, and began leaning out of the window to grab shots of them. With a bit more care, there's a nice panorama that could be constructed of the entire horizon. Maybe tomorrow.