When my two sons were little we had a favourite book (well
there were many), which I soon knew off by heart because I had to read it so
often. It concerned a ball of string and it went something like this…
“ I had a little string it was no good at all. I went to
look for more string to make a string ball.
….”
….. and ended with the words, “with a big ball of string I
can do anything, anything, anything, anything at all.”
To two small boys crazy about making and inventing and with
a keen sense for mischief and the absurd its popularity is not surprising.
In the book our young friend “borrowed” string from his
mother’s and father’s possessions and made a big ball of string which he then
used to make a contraption. It was based on a bike, but had lots of
attachments. Unfortunately when our friend rode his bike he crashed it into a
tree and wrecked it. The next day he woke up with a cold and his mother said he
had to stay in bed. Not deterred he then used the remains of his “big ball of
string” to make all sorts of levers and pulleys so that he could access all of
the things in his room without getting out of bed. It was very Heath Robinson.
I too have something of a fascination with string and have
incorporated it into a number of paintings, attaching it to the canvas with
impasto gel and then painting the canvas with oils. It can be a very sticky and
messy business, especially when there are very small pieces of string involved
but despite the work I like the result as it is more three dimensional than a
traditional painting.
Examples of my "string" paintings displayed are from the Flowing and the Falling series.
