Art and Rain

Rain. The kind that soaks into your skin and turns Dundee into Venice. It was the kind of rain that sends people scurrying for the warmth and shelter of shops. I'd joked just hours earlier to Fiona, our course tutor that rain was your friend, not your enemy and that she should hug the rain, but it was hard to be a rain lover whilst trudging back down the Perth road (or should that be wading down Perth road?) In torrential downpours. I'd just come from Duncan of Jordanstone (an art school attached to Dundee Uni) where Fiona thought that it would be a good idea to look at the D of J masters degree degree show, for reasons of, and I quote, "Seeing what stage you'll be at in five years time!". We were not impressed, I can tell you. It was, and I mean absolute no offense to any of the artists, arty farty. There was, however, one installation I liked, which was entitled "Off the wall" which was a video in which a guy spray painted a drawing of a huge hulking humanoid figure on a wall, and the figure came alive and started chasing the guy. It was an excellent mash of live action and animation which was so familiar to me, after having done the animation course last year. The artist was there, faithfully manning his installation, and you could order t-shirts and mini models of the Graffiti guy, so I ordered a t-shirt. And, after all that, art still confuses me!