130 - Fig. 1 🎨
or, How I Bought My First Piece Of Art.
Figure 1. - These are cancer cells. The stars. Or the universe. That part of you lying awake at night knowing. That this is all there is, and when you leave, it's gone. Sun spots dancing in your eyes in the sound of your heart, beating hard. Joyeux. The happiness.
It's called Fig 1. - by a friend of mine, Goodnight Thief.
I met him during my clerkship (he was my 'buddy'), and was amazed by the fact that this guy could do both art and lawyering at the same time (negotiating a day off a week to do so as a lawyer).
Back at that time, I thought it meant that maybe I could do both creative stuff, and work at the same time. Which...I guess it's tuned out that way (since I'm writing this newsletter!) but could always do with more.
Regardless, I wanted to talk more about the piece in this post!
I saw Fig 1. in late 2018/early 2019 - the old days, before we knew what 'doomscrolling' meant and 'omicron' was a Greek letter I hadn't heard of, I had happy posts like this on my Instagram - art, design, advice - and when I saw it I thought 'hey that's pretty cool'. I enjoyed the patterns (I like abstract, minimalist stuff) but more importantly, I liked the caption that accompanied it.
Two key messages that spoke to me instantly:
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The way that you perceive things is reality, not what it objectively is
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Some day, you'll be gone - make the most of your brief spark of life
I've lived with 1. for a long time - a lesson from Mum, which was about the fact that things aren't just as they seem - you can change how you experience something just by changing how you perceive it. If you're doing your chores, and you hate them, of course it'll be a bad experience! But if you're doing them and you've got some music going, you're enjoying the sense of accomplishment and everything being organised - well isn't that much more fun?
The second part I understood intellectually, but didn't appreciate the full meaning until later.
These are cancer cells. The stars. Or the universe. That part of you lying awake at night knowing. That this is all there is, and when you leave, it's gone.
In early 2020, my grandma passed away, and I remember spending a lot of time thinking about death and what it means. I'm in a much better place now, but only because of the time it took to process the grief and how I could rationalise just...ending, with the sheer joy of existence.
And then, of course, the pandemic hit. So there was even more time to dwell on mortality, the frailty of life, and the privilege of having a job where I sit on my butt at home. Time, that scarcest of resource, slips away frivolously - so how can you use that time in the best way possible?
That second part - making the most of life - was definitely something I wanted to do more of. The meaning of the piece made me really want to own it, display it, and have a constant reminder of those two messages that I feel are core to my values.
Sun spots dancing in your eyes in the sound of your heart, beating hard.
Late last year, Goodnight Thief posted a charitable lucky draw of some sort, where he was offering to send Fig 1. to a lucky person in the world - the entry of which was donating to a local cancer charity of your choice. I can't remember if I entered or not, but I definitely didn't win it. I do remember thinking that it was an incredibly kind gesture, and something that reminded me of my grandma (who had bowel cancer). A bit disappointed, but I knew the logistics would be hard anyway (all the way from the UK!).
As fate would have it, a month later, he mentioned that he was doing a limited run of prints that I could get, and I jumped at the chance.
It's been a long road to get to Australia but I finally have it, and have framed it, and it's everything I hoped it would be.
I am usually a stingy sonuvabitch and I probably won't be buying that much art in the future but...this one felt like it had a lot of meaning to me, and it was a friend that had created it. What else is money for in our brief spark of life?
Joyeux. The happiness
Chat soon :)
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✔️Real Life Recommendations
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Farmer's Daughters - a fancy place to eat in the city based on serving foods that have been sourced from Gippsland - there are a number of floors, with a casual eating area on the bottom floor, a dining area in the second floor, and a bar up top. It was a very nice, very filling set menu, with a bread course that was SO delish (my highlight!). The waitstaff unfortunately mixed up our still/sparkling water to...well, not great effect. Otherwise though, the food was fantastic and the vibe was chill. Going to the bar afterwards was relaxing and on a hot day just hit the spot well.
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Simone Giertz - aka Queen of Shitty Robots. I'm not sure if everyone knows about her, but she's a Swedish maker who got famous for making really shitty robots (like a wake-up machine, a hand clapper, a hair washer robot) which were very funny to watch. She's now upgraded to creating, well, still kinda weird things, but still in a fun way (e.g. a machine that pats you on the shoulder and says 'proud of you, son' or recently making a stained glass window for an attic door, or making a Tesla into a truck aka Truckla). I was rewatching some of her stuff during some more stressful periods recently and it helped a lot! Highly recommended to trawl through her archive :)
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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The Neurologist who hacked his brain - and almost lost his mind - a wacked up story of a dude who was essentially trying to create Neuralink but invasively into his own brain. He nearly fucked his whole life trying to do this...
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Modern smartphone lenses - this was a really cool Twitter find - what the camera lens of an iPhone 7 looked like! Imagine what an iPhone 13's lens looks like?!!
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I'm common as muck and spent £150 in a Michelin star restaurant to see if it was worth it - a super fun story of a person understanding why fine dining is so expensive...and fine!