opening (free writing)

(18th May 2017)I know Imogen has given us the prompt opening but I really want to write about ladders and aprons. I love utility stuff – aprons, ladders, tools, spoons and I am always drawn to these things in any context, I did a project about nails a few years ago and the other day a student called April talked me through her own nail project, we discussed the importance and ubiquity of this object that we take for granted, holding things up, holding things in place, I am thinking about fences and hinges and springs – which makes me think of how nice it must be to be called April, denoting new beginnings, everything stretching out into the world, back to wooden gates swinging open, children running out into the weather, people returning and closing it behind them at the end of the day, squeaking, rusting, the smell of new layers, ever changing colours as new people take ownership of the gate along with the house it protects, and I am reminded of Dad’s Stick by John Smith, which had a layer of every paint his dad had ever used encasing it, John Smith sliced through it like a tree trunk to reveal all the years of his father’s life, and thinking about this and my conversation with April, introducing this work to her, I guess in a roundabout way I have written about openings...