Badaude

Poets wear gray...

and other quiet colours.

There are a lot of them at QI tonight on Hallowe'en (OK this post is not only late but not in chronological order).

They're here to see poet Sharon Olds on a rare visit to England.

Sharon is quiet. Here she is, dressed in dark pinstripes and miniature baseball boots, her face hidden by a curtain of silver hair.

 

She takes up so little space. When she speaks, it's quiet and slow but suddenly she's bigger than anyone else in the room.

She chooses words carefully and relishes each one. (Especially the dirty ones. She slows down in the middle of one poem to say, 'asshole... asshole... asshole,' very deliberately and with great sensual relish.)

She's also incredibly funny. If you read her poems to yourself, it will make you weep; if she reads them to you, it will make you howl (with laughter - alternating with weeping). Overall its a very emotional experience; all over the room I can see internal struggles going on between the two.

Afterwards, courtesy of my attachment to British poet, Kate Clanchy, whose work is also essential reading for anyone who's lived, loved or had children (and not only because I get name-checked twice in 'Newborn') I get to have dinner with Sharon afterwards.

She's the sort of person who can elicit three stupid but revealing remarks from me before I manage to get out one that makes sense. Eventually I'm able to string a sentence together about how much I love her poems about the intense and conflicting emotions involved in bringing up children. She says she thinks these things are hard-wired in women, more than in men, and are part of all mothers' experience. I'll try to remember that the next time I feel like breaking my three-year-old son's arm...

Eventually she has to leave to get the last train back to London - but the dessert she ordered hasn't come yet - at least five people leap up to do something - she's still sitting there, quiet, her legs neatly folded back under her chair, her hands in her lap - then John Mitchinson jogs back from the kitchens, brandishing a white china pudding dish covered with an napkin - (everyone is delighted - we've done someting for Sharon!) - and she's finally able to leave, taking with her a pot of QI sticky toffee pudding for the journey.

Saw Music

I seem to have spent half of last week framing pictures for my exhibition and the other half drinking in smoke-filled bars (and the other half looking after children; that's three halves, isn't it?).

My private view went well. Thanks especially to people who bicycled across Oxford in the rain to get there. And really especially to anyone who bought anything. I spent the rest of the night drinking quite a lot and, half a week later, I'm still sitting in pyjamas and a beret recovering from it all.

My other night out was Slacker's Night last Wednesday at the QI club which coincided with half-price champagne night in the bar.

After an appropriately delayed start and suitable inability to work a projector, Idlers Tom Hodgekinson, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, Dan Kieran and Chris Yates talked about their new books and the melancholically beautiful John Moore filled the air with the  beautifully melancholic notes of the saw...

(If you want to try this at home, you'll need a REALLY strong thumb).

Private View Invitation!

If you've been looking at my illustration work on www.badaude.typepad.com, you might be interested in a new exhibition of my collage work (mostly illustrations for The Guardian Newspaper, many of which can be found on www.walshworks.org.uk).

The exhibition will be taking place at the Mary Oglivie Gallery in Oxford from 11th November - 19th December.

The gallery's part of Saint Anne's College (see the website www.stannes.ox.ac.uk for directions) and is open every day.

I'm delighted to invite all my lovely readers to my Private View on Friday 10th November from 6-8pm. If you're in Oxford, and would like to join me for some warm-ish white wine, please click on 'email me' and I'll send you a print-outable Private View invitation.

See you there!

Drinking and drawing...

I frequently drink and draw, and I thought I'd post some of my sketches made, directly onto the menu, at the QI club tasting for the new wine list last week.

Usually I'm a little reluctant to show sketches as they can look quite messy. They're very much practical studies for a more finished picture. I'm really trying to get to know the shape of a face or object - and this can sometimes involve drawing someone's nose from several angles in the same sketch.

Still, as the wine flowed, my sketches became more fluent and, right at the bottom of this post (as we worked our way down the menu towards the finer reds), you'll be able to see a sheet where I picked up my pen and, to my surprise, was able to make a drawing that was completely fluid, clear, expressive, easy and un-scribbly.

Double click on each illustration to enlarge, then hovver over the bottom right corner and click on the icon to bring the picture back to its original size - big enough to read some of the wine-talk that was going on...

Tip from the sommelier, "Buy South-Western French!"

I'll definately be ordering the Pic Saint Loup and, when I can afford it, the Moulin des Dames Blanc.