Jeremy.

 Jeremy.

The ever so slightly crossed brows and straight back posture of the girl on the check-out counter betrayed her growing impatience as she shifted from side to side in her seat, scrutinizing the black rubber squeaky pig toy in her left hand, looking for a bar-code. Then, as an increasingly impatient queue of shoppers looked on, she raised her head for what she had to do next, and what she had to do next, not for the first time that morning, was to summon her assistant. Her assistant was:

“Jeremy”.

Her tone an almost indelicate balance between frustration and professional etiquette. The queue turned their heads as one, to see Jeremy emerge from behind the shelves in the middle of the shop store. He shuffled quickly towards them. Walking with any combination of both speed and elegance was not an easy task for Jeremy and, if under stress, not an option at all.

“There’s no tag on this one Jeremy”. She held up the offending item.

“No tag…” Jeremy spoke only a little faster than he could walk.

“That’s right, Jeremy, no tag. And I need a tag don’t I? So I can scan the bar code for the price”.

“Bar code for the price…” Jeremy repeated everything, not that he was seeking confirmation of what he heard, but so he could remember it.

“So, can you go and get me another one please? There are two sizes. This one’s the small. I think they’re next to the stationary.”

“Stationary”.

“There are pink ones and black ones”, offered a child in the queue, below counter level, visible only from the neck up. “This one’s black”, he added, wanting to be helpful, but at the same time cruelly wondering if Jeremy’s breathe might resemble that which the black tag-less squeaky pig exhaled when the checkout girl plumped it down in front of his face. Much like Jeremy exhaled his words.

After a short while Jeremy shuffled back into view, looking pleased with the result of his mission. But it was immediately apparent to the queue that he had picked up the wrong sized pig; a large sized black one. If he had chosen a small pink one everything would be okay. The price tag would have been the same. But he hadn’t. Jeremy clearly matched the price of items to their colour. Not their size. Standing in the queue that day, I really liked that. I don’t think the checkout girl shared my opinion.

All text copyright ian g craig.

Creative Collaboration.

 I’ve never either accepted commissions or chosen to do portraits of people I don’t know. For me, using a model is a process based on a level of collaboration rather than instruction. And the nice thing about collaborating with other creatives is it brings out different ideas, encouraging experimentation.

Above: “Under the Bridge” was both a joint venture and an experiment. Outsize masks were made in advance of taking photographs at Lady Bay Bridge, Nottingham, and also on a small pier beside Thoresby Lake. The painting is about how most of us can have two sides to our character.

Above: This large oil pastel drawing was originally intended as a study for a painting, but I thought I’d never capture again the spontaneity of the drawing. The collaboration involved a story-board  communication. I suggested poses via sketches, she provided images to work from. The result is one of my personal favourites.

  

 All text, pros, photos & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.