I got my Covid booster yesterday and decided to cut myself some slack – my intended essay on Utopias can wait. They ain’t going nowhere…

I was persuaded when work by Angela Smyth, an artist from Yorkshire, popped up in my inbox. I found both, ideas and implementation, truly charming. (Came right after the announcement that conceptual Jesse Darling had won the 2023 Turner Prize. Like art from two different planets. Not a value judgement, just my ongoing astonishment at the range that is out there.)

Here is the easy chair waiting for me:

Angela Smyth The Easy Chair

Here is the perfect cat, (don’t you agree M.?)

Angela Smyth A Great Head for Hats

Here is me some decades ago.

Angela Smyth Playing With Fire

And here is what I will be doing now, albeit in isolation.

Angela Smyth The Bubblegum Collective – brought together monthly to share a love of blowing bubbles.

Gum, anyone? You can listen and chew at the same time – here’s Traffic, a band also from the U.K. (Birmingham) that enchanted us half a century ago…. Man, I’m getting old.