2011

2011. Spring cleaning the studio (and Mac of old pix) over the weekend my mind started wandering back over the last year. Blimey what a year! Its been a busy time in the Hauff household with ups and downs along the way. A few highlights and musings, mainly work orientated although intermingled with some personal stuff. Pix attached and in no particular chronological order....

• I've drawn a lot more freely in my sketchbook, especially in the latter part of the year. Enjoyed the process and will continue in 2012. Felt like I'd rediscovered how to simply draw and create new work for pleasure as opposed for a deadline. A good feeling.
• Enjoyed exploring Adobe Illustrator thoroughly this last year, using it more often rather than relying mainly on Photoshop. The benefits having flowed into my work in spades.
• My little boy started school. Wow, how did that happen....?!?!?
• Blocked drains. Twice. And the subsequent clear up. I never knew I could swear that much. Holy Mother of God. Enough said.
• My little girl played her first musical solo piece to a school audience. Dad beamed !
• I sold my trusty (very) old VW Golf. I'm a bit of a VW fan and even though its been an occasionally troublesome beast, to say it was hard to let it go was an understatement. Its gone to a good home (I hope).
• We went camping this year. The kids LOVED it.
• I finally got to work for the New York Times. An ambition achieved.
• My kids make me smile and laugh more and more, but sometimes I wish they came with a 'How To' manual.
• I revamped my studio a little. Small changes, but now a better working space.
• DIY. A fascinating steep learning curve as at the start of the year (between commissions) I tackled a lot of house decoration to keep the costs down in these austere times of ongoing recession. Cuts and bruises? Check. Lots of swearing? Check. Relief when it was time to take a break and get back to creating work? Check! Lows were rebuilding a sewer manhole and drains. Sheesh. Highs were seeing my kids faces light up at their new bedrooms. Wholly worthwhile.
• My trusty Mac G5 tower hard drive fried itself into oblivion with zero warning. LaCie to the rescue.
• The Vets unprofessional but funny reaction to our big burly tom cat as we removed him the travel box for a health check: " Look at the size of that "…!
• The untimely passing of Steve Jobs. My favourite Jobs quote on Design: "When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know its there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through".
• Winter storm watching over the Christmas holidays where we drove up the coast to watch the huge waves braking over the sea defences. Spectacular.
• The joy at finally fathoming out how to set up a NAS drive for iTunes in my studio and getting it to work properly. Punch the air.
• Now that the kids are back at school and Su has gone back to work, Its just too quiet in the house and studio. I don't like it. Time to adjust again. At least Podcasts and iTunes make for working company.
• My best buddy and I got disorientated on a 'challenging' ridge of a mountain when a heavy bank of mist descended, reducing visibility to a couple of meters. Thank goodness for a map and compass. Very scary at the time.
• More drip paintings with my daughter. She loves throwing paint around and it gives me the greatest of pleasure to assist her.
• Running 10K for the first time was a big achievement. Started running again about fourteen months ago and steadily upped my distance each week.
• Doodling on a friends iPad. Wow. It won't replace a sketchbook, acrylic paint, Photoshop, Illustrator and my Wacom tablet just yet, but the potential is tantalisingly evident.
• Seeing Anthony Gormley's Another Place on Crosby Beach for the first time. There at sunset, the place was deserted, the tide all the way out and the weather conditions were still, making for a rather eerie atmosphere to be walking around the sculptures.