Nothing Comes Of Nothing, Speak Again

http://www.agracefuldeath.blogspot.com/ for the latest on the A Graceful Death exhibition coming to London in Feb
http://www.antoniarolls.co.uk/ for my website
antonia.rolls1@btinternet.com to email me

Nothing Comes Of Nothing, Speak Again

King Lear said something approximating this when speaking to his daughter Cordelia. In that context, in Shakespeare's play "King Lear", he had many lessons to learn and discernement and humilty were amongst them. Pretty awful way to go about learning them though. Enough about Shakespeare, and on to the Real Stuff. Me.

We all know that if we do nothing, then nothing will happen. Thats obvious (sort of) and we all know this with a merry little smirk. But, if we want something - a result of some sort - and we are very busy, and still nothing happens, what then? Some points.

• We are busy doing the wrong things. So are we doing nothing? Yes and no. We are doing much about something else, but nothing about our desired result
• If we are busy about the Result we want, do we automatically get it? Ha. Maybe yes, maybe no.
• Is it possible that the Nothing that comes from Nothing is indescriminate? If we give the Nothing (because we have not started to do anything about it yet. Once we do something, it is no longer a Nothing etc etc)a name and call it, for example, A Graceful Death at Saatchis, and work flat out at getting it and do not succeed, that is a Nothing that has come from Something.
• Or whatever you do, if you are doing Something, then Something will happen. Like the Saatchi A Graceful Death thought - the exhibition doesn't happen, but lots of other things do. In that case, the Nothing is indescriminate. In that Something does happen if you don't do Nothing.
• Shall we all have a couple of paracetamol and a lie down?

I am asking all this because I am as A Ship Tossed At Sea at the moment. I have many things to do and many things to think of. I have said this before, that I am an Artist yes, but I am many other things too such as a Mother, Partner, Friend, Taxi, Cook, Chief Bottle Washer, Hamster on a Wheel etc. But what to do first and what to do anyway about anything?

Here are some facts.

• I have an exhibition I want to show the world (A Graceful Death) on at Clarissa De Wend Fenton's house at the end of Feb. Fab. Please come. See the weblink at the top of this page.
• I go to Birmingham to take A Graceful Death to be displayed over Easter. This will include giving a talk on the paintings, which I welcome. Tomorrow I am going to Birmingham for the day to look over the venue and talk Business.
• A few shops in Chichester are happy to take my greetings cards. Thank you, nice shops.
• I am putting up adverts for Art For The Nervous around the place and look forward to making people probably over confident and hitting the other extreme.
• I am going to paint pets. I can paint animals and will be looking into doing that as a fun way of earning a penny.
• At the Birmingham exhibition I will be showing my Jesus on the Tubes too, and have designed a brochure about me me me, that may or may not excite someone into commissioning a Jesus on the Tube painting and immortalising themselves pictorially next to the Son of God. And why not. With a Jesus on the Tube, you can have a Jesus of your choice too. A custom made one, to suit your family. Oh this is a whole new blog, I think. Is Jesus Custom Made To Suit Your Family? Discuss.
• I have many fleeting ideas that are a wonder to see floating around my head. One of them involves the Wonderful Eileen and I going to USA and doing a book on Tea. Other ideas involve Garden Gnomes.

So now. I just looked up this Nothing coming from Nothing quote and it seems that "Nothing comes from nothing" is a quote from Parmenides, a Greek Philosopher. What Lear says to Cordelia is "Nothing will come of nothing: speak again". Both are kind of appropriate for today's blog.

The thing is, I am not doing nothing, and something is happening. But do I want the things coming because of me doing something? Or am I longing for another something and am doing Nothing about getting that? Ha. That is it. Displacement Somethings Create Nothing About The Thing You Really Want. So nothing does come of nothing if there is a focus one is avoiding, and one is not focussing, and something always comes of something, even if it is fiddling around avoiding other issues.

I expect we all need fifteen minutes off now in a darkened room with Whale Music and a box of chocolates. All this Something and Nothing stuff makes me hungry.