Sunday, January 31

Lucky Dip Dinners

After my last post I thought about how I've often gone to countries not speaking the language at all and have simply pointed at parts of the text on the menu in the hope that I was choosing things that would end up resembling a meal.



This made me go and dig out the sketchbooks where I'd made notes in an attempt to try and learn from these experiences, a way to remember the words for 'cat giblets' or 'face of pig' for future reference. The page above was made during a typical 'point-and-shoot' dining experience. This was in Budapest in 1992, I had just got a degree in colouring-in from Brighton. Not knowing what else to do, I managed to get a grant to spend a term at the Hungarian College of Art and Design in Budapest, they didn't make me very welcome and refused to let me use the school facilities so I spent my days in the city's cheap eating and drinking places filling sketch books and taking photos. I dug them out this weekend and fell down a rabbit-hole of memories:





At the end of my residency, to fulfill the terms of my contract I had to put on an exhibition of my work, so I invited people to come to my room and look at these sketchbooks, one of the college tutors edited an arty magazine called Magyar Narancs and several months after I had left town he put a little feature in the magazine, a photocopy was posted to me along with a translation of the text to the left of the image


An Engish girl, taughened(sic) by the salty air of Brighton, drifted into the Trabant-smoked streets of Budapest. She sat into the low-flying bakelite, tiled Budapest; she was flying as a black butterfly between the battered houses. Her drawings, like the magazine illustrations of the thirties, are travel drafts about the magic. Metaphors, jotted down on mustard-stained grease-proof paper; cooked-sausage-sketches. Espresso-bar tables, Dobos-cake crumbs on them, are sweeped into the sketchbook.

31 comments:

  1. Now we're getting somewhere (I think).

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  2. I loved this glimpse into your post-student days, you person of the salty air in Brighton. Just think - you were a student there before it became the trendiest place in the UK. I knew you were a trend-setter.

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  3. Ah, nice to met somebody who's been to art college who actually can draw :-)

    I was going to also say that your Hungarian tutor should have stuck to the drawing, but his textual descriptions are actually staying in my head, so hats off to him.

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  4. "a degree in colouring in" hahaha... that's fabulous!

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  5. I only did two out of four years of my "colouring in" course. I didn't get my degree, not even half of one. Your sketchbooks look delightful; I'd like to flip (gently) through them. I'm actually one of the ones of whom Gadjo Dilo speaks! Ha ha!

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  6. I like your drawings. I always wince at the thought of Budapest. A friend and I were passing through some years ago. We could only find a double bed room. I'd been drinking. Rolled over in night. Believed person next to me was someone I'd been talking to earlier. A woman. Not a Burridge footballer. Had some explaining to do.

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  7. Fabulous. I love your drawings. Ever thought of picking up the pencil again?

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  8. I love the review! I would be enchanted if it was about me; it's like poetry.
    Sx

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  9. That's a funny yellow toy over on the right there

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  10. it's a beautiful review. the whole post took me somewhere else. what talent you have.

    do you miss those days?

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  11. I need some of that Brighton air to taughen me up. So I can fly like a black butterfly. Between the battered houses.

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  12. Still got crumbs in the pages now? I love your sketches too. Have a blueberry swirl cheesecake in the oven - thinking of going back and getting that fig tart recipe. Will need to put my jeans on to talk myself out of it ;-)

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  13. PS - have a sneak around the CWH before you go and see if you can find any other toys lying around ;-) Noticed one of your sketches was of a 'lots left' plate - guess you didn't try and point for a recipe to that one... Skippy not bouncing around much at the moment. Do Kangaroos hibernate?

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  14. Bill
    Now we're getting somewhere
    Where's that then - should we get off soon?

    Ms Fancy - Trendsetter! - I always feel that I'm the one who leaves a party just before it gets going.

    That is an interesting yellow toy isn't it?

    Gadjo - We did enforced drawing, but I always liked that part of AS.

    I loved those very Hungarian words

    Nursey - intrigued to hear how you'd describe your qualifications.

    Ms Eyeball - I only did two out of four years of my "colouring in" course.
    I think it's quite common to fail to see the point after a while.

    Mr Sanderson - I can imagine that waking up being cuddling by your team mate could be a difficult one to deal with.

    Mrs Mum - I do pick up a pencil sometimes - they're quite good for eyebrows and lips.

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  15. Scarlet - I loved that review too! it is like poetry

    Frenchie - just thought that I've been tod that it's a toy for a dog, isn't your place littered with that sort of thing?

    Ms Weight - Thank you - I'm thrilled to have transported you, they were great days but there have been plenty of thers since.

    Mr Red - Flying between battered houses - he does make me sound like a witch, not that I mind that.

    Glory - would battered house and chips replace croutons?

    Ange - I've always had crumbs in my pages.
    Blueberry swirl cheesecake - I'll be right over!

    Do Kangaroos hibernate?
    No he'll be stuck somewhere, get a sharp stick and see if you can dig him out.

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  16. "travel drafts about the magic" - poetry!

    Looking back at old sketchbooks is a rush, isn't it?

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  17. "low flying bakelite..." Obtuse piece but I love the phrasing.

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  18. Great sketches and a marvellous review. Not sure I see you as a black butterfly, but each to their own. Cabbage white possibly.

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  19. I'm qualified to raise homosexuals Miss Lulu. Would you like that recipe?

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  20. Kevin - Looking back at old sketchbooks is great, but it makes me sorry that I don't do it so much now.

    BB - I love the phrasing too.

    Madame DeFarge - I like the idea of being a black butterfly, a sort of low rent Deborah Kerr

    Nursemyra - and where do you raise homosexuals Nursey? - I imagine a luxuriant hothouse full of orchids and jacuzzis

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  21. I only lasted 4 months in art school... but after dropping out I just went to work doing illustration (which I still do). It's so odd that even after 20 years, when I look through the sketches I made in school, all the memories are still there... suddenly I can remember each face.

    I think a short story in that Hungarian prose would be lovely... go heavy on the bakelite and butterflies!

    :0)

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  22. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  23. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  24. I love your drawings and the review is very cool. I am an old art school refugee myself and I still enjoy flipping through my old sketchbooks now and again...rabbit hole indeed.

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  25. I love these wonderful sketch books! Thank you for sharing them.

    PS: The news reader did not notify me about this post, hence the tardy comment.

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  26. I want a pair of those wondrous waitress boots

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  27. Anonymous - I kept journals alongside the sketchbooks - but they're rubbish. It's the drawings, even the bad ones that take me right back there.

    I shall try a short story in that Hungarian prose, maybe we all should and post them.


    FJ/art school refugee and photographer extraordinaire - there are so many ways to relive the past - no?

    xl - always happy to share (as long as it's not the last bit of cake)

    commenting holidays are allowed you know!

    Ms Ruby Rose I want a pair of those wondrous waitress boots
    I believe they are sold in most East European countries - get thee hence!

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  28. I lived in Budapest for a while, and not only were the people rude, the food was horrible. What exactly did you learn to make there?

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  29. Hi Angie, welcome to you -

    Yes to both of those - almost.

    Foodwise - I got lots of really bad things, some edible things and then discovered the joys of salted goose and pigeon casserole with dumplings chocolate and almond pancakes.

    People wise - lots of very rude people, but the nice ones made up the balance

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  30. a little more information to add to our vision of you...

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