The Climb

In case you didn't know, I am a MASSIVE 'A Song of Ice and Fire' fan, and I also love the Game of Thrones TV series. The last episode was so good, I watched it three times in one day.
(This post contains book spoilers, so don't continue reading if you're only watching the show!)

I'm not sure whether it was the cinematography or the fact that they'd made up so many scenes that weren't in the book (which got me all excited because I didn't know for sure what was coming) but somehow, they really managed to capture me. There have been grander action scenes (Blackwater, Dracarys), way more epic (Theon's speech and Ser Rodrik's beheading at the end of season 2) or tearful moments (Catelyn makes me cry like a little baby-- so does the end of the Blackwater ep with Tywin saving the day) but there was a beautiful balance and calmness in 'The Climb' that I think some of the previous eps were lacking. The individual scenes seemed to be much longer, which gave a lot more depth to the characters, and moments like the opening sequence between Sam and Gilly in my opinion were beautifully directed and no filler material at all.

The Theon/Reek story arc in book 5 is one of my favourites in the entire series, and I am so very much agreeing with the casting of Iwan Rheon who's absolutely wicked as Ramsay! In the books, the Bastard of Bolton is this nasty, homely guy I never had a clear image of in my head but Rheon's impersonation is almost cuddly-- a sadist child who cannot judge right from wrong, and torturing Theon is only a game to him. I read about a lot of fans being worried that Rheon may be too handsome and some people would forgive him the torture because they're attracted to him but instead of playing the sexy card, he's being a little boy throwing a very different kind of birthday party, with Theon being the "special guest". I absolutely love it!

Moreover, I even liked Littlefinger's voice-over at the end (yes, he does sound like he's coming down with strep throat, and he certainly is less subtle than in the books), and he had that really strong, creepy acting moment approaching Varys and giving his "chaos is a ladder" speech.

The Jon/Ygritte moment on top of the Wall was a little too cheesy for my taste but wow, did Melisandre drop a possible book spoiler about her and Arya meeting again?

Anyway, to me, this was a great GREAT episode, and I can't wait for the bear pit next week. (love Brienne and Jaime) Then I hear there's a bit of a break between ep 7 and 8, and it's almost time for the Red Wedding. Michelle Fairley's in it, so I'll definitely be crying my eyes out again!

Wednesday

I'm secretly working on a new PRISMA website to make up for all the projects I had to postpone due to some of our artists going into inactive mode and me having to look for replacements. We're planning to send a Moleskine sketchbook from artist to artist (huge trip around the world) and have each of us fill a couple of pages, then return the book to me once it's full and auction it off for charity. The problem is just that the Moleskine's already been sitting on my desk for months now ready to be shipped off, but there've been so many changes in our line-up that I wasn't able to include a final address list with the package. Now I'm still looking for one new artist to join us and make us 30 again but ach, it's taking forever. And I've got some more things planned that had to be postponed too, so I thought I'd do something nice for the group to keep everyone in a good mood.

The website's starting to look real lovely—I've totally fucked up the code at some point but Tom Bagshaw was there to save the day (as usual), and JAW Cooper's designing a kick-ass crystal logo for us, so besides the huge amount of content I've still got to add to the site, I'm really loving it.

Another highlight this week was that I sold my new painting "They took from me the white flame" to what seems like an interesting client from Canada. I've probably been on the internet for too long to still get excited about surprise offers (as an artist, you have SO many people contact you about sales or commissions or other kinds of opportunities, and a lot of these people you will never hear from again) but this particular buyer is working as a successful photographer and likes to promote and showcase artists in his large studio space. He's particularly interested in PRISMA and works with influential clients that may want to help promote us. I'm really intrigued and excited to see if this turns into a proper collaboration at some point.

On the downside, my terrible jaw and trigeminal nerve pains are back. I have an excellent physical therapist specialised in CMD who made my burning tooth ache and nerve pains go away but now I'm waiting for a new prescription from my dentist, and in the meantime, all the problems have come back. My jaw joint is damaged and I'm worried I'll be having these cruel chronic face pains forever. Can't eat properly and I'm way too tense to draw, trying to distract myself with html code and thumbnail images and the question of "Who will I be inviting to PRISMA next?"

Saturday

After my second failed attempt at maintaining a blog featuring my art and—even more absurd—having me actually talk about it, I will now be keeping this as a bit of a Kaspian Shore and probably PRISMA Collective diary, featuring all the latest art world gossip you've never wanted to hear.

Maintaining an interesting blog isn't easy—managing a group of 30 artists even less so. Me being overly enthusiastic and critical at times probably doesn't make it better.
My collective has been together for a little more than one and a half years now, and sometimes I feel like I missed the turning point when PRISMA transitioned from a chaotic group of crazy talent into a slightly chaotic kind of business. With a large group of people come so many different personalities and attitudes towards work and the close bond I am trying to establish, especially if you keep in mind the fact that we started out with no actual set of guidelines or any type of framework that would give everyone an idea of how in- and extensive this whole project would one day become. Could I travel back in time with a sackful of all the experience I made within these past one and a half years and start over again—hell, I would do it!

The internet is a curious thing, offering us endless opportunities to get in touch with other people, and it certainly helps to promote art that nobody would ever get to see if you came from a small town in the countryside like me. The downside, however, is that people vanish as quickly as they appear, and it can be a crazy amount of work trying to keep communication alive. I have been abandoned by internet "friends" a couple of times, and I have abandoned others myself, which is a nasty thing to do. Now, personal relationships, they come and go—people share emotionally intense times with each other and then they part, we mourn and pick up the pieces and eventually move on. The fickle and impulsive dropout I am, however, in charge of a business, of a group of self-determined, well-respected artists who have been around much longer than this collective's founder—oh, it is always a struggle.

Communication is the keyword here—communicating as an individual, communicating as a group leader, communicating as an artist and as part of a community—keeping everything and everyone together with a passion and much ambition, I sometimes lose track of what my ambitions are and what my passion was for.
One ambition from the beginning has been to hold together our original lineup for as long as possible, which has proven to become more and more difficult considering our different schedules and personal circumstances in life anyway. Making unpopular decisions, replacing one artist for another, realising I've made mistakes—I guess I am longing for a bit of harmony, conformity even, after these troubling times of changes and falling apart.
When you fall in love, you go through a period of excitement and beautiful carefreeness before the monotony of everyday life sets in and you will be forced to reposition yourself. My infatuation with PRISMA lasted a few months and now I am trying to make this relationship work through hard times, which means deconstruction and reconstruction and saying goodbye in order to figure out where this ship is headed.