8.10 am. To the School and onto the Old College. In Aberystwyth, the spate of brutal soft-toy murders persists unabated:

9.00 am. Second year painting tutorials. Some principles and observations:

1. When a train driver enters a tunnel, they don’t know what they’ll meet and there’s no guarantee that they’ll see the other side. Similarly, we must pass through dark passages on our journey through the study of art in order to reach our destination; that involves an unnerving risk — an act of faith.
2. Woe unto the student who’s entirely confident of success, that they’re doing the right thing, and equal to any exigency.
3. To create, we must be willing to destroy even our best works.
4. A concept without craft, like craft without a concept, is limited in its potential for depth and development.

One earnest student wrote and asked: ‘You often speak of work being self-indulgent. What exactly do you mean by that?’. I replied: ‘Self-indulgent: where the prime (and sometimes sole) function of the work is auto-gratification. In such a case, there’s little regard for communication or a sense of audience perception on the part of the artist. They’re also rarely interested in improving, or in the works of other artists. You aren’t one of them.’

‘LITTER-LOUT ART PROFESSOR EXPOSED!’:

‘Students express shock and dismay as advocate of tidy workspaces is found cluttering his own with a pasty wrapper.’ ‘He always seemed so quiet; kept himself to himself’, said one second year student. ‘They ought to lock him away for life, and throw away the key’, spoke a senior porter. Harvey is also helping with police with their inquiries into the recent soft-toy killings in the area.

3.30 pm. Shamefaced, I return to basecamp …

… and two further tutorials: one with a photography student who has very ably composed a sound accompaniment for a kinetic photograph; and another with a PhD Fine Art student.

7.00 pm. Catch-up time with the day’s admin and a finalization of a little teaching preparation. I want to get all the tedious, onerous, and complicated tasks off my desk before tomorrow. Friday is sacrosanct: for research.