BBC's Mock Turner Prize

For the last two years, the BBC has put on what it calls the Mock Turner Prize, at the same time that the real Turner Prize is chosen. Of course, they intend it as a tongue in cheek parody of the real Turner Prize, but nevertheless it turns up some genuine pieces of art. Take a look at the main page to see this year's finalists. I voted for this one, which rather put me in mind of my parasol piece.

Which reminds me, if you do a Google image search for "parasol", mine is the third result returned, which is kind of neat.

Word verification

I've turned on word verification for comments to Mr Porkpop, in order to avoid comment spam. Although I wasn't getting as much of it as some other people, I was getting enough that it was becoming annoying. So now, if you add a comment, you'll have to verify that you're a real person typing a real comment by typing in a string of random letters that are shown to you on the screen. Sorry about having to introduce this extra step, but it's become necessary.

Curse of the imagination

As the husband of a ceramicist, I can relate to the false expectations built up by the Curse of the Imagination, as described by Grayson Perry in this week's article in the Times. I don't think it's just limited to ceramicists, however. I know how disappointed I can feel if something that I imagine in my mind doesn't come out the way I intended on paper.