Writing – Page 4 – John B Ledger

What will your life be like in three years? When I was a few months off being 18, 9/11 happened. Since that point (with the exception of a few points in the 2010s where I thought the tide was turning towards a better world), I’ve admittedly worried about the future around me being worse, andContinue reading

What’s the biggest risk you’d like to take — but haven’t been able to? Love.

What major historical events do you remember? 9/11. I mean, who doesn’t? But, being as I was soon to be 18, a symbolic marker point from transition from childhood to adulthood, 9/11 became that marker point. Everything before seemed secure. If not rose-tinted, then at least buffeted by a secure horizon of endless ok-ness inContinue reading

Saying goodbye to old works

I guess interpreting a work of art is still one of the few spaces in contemporary life where we are forced to confront the void of comprehension that exists between ourselves and the Other. As much as Social Media is encouraging ‘creatives’ to be production lines for our own identity, which is built upon anContinue reading “Saying goodbye to old works”

‘NEW BRUTALITY’ (2024, mixed media on paper)

This is ‘NEW BRUTALITY’ Sorry for being trapped in the 20th century dealing with the 21st. And sorry for being unable to make any sense whatsoever – locked as we are inside the maddening house, where a ‘just do it’ Californian approach to life has left us all burnt out people on a burning planet. DeepContinue reading “‘NEW BRUTALITY’ (2024, mixed media on paper)”

I admit, I have more emotions in common with the contemporary ‘fash’ than the contemporary Left. Hear me out…

I’ll begin audaciously by saying that nobody destroying communities up and down England over the past week likes themselves. To be even more audacious, I’d say that every one of them secretly hates themselves. I know the signs. I know the politics of self-hate: a reality of hopelessness where only vengeance and bullying bring joy.Continue reading “I admit, I have more emotions in common with the contemporary ‘fash’ than the contemporary Left. Hear me out…”

My ‘little’ tree by the side of the M1

I’ve put a lot of work in at my studio a lot of the last 4 days, and I am very pleased with the way things are going from the perspective of the artwork. However, the ache from neglecting other aspects of my life has been creeping in. These are aspects of my life thatContinue reading “My ‘little’ tree by the side of the M1”

Describe your most memorable vacation. 1993 was a year that was crucial in forming my sense of futures and pasts. 9 years old, my dad had become a teacher, an historic unprecedented feat in family history. We now had a car and my parents decided that they no longer wanted to go to my grandparents’Continue reading

Pressing the 1997 button

All memory is worked upon backwards – they are private sculptures that are never completed. Today when I think back to spring/summer 1997 the ambient backdrop is the b-sides from Radiohead’s OK Computer, which I didn’t actually hear until the 2000s. I heard bits of OK Computer and The Prodigy’s The Fat of the LandContinue reading “Pressing the 1997 button”

First protest vote as tragedy, the second as farce.

‘Sleepy John’ has had his eyes off the ball. I’m not as sharp as I was in the 2010s (although, who is?) Wounded and winded by the personal and political over the last 5 years, improvements to my general quality of life as I entered middle age became the only real priority. The mental gymnasticsContinue reading “First protest vote as tragedy, the second as farce.”