POSTER & ALAN

The old studios were more like a village, a series of rooms running off a very long corridor. Alan walked towards the music. In the very last room a woman was singing. He stood in the door frame, watching her until the music ended and he left. At the time Alan was teaching, his weeks divided between the Royal College of Art and his studio, on teaching days he’d stay at the Chelsea Arts Club. This particular night was very busy, the bar was four people deep, a woman craned her neck in front of him. ‘Aren’t you the woman who was singing last week?’. ‘Aren’t you the man who was staring?’, she replied. After dinner and several glasses of wine he walked her home. They passed her car, Alan noticed a ‘Vote Arts’ sticker on it’s window, in a gentle attempt to impress he said he admired the work of the design company responsible. Celia indignantly told him it was her design. When they reached her flat, she informed him that he would not be coming in. He later learnt that this was simply because she was too embarrassed by the messy state of her place. When, three years later, they moved in together their new house was in a less salubrious area. Her car was broken into, Alan rescued the ‘Vote Arts’ sticker, shards of the broken window still clinging to it. This lies safely in a drawer somewhere – so safely that, for now, Alan can’t find it. This is the poster designed by his love Celia who died two years ago.

07 Oct 2012