Tomorrow I am on the bill of TEDxJohannesburg. It’s a huge honour, and I’m thrilled to be part of such an interesting, eclectic group of speakers. My session is late in the afternoon, at 4.30pm, and I’m talking about genes and memes as well as painting live on stage and showing slides of my work.
My lipstick painting is completely integral to the talk, which is all about how it started, and the role of Twitter in catalysing my ability to connect with others. Here is the chicken that features in it, together with several practice paintings of eggs:
Here’s the same chicken at the rehearsal space at JoziHub today. I watched Molly Black rehearse – she’s a documentary filmmaker and even watching her today I was inspired. If you want to feel better about South Africa, look out for her talk. Just before I was due to rehearse, I had to do an interview eith Eusebius McKaiser on PowerFM about all the books I haven’t been able to finish. I had to stay on hold for quite a while, and while I waited in the bathroom (the quietest place I could find) I practised my twerking. Hey, it burns calories.
After my rehearsal, I walked around the corner to Black Khaki, a small advertising agency, to give my friend Aldri Van Jaarsveld more paintings to put up. The space is amazing – a perfect canvas to set off the crazy colours in my work.
This evening I headed over to The Forum in Bryanston to get a sense of the space. Because I have so many props, and painting complicates my presentation, it’s important that I’m well-prepared.
Tonight, I’ll time myself one more time and then head off to bed. It’s been a very long day and I am tired. Here’s to tomorrow and a day crammed with inspiration. After it’s all done and dusted, I’ll upload the test of my talk here along with some of the illustrations, and put the slides on Slideshare.