Here, a wild rover of the art world, John takes two
rambles round Cloudland, starting from this portrait of Treacle, in search of a key to understanding something of the links
between an artwork and its viewer. In doing so, John
also explores the borders between the 'real' and the 'virtual' and suggests a way to unite them.
Two barely-guided walks, then: one is the way of the hare and one the way of the tortoise.
The saying, "a picture paints a thousand words", is a vast under-estimation,
so it is going to seem a longer wondering wander in words than in pictures, so, if you decide to walk in words with him around
Betty Treacle's landscape, prepare well. Take a pee (you know how you leave it to the last minute when you are in the
'virtual') and make some sandwiches and tea to keep you going while you ramble with John: out there in the material
world (Stoneland as John calls it here) your meat-tube body will crave its attentions.
There is an altogether different guided tour to take, no less serious and no
less fun, through the imaginary gallery of Miss Gill, where John is exhibiting some new pictures of Betty Treacle and the
people from her village. He has painted these in the style of the Unknown Artist in an attempt to 'get under his or her
skin', copying them from an imaginary collection of paintings once owned by a Miss Gill. You can find out about Miss Gill
and who she really was on the text route. Pictures in the
gallery are a seemingly quicker perambulation but the words hike will suggest that this is an illusion.
You will find that answers - or at least better questions - may lie between
the two routes and to choose one is not to deny the other as you can come back and do it later. Anyway, the wordier route
has pictures and the pictorial route has titles behind the images if you click them. Ultimately, your journey is your own.
So, the choice of path is presently yours...
