Sky lightens
Black to blue
To greys
Clouded
My mind spins
Thoughts orbit
Won’t stay still
Words babble
Muddle,
Tired and befuddled
Where is sleep?
Dawn
Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown
I'm an artist based at the Spode factory site in Stoke on Trent. I paint, draw and create digital art. Contact me at mallabandbrown@aol.com
A better day
I went out in the car today. Only to a post office to send some documents off and get some shopping. The postmaster asked me what was in the envelope that was addressed to “the bereavement team”. When I said a copy of hubbys will and death certificate he was instantly sympathetic.
As a sign we might be living in the matrix, while I had been waiting in the queue I had spotted a box of cuppa soups that I like. After I’d handed over my letter I turned round to pick up the soup… Where was it. I stood for two or three minutes but could no longer see it. A glitch in the matrix? All the other boxes of soup I had spied were also missing. Perhaps I had dreamt it.
Then I went into a shop and got a cornish pasty and a chocolate brownie for tea. I noticed that the woman who served me had a runny nose and touched it with her hand before picking up the brownie. I got home washed my hands, microwaved the pasty, washed my hands, microwaved the brownie, washed my hands. I think I might have been overcautious but I’d rather be safe than sorry.
Give peace a chance
If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?
If a search engine can’t find an image of a dove of peace what chance have we got? There were pictures of a woman with sun tan lotion under her eyes? A sunset, clouds, a possible white wing with feathers. I guess I should do my own version but it’s late and I just wanted to write this.
Symbological images are important. An image of a white dove is, I would guess, almost universally understood as meaning peace. White doves are released at sporting events. They are clean and innocent looking (why don’t they use black doves too?), in some ways it could be stereotyping white to equal good? But I’m not seeking to answer that question here.
What we need is not the symbol, but the actuality, where are the people with the moral strength to say enough is enough. Oppression must end, fairness must reign, understanding must come to the fore, eventually instead of collateral damage and bloody mayhem..war must end. We must give peace a chance.
Four weddings and a funeral.
I’ve just watched this film for the first time in about 20 years. In turn comedic, poignant, rude, surprising and life affirming
There is a poem by W H Auden in it “stop all the clocks”, so sad and yet to the point. I felt myself starting to cry again. But it helped.
It’s a film from the early 1990’s and has a strong cast of actors including Hugh Grant as the main star. It follows him through the marriages of his friends and perhaps himself. And the death of a close friend.
If you’ve never watched it I think you will probably enjoy it.
Now
Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?
The past is behind me, I cannot change it. I want to, but it’s twisted up like knots or knitting. Tangled threads that tie everything in place. Nothing can escape again, so I say let it be. Don’t get caught in it’s net and be held back by the past.
The future is out of control without a time machine. Each step of the day splits and shatters into a miriad of gleaming shards. Each action reflects against the next and distorts the future more and more, until the never ending possibilities are too mixed up to see clearly.
So I prefer now. I grip it tightly and try to hang on, like holding a tiger by its tail as it thrashes about. I try and control it as much as I can, I never know if it will slip my grasp and fall apart. But I try.
Catching up #bandofsketchers
This is to a recent prompt for #bandofsketchers. Wine. I need to keep my brain and creativity going so drawing an image seems like the thing to do. This was drawn on the Sketchbook app using a symmetry tool.
Wet paw prints!
Cats! They are sometimes sweet, sometimes bonkers. One of mine seems to think he’s an otter! He’s just come upstairs purring gloriously and left wet paw prints next to me as I was sitting on the edge of the bed. A purraow and now he’s washing his paws. Reminds me of a quote from Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood…. Before you let the Sun in make sure it’s wiped it’s feet!
Cygnet into Swan
The ugly duckling hides in the reeds, brown feathers gradually lost, snow white feathers uncovered. Soon it will be a majestic Swan.
Photo from a walk in 2020, Westport lake in Stoke on Trent.
Low pressure
Storm “Henk”, passed over us yesterday. The fifth named storm of the current season I think? Rivers in the South and West have flooded including the Severn at Shrewsbury, a river at Tenby in South West Wales, the river at Worcester and many other places. I think they said there were about 150 flood alerts this time including one in South Wales so severe that there was a danger to life.
Rain and strong winds had made it so dark outside that there were leaden skies for most of the day, and night came early as the sunlight was blocked by the piled up blackened clouds.
We had the new forecast last night. The low is drifting away and high pressure and colder drier weather is on its way. Thank goodness for that. But the weather is getting wilder. Is this a sign of global warming?
Polytechnic, School of Radiography, University
What colleges have you attended?
Most of my studies were arts based. But I genuinely think that having an art degree helped me with understanding the imaging techniques of Radiography. I only just passed that course though because I wasn’t very good at Physics.
Life might have been different if I had persued a career as a radiographer. I was very good at positioning patients and producing accurate images. But I got into trouble once because I took an xray of someone and the lecturer said it would be impossible to take it without moving the patient. BUT I had used a very mobile xray machine that you could position at any angle or height. I got the supervising Radiographer to confirm I had done it correctly. Even so I was marked down and given a minimum pass mark for the film. That’s when I fell out of love with that particular course.
Mallaband-Brown 