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

Last night

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Last night I thought I heard movement in the garden, a bit of noise, something rattled. I didn’t know what to do so I opened the back door. I think the noise was coming from a neighbouring property but just to be on the safe side I made a noise to make them aware someone had noticed. Then I did something strange. My phone was on charge but I pretended I was speaking to the police! I had a one sided conversation and left gaps as if I was listening to their response. It went something like this…..

Hello

Police please?

Hello, I’m ringing from…..

I can hear movement and think there is someone in my garden.

Yes it’s been happening for a few minutes.

You’ve got someone in the area?

Thank you

Ten minutes? I’ll lock the door and wait..

It was a bit like improvised acting. I don’t know why I did it. I wasn’t going to go outside, and I wanted to make anyone out there aware they might be caught. I feel a bit daft now. Was I right to do it?

Voting

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Do you vote in political elections?

Yes I vote, voting is important. If people abstain or spoil their ballots they leave the opportunity for a different party to be elected. In one byelection this week someone won by 6 votes, overcoming the other party’s majority of 15000 votes.

Unfortunately Reform, a right-wing Trump style party won several council seats and a MP position and a few mayoral posts.

Reform is a bit like the republicans in America, they want to set up a Doge department to cut back spending in the UK, make people pay for health insurance (we already pay national insurance to fund the NHS). Our health care is currently free at point of contact, they would take that away.

I’m obviously telling you how I feel, I don’t know how my readers will react. I feel very strongly that people should vote, it lends stability to the country. I also want to honour suffragettes who fought for a woman’s right to vote.

Mystery Play update

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A previous play

At today’s rehearsal we didn’t go to the end of the play because we ran out of time. We were blocking scenes to get some idea of how to stage it. We think it will take about an hour of running time. We need to agree about staging it and what props and scenery we need. The makers who help design the sets looked at how to create the tree costumes, sorting out a wig for the witch, and have got a broom and papier mache stars, we need a cave with a canvas flap to show a boulder being rolled in front of it. Also whether people will come on and off the stage area or more sensibly to share half of the acting area as the witches cottage and the other half as the wood and cave. We definitely need people. One of the people was good as the witch and another did a good Greta (the witches assistant, I’m  not sure if those people will be final characters we still need to look at who is available and happy to do it. I helped by playing a woodsman that was turned into a tree  because of trespassing in the witches wood and also a girl who is helping to look for names of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent. I’ve got my fingers crossed that we can literally get our act together!

Nostalgia, schooltime

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The world was simple once. No one had smartphones. If you wanted to find something out you either looked it up in a book at home, in the library or looked in an encyclopedia at school. I’m remembering my school now.

Lessons were many and varied. We had a choice of Art, Biology, Human Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, History, Pottery, Woodwork, Domestic science, Technical drawing, Sewing (can’t remember what it was called), Geography, French, German, Spanish, Music, Sport science, English language, English Literature. At “O” level or CSE.

These were the days when Comprehensive schools had recently been created and our school had been amalgamated from two other senior schools. I found out later that our area was well thought of and the money used gave us standards equivalent to London and Edinburgh! We had an orchestra and other clubs. Computing was just coming in but I never used one. We still had exercise books and biros and pencils.

The school had a swimming bath, sports hall, science and art blocks and a music block later on.

We were just normal council house kids, we were really lucky to have a wonderful school. I remember my time there with mostly joy.

Disappointed

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My sister was going to visit this weekend but she’s got to work. I was really looking forward to seeing her. We would have bought some plants for the yard and I would have twisted her arm to help me put them in the pots round there.

I feel like I’ve abandoned my garden. I can’t do as much as I used to, I need to be stable and not risk falling over. Friends are busy and I have got into a situation where I don’t want to ask for help. I’m as disappointed in myself as anything else. I’m losing my ability to want to keep going.

Esther’s prompt, write about a fictional world you would like to visit.

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Discworld

This is what I wrote :

The world I would like to visit is the Discworld of Terry Pratchett. I would really like to meet Granny Weatherwax and her fellow witches.

I think the idea of an unpolluted, magical world, with tiny dragons that singe you slightly when they sneeze is great.

When there is a real figure of Death with a horse called Binky. The stories weave around using ideas from Earth but putting a spin on them.

Flat Earthers would possibly love the idea that the Discworld is flat and rests on the back of four gargantuan Elephants who in turn stand on the back of the giant world turtle, A’tuin, who’s paddle like legs steer him through interstellar space.

Wood can be sentient, there are pines that count their age so when you chop them down the number of years they have been standing appears in their heart wood. A magically infused trunk will chase you on hundreds of little legs and swallow evil people up.

Rincewind the Wizard is at the centre of many stories and his friend Twoflower follows along and adds to the chaos. Yes I would love to be there!

Digital drawing of a woman

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Playing with Artrage, it’s been a while, I wanted to create the impression of a stained glass window. I like drawing digitally and I used a stylus to try and control my shakiness. I like this app because it had various pens and the ability to make the colours metallic. I paid for it, but not much and I’ve used it for several years .

Horsing about

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I only had an hour at art group today so I messed about and came up with this. It’s a semi abstract painting of a horse/zebra. I was concentrating on a limited pallette, green, burnt umber, a lighter brown, silver  and white. First I painted the horse and highlighted it in green, then I added the gnarly tree. Finally I added textures, including the striped zebra idea. I think it has a vague medieval feeling. I’m calling it finished. Acrylic on canvas.

Don’t trust the results!

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I frequently get games popping up in adverts on my phone and sometimes they say they will measure your IQ?

I just played a game where you ‘unscrew’ bolts that hold a building together. You have to rotate the building in 3d to find the bolts, and also you have to chose the correct colours to remove so that they slot into three matching coloured holes at the top of the page.

I started and kept going to the end, when the counter for IQ got over 120 I was surprised, but as I removed the screws it kept increasing (it didn’t get more difficult). When it finally got to 600 at the end of the game my scepticism peaked!

Silly game, just a test of hand eye coordination.