New paintings and regular art updates.
I was at Spode studios today selecting the images I want hung at my Retrospective exhibition. They are a colourful and eclectic mix. It should be up tomorrow. I’m having a closing evening on Friday when most of the work will be for sale. However a few works that are of my hubby and myself are staying with me.
I need one if those old fashioned ‘intermission’ films they used to show between films at a Saturday matinee at the cinema to relax my mind. Gentle music and the sight of a potters wheel twirling might help me to sleep. I’ve forgotten the various little strategies I use to try and fall asleep. Pain and discomfort have held my mind up like a theif of sleep. Haunting me in the night. A few, drowsy thoughts and I’m awake again, sometimes disturbed by a heartbeat out of turn or the patter of cats paws. I have things to do today and I didn’t want to be tired. 6am…..goodnight, I will try counting sheep
We just held, a celebration of my hubbys life. He was always interested in acting and theatrical performances so when my friends offered to greet guests at the start of the celebrations on stilts and in circus costumes I had to say yes. They stood outside and looked funny and magnificent. They stayed and enjoyed the rest of the evening. A group of us sang ‘always look on the bright side of life’. A good friend read a eulogy and showed slides and video of my husband. We had almost 200 photos of him on the hall walls. People read poems for him including one specially written and ‘do not go gentle into that dark night’ we had a harmonica playing and a friend singing and playing the banjo. There was a lovely buffet laid on by the hall.
People also wrote memories of him on cards so I could take them away. The plan is to create a memory book of the celebration. I took some of my portraits of him up to the hall.
All in all it was a fantastic evening and I was very pleased with how it went. I think my hubby would have appreciated the occasion. X
I’m finding old portraits
Portals to a previous time
Not photographic images
But paint on canvas
You made me smile
You made me laugh
And cry too
So I hold onto these
Small tokens of love
With all my strength.
X
From the Internet ‘Kintsugi, (literally gold seams) is a traditional repair method that takes the broken or chipped parts of cherished vessels, glues them back together with a Japanese lacquer, and paints the seams with gold or silver powder.’
I’ve taken that idea to create this possibly last portrait of my hubby. It’s called ‘Mend Him’, and it’s my wish to put him back together again. It’s a bit rough and ready, but it expresses my feeling of loss. I think it captures his tiredness as he got older… I started this a few months before he died.
I miss him so much and if I could I would mend him, turn back time, use any power available to restore him to his best. X
Ugh! Red sky this morning, wet and cold warning.
It’s March 1st, St David’s day, symbol the daffodil, saints day of Wales. I have a few uninspiring tete a tete narcissi daffodils at the front of the house but they look a bit sad and forlorn.
Today is the first day of Spring here. I hope it bucks it’s ideas up!
It brightened up in the afternoon, but there may be snow, showers then fog later. What fun.
In other news I’m plotting a joint exhibition with other friends later in the year. I’m hoping I might get some respite from the tablets I’ve started taking. You never know. I just want to feel better.
Do you enjoy your job?
I gave up work to look after my hubby and try and set up as an artist. Sadly circumstances mean that he is no longer here and I don’t have the possibility of keeping my artists studio.
I won’t stop painting though, creativity is my reason for living. Despite health issues I cannot give it up. So I suppose really I do have a job, but it’s very much part time. I will still accept commissions and do my best to produce quality art work. I hope I continue long into the future, drawing on these recent events to produce new art.
Some of the buildings on the old Spode works site continue to deteriorate while others next to them are being restored and reused.
My fear is that some, like this one, could literally crumble before they get any work on them.
Time moves on, plans have been made and then stopped because they did not fit in well with both the historical significance of Spode works and the surrounding town. The traffic management needs considering too. Meanwhile the buildings need protection and rebuilding.
Too many historical and unique buildings in the city of Stoke-on-Trent have disappeared recently. Destroyed because of disrepair or fire or vandalism. The industrial archeology of the city needs saving. Otherwise we will end up with warehouses or generic apartment buildings and lose our history.
Where Manchester used old Mills to create loft spaces and apartments, we seem hell bent on hollowing out our citys history.
Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.
When I left school all those years ago I remember feeling like I was falling off a cliff. Hard to change my life.
Everything had been about learning, getting up every day, going to classes, coming home, doing homework. Trying to make the switch to ‘real life’ was a shock. I knew the times I worked would be different, but I got a couple of part time jobs cleaning and waitressing so I was not free to enjoy weekends or evenings anymore. This got worse as I went to college in the following autumn so I was trying to fit in my college work and my jobs and trying to get some work life balance.
I managed the change in my life OK after a few months but strangely it was hard to say goodbye to. I was still with my family and friends. The next year I left home. That was the real shock to my system.
A helibore at Rode Hall.
I’ve just written a post about flowers in bloom on Esther Chiltons blog:
I visited Rode Hall in Staffordshire this weekend to see flowers in bloom. It was the annual Snowdrop Walk. It’s about a mile of paths around gardens and woods and along to a lake where thousands of Snowdrops of various species are in flower at this time of year.
We had to book a time slot to get a parking space because the ground is saturated after a very wet winter and there would not be enough space in the car park otherwise.
My friend and I had a lovely walk around the grounds. We were a bit disappointed because a lot of the snowdrops have already gone over (finished flowering), but there were other flowers in bloom including daffodils, helibores, cyclamen, camelia, and other flowers and shrubs. Flowers are blooming and Spring is on its way!
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