New paintings and regular art updates.
You all seem to know this. . But what is pingback on WordPress and how do I share posts if I write something for a challenge?
I can use this site but there are various things that are either not simple, or not explained. I know a few people that have jojned then given up.
My e-mail box is generally full these days and though I try an read everything it’s sometimes hard to read 50 or 60 emails in a sitting x
Anyway please let me know what to do to ping back. Also can you share video here?
X
You know when you are bored when…You decide to take a photo of your empty glass…with your nose because you can’t hold the glass, your tablet and press the shutter on the screen at the same time.
Today consisted of sleeping in till late, cooking lunch, taking some rubbish down to the tip, going shopping, tidying up and reheating yesterdays left overs for our evening meal.
Some days are just boring.
The best thing about today? Hearing an abridged version of Jaws on Radio 4. Two and a half hours long, some wonderful descriptions in a frightening story, it was read out by a narrator rather than having a cast of characters. Brilliant.
But you say why are you bored? Why not do something? Basically because I get tired, and I get down. I don’t think I’m depressed exactly, just looking for my mojo to come back. Sometimes life is like that, especially when you start getting a bit older. The safety of the house is like a warm nest. A warm blanket , easier to snuggle down and ignore the world. …
And the world is wonky at the moment, the politics is bonkers, right wing politicians seem to be ascendant, poverty is increasing. Even the age that people die, which had been increasing in this country has suddenly seen a down turn. And don’t ask me about Brexit (if you have even heard if it) its not something I agree with and 52 percent of the population here voted for it…..climate change is happening, animals are becoming extinct……is it any wonder that as the ×÷=t hits the fan I just need a duvet day sometimes?
I remember as a child going on a march with my mother, I was only 5 or 6 so I can’t remember why, or what it was about. I remember seeing and hearing racism when I was a child and questioning it… now I hide away, turn my face away, look at stupid kitten videos instead! What changes us, what forces impinge on us to stop us caring as much as we did?
I want to be more caring about homelessness, unemployment, benefit cuts, modern day slavery, credit crunches, cuts to education and the NHS. Austerity, privatisation, plastic pollution, nuclear accidents, inflation, food banks, cuts in Police, increases in zero hours contracts.
It’s all too much. They call I compassion fatigue, I call it compassion exhaustion….
We need, all of us, to be more caring, for everyone else, not just ourselves. I’ve tried to help people in my job for years, it all got a bit too much.
So yes, maybe it’s not actual boredom, but an inability to focus because there is too much going on to deal with. Withdrawal from the outside world seems preferable at the moment.
X
Late last night I stared to write a little story about this woman I had drawn, it was called Charlis and it was about her rescuing her village from a flood using powers that she did not realise she had. It was not meant to be a superhero / comic type story, I was hoping it would be deeper than that.
I had got about half way through (it was only short) and was concentrating on the plot when my tablet ran out of battery power and closed on me. This morning the story has gone.
I find it difficult to write stories, to put myself in other people’s lives. Doing something like this is quite daunting, would it be too verbose? too convoluted? did it make sense, could I take people with me into the story?
I can’t remember half of what I had written, and I don’t want to inflict something on you that might not be any good.
So what should I do, recreate it, is it worth the hassle? I tend to write things spontaneously, without any planning. Late night writing when you are tired is not the best way of going about things. I don’t think I’m much of a writer, I don’t feel my words flow, I am just learning. At least I have age and some experience to fall back on.
I will ponder on this. …
We visited Middleport pottery in Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent today to see “weeping window” a memorial made of 11,000 ceramic poppies placed on a bottle oven in the pottery. The poppies are some of the ones that were on display previously at the Tower of London and have been travelling around the country for the last couple of years. You are supposed to book a visit but as the number of people going to see the display has reduced we were allowed in without booking. We had to park on a designated car park as the local streets have parking restrictions at the moment and you could get fined.
The poppies commemorate the worth anniversary of the 1st world war,”the war to end all wars” which sadly did not stop humans fighting over and over again as they have since our ancestors first fought many thousands of years ago. Many if the poppies were made in Stoke-on-Trent so its good to see them come home although there was a fight to get them.
The display of poppies cascade down the oven, spreading out on the ground, representing blood and the fallen soldiers that were killed in the war.
I drew the scene but had to slightly shorten the bottle kiln to fit it on the page. I also struggled to represent so many poppies. We then visited the rest of the pottery, including the steam engine although it was not working today. There was quite a crowd so I only sketched it briefly.
On our return to the car park there was a large poster with the poem by John McCrae written in 1915. I decided to draw my own version of a poppy to go along with it.
Middleport pottery is very interesting, there is a museum on site, plus artists and ceramicists with their own studios. The tea shop was very busy but we managed to get a table. There was also a display by students from clay college who are doing a two year full time course to learn the skills of pottery making before they are forgotten.
Although the weeping window display ends in mid September the pottery is well worth a visit. It’s surprising how much goes on round here!
Ever since I was burgled years ago I have been very sensitive to hearing sounds at night, especially when they should not be there. Hearing car doors open, or little thudding noises attract me towards the front door!
The neighbour bangs his windows shut late at night and that makes me jump, then the cats race round chasing each other, like a herd of elephants up and down the stairs….
But its the little subtle noises outside that get me, not the noise of someone using our wheelie bin to put their empty beer can in….but the creaks and groans from the tree branches near the house, quiet footsteps passing the front door. Then a sudden screech of brakes as a car comes down the hill too fast.
We have whistling windows so when its windy you can hear the whoosh of air hitting the house, I actually quite like that. Occasionally there is the sound of cats fighting, or the strange squeal of foxes. All this in an urban area.
Sometimes I go outside with a torch, I imagine I am scary enough to frighten an intruder off…. the only thing that happens then is I end up walking on slugs or snails as the garden is quite overgrown……
What noises are right and what are wrong? The gate opening is wrong, rattling noises by the side window, the metallic clunk of the gate bolt moving…..milk bottles by the gate rattling are all wrong…,what’s right? Birdsong late at night, don’t hear it as much at this time of year. Friendly voices of people passing on their way home, not the rowdy shouting we sometimes hear.
I realise there is a lot more going on out there than I thought. Better than tinnitus though!
Night all x
Someone (a friend) saw my rather serious selfies and asked me to take some photos of me laughing. I’ve never done that before and so I was a bit surprised but I said yes….
These are the results including me with a straight face.
I’m imagining having to do a passport photo and choosing to do it with me laughing, how much fun would that be? And instead of “filter faces” where everyone has to have perfect skin and features and hair why not have do this instead? fun…. life is too serious sometimes.
I’ve got one photo of me somewhere that had me wearing a stick on moustache, and others in hats, also in face paints. Life is too short, life is often hard and boring, sometimes we need to break away from its difficulties….
When I was a child I won a funny face competition at school. I used to pull faces all the time, when we grow up we forget all those things!
So go ahead, even if you don’t post it, pull a face now, or roar with laughter, or just giggle. ….relax and be free of social pressures for a second! Laughter is good medicine .
I might just do a painting of these. There are some sculptures I saw on tv of a man pulling faces……not sure who did them or why, but he showed his humanity.
X
Everything is ‘Quantum’ these days, its a word used for cleaning products, sci fi programmes, batteries….
Quantum, meaning tiny packets of energy, such as a quantum of light or electrons.
I’m no physicist or chemist but it does interest me. A few years ago I read a couple of books by John Gribben, “In search of Schrodingers cat” and “In search of Shrodingers kittens”.
See Wikipedia for information about Erwin Schrodinger. I tried to post a link but it would not copy over.
The idea is a thought experiment where a cat is placed in a box and a radioactive source is used to determine whether a poison will be released into the box killing the cat. There is no way of telling if the cat is alive or dead unless you open the box….. the cat is in a duality of states in the thought experiment, neither alive or dead until an outside influence, ( you or me) open the box to determine what has happened.
Seeing the cats this morning reminded me of the books.
Apparently electrons can become entangled and then even if they are separated by the entire universe, they will still react at the same time if something happens to one of them….Einstein called it a spooky reaction at a distance, or something like that, I don’t remember the exact quote. But it showed that something was moving faster than light to make this happen. I don’t understand half of what was being explained but that is no reason to not try and understand, if you see what I mean.
Other authors and books to read?
Richard Feynmann, “QED”…stands for quantum electro dynamics. ( hard going and I didn’t understand much of it)
Feynmann wrote several books “Surely you are joking Mr Feynmann” is a wonderful autobiography and gives an inkling of what quantum mechanics is about.
I would write more, but my knowledge is too poor. However I hope I have tickled your thought-buds?!
(Apologies to scientists out there for this rather sketchy blog post)
Darn it I’m awake again,
3 hours sleep so far,
Woken by an urge to do,
What nature calls me to.
Damn it I’m awake again
Before the birds first call,
Very dark turns slightly light,
Now sleep is hit by blight.
Drat it I’m awake too much,
At night I barely sleep
Yet in the bright arousing day,
My mind slips far away.
So let me sleep an hour more,
Give me that much ease,
Don’t let me stay awake at night,
But let my dreams take flight.
Goodnight..
Goodnight..
Good night….zzzzz
Conversation:
‘What thing?’
“That thing on the corner”
‘What thing on the corner! Where abouts?’
“On the corner , you know…”
‘What’s that?’
“The spiky thing”
‘On the corner?”
“By the willow”
‘What willow?’
“On the corner”
‘Oh hell…..what are you going on about?!’
“You know”
‘But I don’t, that’s why I’m asking’
“Its spiky, got yellow and orange berries”
‘Pyrocantha!?’
“Yes!”
Silence. ………
‘What are you doing? ‘
Noises in the kitchen……..
‘Hello? Whats happening?’
“Just mending my steam engine!”
😠 ‘argh!’
Is it like this in your house? It is in mine.
Taking a selfie is bad enough, but trying to draw yourself from it while trying to hold a sketchpad and a tablet computer in one hand and an old felt pen in the other is quite difficult. I did try and use pointillism to do the shading but I think it didn’t really work well. Somehow the eyes in the drawing are looking at me, when in the photo they look up and to the right. The other thing with selfies is you see yourself the right way round, where when you look in a mirror everything is back to front, in mirror image.
I had been trying to take a photo of my reflection in a mirror but the tablet keep getting in the way. The only decent way to take it was by holding the computer tablet to one side but I ended up with the toilet in the background because my decent sized mirror is in the bathroom!
Anyway I don’t generally do selfies and its been a few years since I did a self portrait, but this was a bit of an experiment. I like painting people and drawing them. Soon the life drawing class I go to will be starting up again. Then I can get in some proper practice.
Till then I’m going to try and do a few more quick portraits, this took about 15 minutes.
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