S p i r a g l n l i
o u t o f c . . o . . n . t l r o
I love spirals,
Twirling round and far,
Spiral buns and spiral suns
And spiral galaxies.
I love
Spirals…..
Twisting round
My tongue… making
Tornadoes . .
And hurricanes . .
Fly around .
The land.
Category: Uncategorized
Design
With cuts in education it appears that arts subjects are getting lower take up’s these days.
Students have to do more “useful” subjects, like Maths, English and Sciences, plus probably a language. Then if they go on to college or university the temptation is to go for more academic courses, especially when a 3 year course is going to cost upward of 30 or 40 thousand pounds.
I went to a Polytechnic, many years ago now. I got a maintenance grant and didn’t have to get a loan (they didn’t exist then). The costs were paid for by taxation, which was higher in the past. This made sense because that money raised by the exchequer sustained the education system as well as other services such as the NHS.
Things gradually changed, governments changed, their ideas changed and the rules changed. Where once there were grants now there are loans, where once there were bursaries, now there are loans. You may not have to pay them back until you are over an earnings threshold. But student loans are at 6% interest per annum, when inflation is between 2% or 3%. In other words the loans are a form of future taxation. Only low level, but over the years it takes to get a good job that persons debt is due to spiral. Is it any wonder that Art subjects are being dropped….
But Art is important, if you look at the patterns on these dresses, the design of the dresses, even the frill on the lamp shade? Someone designed that….
Artists may not get paid much but they make the world more beautiful and interesting. Artists can be innovators…look at the art of Leonardo da Vinci, he not only drew and painted, but came up with designs for tanks and helicopters and planes. They were not built because the technology did not exist to make them, but the ideas were there.
Art and design can be done on computers nowadays, press a button? No you still have to have someone to draw out the designs. Without art the world would be a boring, grey, sad place.
So if you feel like doing art….do it!
Visiting the Moon
Today we visited the museum of the Moon, an art installation which is on till tomorrow. We got in free but there have been events there that you had to pay for.
The Moon is a huge inflated sphere, a balloon, hung from the ceiling of the Kings Hall in Stoke-upon-trent, part of Stoke’s town hall.
I’m afraid I didn’t get the details of the artist who made it, but it is very beautiful. The Moon is fully rendered with all its craters and mare (or seas). The seas are actually flattened areas where magma or lava has welled up from the interior and flowed out across the Moon’s surface. They are caused because of the speed of impact from asteroids and meteors hitting the Moon, the energy of momentum is converted into kinetic, heat, energy.
But thats the side we see, because the Moon is tidally locked with us, so the face we see is always pointed towards the Earth. If you observe the Moon over time it swings and sways so you can see slightly more than 50% of the Moon but we never see the back. The sides, top and bottom is squashed up so its not easy to distinguish what is visible.
So walking around the installation you can see things you might only have seen in blurry film from the Apollo missions almost 50 years ago. Huge craters where impacts must have shook the Moon to its core. You realise how much more scarred and cratered the dark side of the Moon is. Pitted and dented, the back of it has been impacted over millennia.
The Moon has also slowed the Earths spin which is why when humans are shut away in dark caves to experiment with our body clocks, we think a day ends after 23 hours or so. That is because as we evolved over millions of years the Moon was orbiting the Earth closer to us, and as it moved away gradually (less than a centimetre a year?) it slowed the Earths’ spin to 24 hours a day.
At the moment the Sun can be eclipsed by the Moon. It just happens that the Moon is 400 times closer to us than the Sun and 400 times smaller. So the Moon appears to be exactly the right size to cover the Sun when there is an eclipse. As time goes by the Moon will move further out and “perfect” eclipses will end. Finally the Moon will break away from the Earth. When that happens the Earths rotation will become chaotic. It already spins on an axis that is tipped over at about 23°. If the Moon flys off into space its gravity will no longer help hold the Earth steady. Who knows we could end up tipped right over.
I’m not an expert so my figures might not be completely accurate. If you want more information please check out Astronomy websites.
The Museum of the Moon is an installation run be Appetite. They help produce various arts projects over the year. We also heard diary entries from the First world war, and a dance performance called “in Flanders feilds.”
I drew the Moon because my camera isn’t good in low light levels. The juxtaposition of the Moon installation and the old Kings Hall made for a marvellous and eerie afternoon out.
Cat in a box on its side…
My cat tipped his box up today and seemed to enjoy sitting in it like that. Each end of the box has a hole in it and he could see his sister through the hole. He pounced on her a few times, with that bottom waggle that cats do.
I know it makes a mess of the house, but the cats love boxes and how could you say no to this?
Cat jumps into box …
Cat jumps onto chair …
Cat jumps up to windowsill….
Box tips up
Chair is now occupied by cat.
Plant falls off window ledge.
Cause and effect?
Cat thinks it’s just normal.
Human tidies up box,
Human picks cat off chair, cat sits on humans lap.
Human replaces plant, cat knocks it off again, and again, and again.
Humans never learn!
Doodling digitally
Oh I do love swirling things about, colour, playing with shapes, to me this is fun. Like creating a painting, but digitally.
Subtle changes of colour and shading add depth, adding the alterations together give an idea of metamorphosis. All these can be created from a few apps.
I don’t know what digital art is out there, except for pictures created by David Hockney of digital portraits and the woods close to his home when he was living in Yorkshire a few years ago. I went to see them exhibited at Salts Mill in Saltaire, Yorkshire.
I think that digital art will progress and change. I look forward to seeing it.
Sleep aponea
This is the mask I have to wear every night. It’s to help my breathing by pushing air into my mouth and stopping the soft pallet at the back of my throat collapsing.
A couple of years ago, I was tired all the time, falling asleep at work. Couldn’t keep my eyes open. I felt awful and was having other health issues. Luckily my doctor sent me for tests and it came back that I had sleep aponea.
What’s that? Well as I say it stops my soft pallet from falling down into my throat and effectively choking me. Instead of getting good deep sleep my brain was waking me into light sleep so I could breathe but the lack of deep sleep is harmful. The condition can cause heart problems and diabetes amongst other illnesses.
I thank my doctor for getting me sorted out. I don’t know what I would have done or how I would have been without his intervention .
Thankfully I’m much better now, and although the mask can be a nuisance I’m glad I’ve got it!
Llandegla fishery
Up in the hills between Ruthin and Wrexham in north wales is a little fishery called Llandegla. Its almost at the top of the hill before you get to the top then drop down into Wrexham, on the road, on the left hand side ( there is another fishery further down the road on a side road).
There’s a cafe and camp site for small caravans in the grounds of the fishery and the opportunity to catch fish if you want (Vegetarians look away now).
We had lunch there, hot smoked trout with new potatos and mixed leaf salad, which was delicious.
I kept up my habit of sketching, and did a few pictures, one of them I gave away because a boy there was interested in doing art.
So day trips continue, where will we go tomorrow?
Rain
It’s a bank holiday Sunday and normal service has resumed (it’s raining) whether the weather on bank holiday Monday improves again? Well the forecast says it will.
So anyway I thought you might like an interesting fact?
Raindrops are apparently not teardrop shaped! I guess we think they are because they speed by so fast, persistence of vision (the way our eyes track things) mean that they blur together so they look long and thin….Like, er, teardrops….. or raindrops trickling down a window as they smear themselves against the glass, wetting and sliding at the same time.
So what do raindrops really look like? On slow motion cameras they resolve into little oblate spheroids….Like little tangerine shaped water droplets, that’s because air resistance squashes them up slightly in the direction of travel.
Trouble (or not) is that I’m sure people will carry on drawing them as teardrop shapes because thats how they look to us….
X
Meme today gone tomorrow ?
I took this photo of Lily cat and altered it in instagram and pics art…because she looked so cute!
It’s alternative wording is, watch out there’s a Lily about!
I’ve never created my own Meme before if that’s what it’s called. I’m saying its my copyright as I created it. Is that correct?
Anyway if you have to explain it, it spoils the fun!
Old green lampost
Like Poseidons trident, copper, turquoise green,
You stand gaunt against the sky.
A foregone, forgotten, street light or gaslamp?
Still holding your shape,
like an ancient but modern sculpture,
battling the elements, salt spray, sea mists. ..
Atop a castle keep? No arch of stone,
barrier to tide.
To light the lonely home after one too many?
Find their mackerel way back from the fishmongers?
Spent a day out at sea and you, lighthouse, cast a gentle glow?
Find solace for the bereaved,
a tristing place away from the town?
Seafront, sentinel, what did you Sea?
