New paintings and regular art updates.
She may be a drawing, a face, a gaze from afar,
She is a woman, a girl, a mother, a sister.
She has feelings, emotions, can laugh and cry,
She sees you, cares for us, hates war and injustice.
She is equal not more, but not less, she counts.
Women and Girls, Mothers and Sisters
=
Men and Boys, Fathers and Brothers.
And
Any other genders that present themselves
=
Human.
Equation complete.
Sometimes I just think about big things, infinity, dark matter and dark energy. I don’t know much about them so I won’t try and lecture anyone about it. It’s just when you hear that the universe is flying apart more and more quickly and that the gravity that holds things together is not going to hold the universe together. There is something called dark matter which apparently helps hold the universe together, but there is also something called dark energy which is forcing it apart. So in the future the universe will spread out more and more till light cannot reach out and darkness will descend as the universe cools …
So that’s cheerful….
Also the idea that the universe splits each time something happens befuddles me. So if a car crashes in one universe it might not in the next. Terry Pratchett the author wrote about going down the wrong trouser leg of time. Each split can split again and again, ad infenitum.
Maybe all the dark matter and energy is the other universes effecting us? I don’t know. I like thinking about things but I don’t always understand them.
Dear Sun, sweet heat,
giver of light, fire starter,
Star of our solar system,
GREAT gravity grabber.
Giant who makes us look small.
A speck, nothing at all?
Without you we would freeze,
Star less day is night.
One day you will bloat,
as you cool and burn yourself out?
Expanding to our orbit or more,
In a few billion years or so,
By then humans will have changed, evolved or become extinct,
Farewell Sun. Light of my life.
Sleep is fine for the cat,
Sixteen hours a day, rain or shine.
A wash behind the ears as he awakes,
A sniff of his paw, then cleans his face.
Time for breakfast/lunch/dinner
And cold, fresh, water.
Then off outside to peruse the birds.
See what’s on his territory.
Ginger from next door??
A swipe and it runs away…
Later as the sun sets,
Paw over nose
Cat again in a doze.
The chill cold of autumn has penetrated Spode studios this weekend, the high ceilings prevent the warm air produced by heaters in each makers studio from keeping the chill air out. As soon as you open your door it escapes like a hot air balloon. If we had our studios in the roof space we might be warmer. The studios are little wooden boxes like hermits cells sprung along both sides of corridors that meander off around corners Some of the studios are open, without false ceilings and these get even colder unless you put industrial sized hot air blowers on. The studios with windows are single glazed with either wood or metal frames. Some have louvers to allow air in. Even when they are closed they let cold air in.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining, just explaining. There are a few warmish spots, like the kitchen if you shut the door.
Each studio that does have a false ceiling also has a layer of insulation above it. So you can actually be warm there…. But walk along the corridor when it’s cold and your breath steams. If you make yourself a coffee in the kitchen it could get cold just walking back to the studio.
One architectural novelty are the curved, almost barrel vaulted ceilings along parts of the corridor. I have never seen anything like it before. Great waves of concrete curve like giant corrugated tin above you. But the wavelength is far longer. Its a very interesting building to work in… But did I mention… Its cold ❄
Which is why I have used a warm picture of autumn flowers to illustrate it.
X
Poppy time is my favourite time of the summer. First the buds swell, then split. Papery petals unfurl and stretch. Like butterfly wings emerging from its chrysalis.
Poppies are my favourite flowers, to see their cheery heads waving in the breeze in a cornfield, or along the grass verges of motorways. Their lovely flowers help feed the bees, and their pepper pot seed heads spread thousands of seeds everywhere. I love breaking the dried seed heads off and scattering the tiny grains of seed all around the garden. They don’t always grow where they are sown, but like disturbed ground and can lie dormant in the soil, which is why they can appear on building sites and why they bloomed in Flanders fields.
Poignant reminded of war. Pretty flower, or even narcotic. Poppies have power.
I’ve been going to Archery now for about 6 months off and on. I thought I would be getting better but struggle with the whole thing somehow.
While my partner shoots bare bow (without sights) and has gradually improved, I feel I’m actually becoming less accurate. He got eight golds last week where I just got 2, and this week I kept missing the boss (the support the paper target is pinned to).
It looks easy, lift up your bow, pull back on the bowstring, look through the sight and let your arrow fly. Watch it wobble in its flight towards, then over, under, to the side of the target…missed again! I try and place myself in the same position each time, holding the bow not too tightly, trying not to pinch my fingers around the knock end of the arrow so it releases from the string smoothly. Place my hand holding the string under my chin with my nose and mouth touching the string. Sight along the arrow using a sight that has a hole with a little dot in it so that it is sighted over the gold. But a tiny deviation where you are is large when you have a target 20 yards away and worse as you get futher away from it.
I’m going to keep trying, I hope I can do it, I will persevere.
Fluffy clouds, mares tails and con trails at Spode today. I loved the way the sky was crossed and patterned with clouds. The sun was quite low and now we have moved into autumn it took on that crisp shimmer when the heat of summer has all but been extinguished from the sky. The warmth seems to wash out of the blue and it becomes a deeper hue.
Round about the skeletal remains of parts of the spode site sit like dinosaur ribs, shed of flesh and skin, one gaunt necklike chimney sits upright looking out over the landscape of rust and broken bricks.
All this hides the beating pulse of creativity, artists, ceramacists and other makers populate the various untidy buildings. Glass and clay, paint and photography, laser cutting and architecture. All of them dwell under the fluffy white clouds, mares tails and con trails.
Next weekend we are having an OPEN studio. On the 6th and 7th of October.
Admission is free from 11am to 4pm. You are welcome to come into the studios which are open to the public. There will be much to see including a new exhibition of people’s work on the theme of transition. We are at the Spode site, Elanora Street, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent. The way in will be signposted.
X
Someone speaks to you, says they can do all sorts of things to help you. It just needs to go through some sort of committee .
You wait to hear back, but after a while you hear you have been unsuccessful. It’s like having a job interview for a job you didn’t know was available, you hadn’t prepared for it, had no knowledge of what it entailed but once someone had dangled the carrot you felt suddenly recognised for having some small amount of worth.
So
What is the point?
Have they read this blog and decided its not commercial enough? That it does not come up to scratch? Should I just post photos of my art and keep my thoughts to myself?
What is the point?
Why bother?
What should I do?
What is the point? What is the point…..
Feeling down, but not quite out.
The Sun is rising, its light peeking over the horizon, traffic is flowing past the front door…it’s 6.30 am and people are going to work. Can’t hear any birds singing, they don’t seem to as much this time of year. There is a wind buffeting the trees outside, and heavy rain is expected later.
I’m awake again after going to bed at 2am, I enjoy being up early sometimes, it helps me gather my thoughts, I guess I will probably go back to bed though. I don’t have any heating on so it’s quite cool in my living room, not that its been really cold yet, but you can certainly tell the season is changing to autumn.
One thing I must do is bring in my house plants. We put them outside this summer while we had the kitchen and bathroom done. Trouble is we have no space now for a 6 ft weeping fig plant. Anyone need a huge weeping fig? Free to a good home (I’m not pay in for shipping!)
The cats are both asleep, I’m surprised they are not chasing each other. Seamus has lost his collar with its bell. Gracie could hear him coming before, so it’s become more equal in the game of sneaking up on each other and pouncing!
Well this is an exciting bit of blogging, my life laid bare…. I wonder why humans do this kind of thing. Hardly life shattering, I think I will go back to bed. Its now 6.44 am.
Mallaband-Brown