New paintings and regular art updates.
Acrylic on canvas I painted today. I wanted to paint a bold abstract which doesn’t have a name and I spoke to a fellow artist to ask what she thought. I almost called it Migraine!
She put her art therapy head on and felt it could represent emotions wanting to escape, perhaps bottled up anger. Certainly it looks a bit like a Catherine wheel. I think the outer part looks like flames. It’s not calm. It’s expressive, but also chaotic. Felt good to paint it. X
Life’s a pattern
Like branches and twigs
Trailing through life
First growing bigger
Like the main trunk and boughs
Then petering to smaller stems.
Life follows this pattern, growing
Then diminishing.
Patterns give me hope
I see connections
An intuition of order
Despite a possible chaos.
Patterns in music
Crystals too,
All sorts of things
Some of them new.
I don’t bother with plain
It’s such a pain
Give me gaudy and complex
And intricate not tame!
How would you design the city of the future?
Enough space to live, to fit in, to get what you need. But not too much, so you crowd everyone else out.
I like the ideas in Japan where space is at a premium so it is designed to be suitable for peoples needs. Things like fold up beds, or rooms that convert from one use to another. Innovation and recycling of materials.
There is a TV programme called George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces, where every week someone is trying to get the most home space out of a tiny space. Some of the solutions are incredible.
Look at the Earth and our cities, we are too wasteful. We want too many things, we want the biggest car or house, without realising less is more. Each of us could accept slightly less and share out assets better!
So town planners need to consider the resources we have, the cost of living, how things can fit together to make things better (or worse). Just having a little garden space can be very fulfilling. Life doesn’t have to be awful in cities, but it does need to be less haphazard and more organised, otherwise things tend to the chaotic and entropy builds. Cities fall as well as rise. We need serious thought and planning.
List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?
Cosmos by Carl Sagan
Surely you’re joking Mr Feynman by Richard Feynman
Chaos by James Gleick
I’m surprised the books I have chosen are all about various science subjects, are all by male writers and all white American writers.
I don’t have a preference for science books or something written by men, but these stuck in my mind because they pushed the boundaries of science fact books.
Cosmos was written in the 1970’s I think, and is a glorious look at the universe and how it is made up. It might not be the most up to date book about astronomy, and obviously we have learnt a lot since it was written, but it got me hooked when I was young and I have two copies of it in the house.
The Richard Feynman book is an autobiography/humourous book. Feynman was a physicist, but the book is much more than a historical retelling of his scientific work. It ranges from his penchant for safe cracking to his interest in art, teaching, and questioning authority. Along the way he talks about nuclear physics. I have another of his books, which is about QED. Quantum Electro Dynamics… No I can’t explain it!
Finally I have chosen Chaos by James Gleick. Chaos is about Chaos theory, it introduced me to fractals and the Mandelbrot set, an infinite pattern of twirling and dizzying shapes that can be created by using a small set of coordinates that make the pattern repeat. I tried drawing patterns using some of the ideas in the book
All three books are 30 or 40 years old but I think they would still hold the interest of someone coming at them from a new interest in science. They helped me navigate some concepts I would never have come across without them. If you feel like expanding your knowledge have a look.
My life is quite chaotic at the moment. Lots of things to do, plenty of time, but lack of inclination to do things. Procrastinating is my favourite pastime!
Everything is tangled up. I’m trying to organise and assess things, but failing. Thinking and worrying is not helping. I think I need to meditate or do some relaxation. It’s not that I don’t want to do things, but I think I’ve had my head in the sand for so many months, I don’t know how to drag it back out. I know this is self reflection, and I hope its a good thing. Writing it down might give me a push.
Grief has not helped. And now other people I know have died and that has knocked me back. I don’t want to think of the end of things. But I guess we should all make some plans? Sorry this is a bit random, maybe talking will help though.
For Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt Chaos. This is an old digital drawing I did on the computer years ago. I don’t know if this is cheating but I tried to draw the Mandelbrot set, a fractal image that can be viewed at all scales and this shape keeps being revealed. It might be infinite. It is a product of Chaos theory! If this wasn’t OK I said I would try and draw something else.
A digital drawing I did a few years ago. It’s based on the Mandlebrot Set which is a fractal pattern that was found when mathematicians worked on chaos theory. It is an infinite pattern that you can zoom into and the patterns flow and twist but the basic shape that I drew keeps coming back. Obviously this is just a drawing but it was an interesting challenge.
Butterfly
flutterby
fly quickly
Flutter
Flit…
Flap and fly
Stir forces
Flapping
Falling,
Fleeing
Fizzing
Chaos freeing.
Butterfly.
What will history make of 2020 and the Covid 19 virus? It is clearly momentous, but what will be the outcome.
Will we return to our profligate ways as if nothing had happened, and slip back into old routines after a hiatus of several months, or is this a game changer where we will all be poorer and have to be more self sufficient.
Maybe the survivalists that have been prepping over the last several years have it right. Or the environmentalists who have urged us to stop global warming will see a glimmer of light from this current situation.
However you look at it there will have to be questions asked about the leadership of the world. That doesn’t mean that people have necessarily done wrong. Just that the chaos of the virus has too many ramifications to take in. It’s too great a problem to allow us to get all the right answers. That said there are some strange leadership decisions out there. Maybe some leaders should engage their brains before they open their mouths….
What a day! I’m tired out but still got things to do. I wanted to write something here tonight but have not had time. My eyes are sore from the eyedrops this morning and my eyelids are drooping. Twice my phone has slid out of my hands onto the floor.
I was planning to do a drawing of the Chinese new year, but it hasn’t happened. I’m listening to some Gershwin on the TV. Can’t remember what it’s called. Thinking about getting a decaff coffee or a gin and tonic. Not sure which.
It’s midnight and I need sleep but I have visitors in the morning and the housework has not been done because I’ve been so busy. Some of its just straightening chair covers or tidying away papers. No problem really, just a lot of little things.
Anyway now I’ve had a rest I’d better get on……
Mallaband-Brown