Look up Whitby steps on the Internet and you find out there are 199 steps from the town up to Whitby Abbey at the top. Dracula by Bram Stoker was set there. The town has many tourists visiting because of this. There is also a history of jewellery making in the town because it is the home of Whitby Jet. This is a black, fossilised substance that was originally ancient monkey puzzle trees. The steps or stairs offer a spectacular view down over the harbour and bay.
Small painting from 2018 that was on display at Etruria Industrial Museum. I used an image off the Internet to work on. I think it was from a photo of a pumping station in Derbyshire? I loved trying to get the metallic reflections. I looked at the price and I wad only selling it for £25! The amount of work I put in means I constantly undersell myself, but people just don’t seem to have money for art these days. As to what it is I think it’s a regulator? Ith weights hold the arms down if it starts to spin too fast?
Memory from 2017 of a mural I painted in 2007. This was at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. I have a strong connection with Burslem from doing a series of murals in the hotel. Who knows whether I will do anymore?
I would love to do a bit more mural painting, or scenery, or large paintings. I’m hoping if I can get my shaking arm under control I might be able to do it.
Memories are a great thing, but also they can be tinged with sadness when you think of all the things you could have done. I do wonder about the pandemic times. Could I have done more to keep my art business going? What things can I do to actually sell my work? I’m not a sales person, I’m an artist…. I don’t think I’ll ever have a USP!
Stained glass window in Burslem School of art. Its on the stairs, halfway up between the main floor and the upper floor. It has a history, but again I was in a rush and didn’t get the details. But it was created by the head of art there and his students. Its mainly painted on the glass and does not have a lot of lead segments like church windows. I think it’s beautiful and poignant, and a great memory to cherish.
My little dragon painting has gone to a new home tonight. The new owner is really pleased with my quirky painting that I created while studying illustration. My final major project was about varieties of dragons and how they have been depicted from the earliest times across the globe. The idea could have been based on dinosaur fossils that ancient civilisations may have found. They would not have had any way to date the bones and may have seen them as contemporary to them or living within their recent history.
I don’t know what happened but there was a fire last week on the old Falcon Works pottery site near us. We saw a column of smoke rising from behind the Portmeirion pottery that is across the road from us. Then we heard a fire engine heading towards the pottery. The smell was very strange, like burnt rubber. My hubby went for a walk round the back of the works when we got back from Cornwall, he said it just looked the same as normal?
It turns out that the land has recently been sold to developers. Could this be a coincidence? A lot of old derelict industrial sites in the area seem to be hit by suspected arson recently. It is worrying to think of the damage being done to our heritage.
I’ve just written a comment on our local council website to oppose planning approval for development of the historic Spode Factory site in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent.
Planning application in for Spode Site. Search on Stoke.gov.uk for details. Planning application 67906/FUL comments need to be in by 20.07.22. I wrote : Elanora Street and the surrounding area in Stoke Town are subject to a lot of heavy traffic. I think this proposal will have a negative effect, particularly around peak traffic flow times. In addition, as a Studio holder based at the Acava Art Studios on the Spode site I am concerned about how my business will be affected. I need vehicular access to my studio when collecting or delivering artworks and art materials. I would want to be reassured that artists in the studios will not have there businesses restricted or inconvenienced. Spode Site is a heritage site. It should be developed with an understanding of its historical value to the town, city, and world. But instead the city council seem to be taking the low brow option of cramming ‘apartments’ onto the site. Like the Goodsyard proposal currently in the process of being considered, it is another uninspired use of land. In a decade of austerity it is also a question as to whether anyone would want to buy an apartment on a brownfield site where the history has been removed! Security on the site has been reduced due to council cuts. There have been incidents of intruders entering the site in the evening and nights. Has consideration been given to the security when the work goes ahead? Finally I want to say I believe this proposal is ill-conceived and destructive of a historical site. The development will be detrimental to Stoke’s standing as a heritage centre. So much of our local history is being allowed into crumble into dust. The council has a short sighted bias which does not seem to want to take responsibility for Stoke-on-Trents culture
Cartoon I drew of Boris Johnson last year as a naughty schoolboy, hearing, seeing and speaking no art. It was about the cuts in art teaching and the creative industries. But I think it sort of works for what has been happening recently. Has he ignored or forgotten reports of one of his senior government members caught in a serious case of misconduct. In fact he has apparently also been caught out in several untruths, and today, finally resigned (sort of) as leader of the Conservative party but he hasn’t stood down as Prime minister. He seems to be staying on as a caretaker for the next three months while his party decide who will replace him.
Whether you love him or hate him he certainly is a character. When he was a child he said he was going to be king of the world. At Eton he apparently was displeased by his tutors displeasure with him. He was a leader of a club of students at University who were antagonistic towards poorer students. If you look up his biography you can find all sorts of things that he was involved in that caused problems but there are too many to list. These seem to have carried on into his prime ministership. Anyway things are changing, but no one knows if it’s for better or worse?
I’m not going to mention current politics in America, as I’m not an American I don’t have enough knowledge of how it works. But I am going to question whether something has to stay the same in perpituity (forever).
There are some commandments in the bible that are no longer followed, for instance two thousand years ago people were told not to eat shellfish. This was probably sensible then, but as time has gone by and hygiene has improved, this command is no longer relevant.
When some constitutions were written many things were not possible, or not invented – space flight, open heart surgery, flight, trains, etc. So if you follow a constitution set in stone you might not be allowed to use some of these things. Flight being only allowed for birds and bat’s for example.
But if a law is wrong, why not change it? Why not modernise? Why then go back to old fashioned ideas? If you go back where do you stop? Do you take away the vote for everyone but the rich? Do you stop women going out to work? Bring back slavery? There are places in the world where a woman may not drive a car unless accompanied by a man.
Then when you do have rules they get broken, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bad. Humans are not perfect. They can make bad decisions, act illegally, cause trouble.
So what can we do? Try and act fairly, act with consideration for others, be polite, try not to overreact to others, but have an opinion, and try to care. That’s all I can come up with.
Mallaband-Brown 