Inktober

Posted on October 2, 2018October 2, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Design, inktober, Life, Sketching, Urban sketchers Stoke on trentLeave a comment

You may or may not have heard of Inktober also known as #inktober or #inktober2018 its something that comes up at this time of year where artisrs are encouraged to draw something in ink for each day of the month. The drawings are shared on instagram under these two hashtags. Oh and I forgot each day has a theme I think. There was a list last year but I haven’t seen it yet.

At the same time the urban sketchers I am a member if have set a 1 inch drawing challenge for the month. Each of us is trying to do a drawing in a 1 inch square for the month of October, so I’m trying to amalgamate the two and kill two birds with one stone as the old saying goes.

Whether I will fulfill the challenge depends on how busy I get, whether I remember to draw and if I remember to post. I think I might report back here once a week. If course I could draw everything and just post one drawing a day, but I like the spontaneity of the idea , so I will try and draw in the moment.

Spellchecker

Posted on October 1, 2018October 1, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Fun, Humour, Life, Poem, PoetryLeave a comment

A poem,
Spellchecker “grr”
Everyday I writ something or sharp a pic,
I write a comment , leave a thought, add a lick,
Common words flow out my head and onto the screen,
But off
Ten they are garbled by this spellchecker Mac him.
Machine, regime, bolemic screen….

Or “write” “share” “link” “often” “machine”

Penkhull flag result

Posted on September 28, 2018September 28, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Colour, Design, Flag, Life, Penkhull, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

A while ago Penkhull residents association decided to have a competition to create a flag for the village. The pictures surrounding the final flag were the 10 designs that had the most overall influence over the final design. I was really pleased to find out that one of them was my design. (the middle top design).

It feels good to have a flag to describe the village. The oval and lines coming in symbolise the village green and the roads coming into and surrounding it. The cockrel is based on the weather vane on top of the church. The colours are vibrant and cheerful. Local people had a choice of 4 designs taken from dozens of entries. The central flag in the photo was the winning design.

Tide

Posted on September 25, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Earth, global warming, Life, Moon, Ocean, Sea, tide, WaterLeave a comment

Time and tide wait for no man

Tidal reef,

High tide……

Why tide?

The Moon pulls on the Earth and the Earth pulls on the Moon. They are gravitationally linked so that one face of the Moon always faces us and the water in our oceans is attracted upwards towards it by its gravity. On the other side of the world there is also a rise in the waters because there is less gravitational pull on the oceans because they are futher away from the moon…..

Why high tides?

The water is pulled up so far by the moon, but as water flows inwards towards the land as the tide comes in it can also rise further if it is pushing into a narrowing area such as a gap between two islands or into the narrowing channel of a river or stream. In this case sometimes the water can overtop the banks if it is a particularly high tide, such as a spring tide. The water will rise higher if it is forced into the estuary by wind as well as tidal forces.

One third of the world’s population live on various coast lines around the world. If the world continues to warm up then these people will be at risk from the rising tides caused by global warming. Many countries have built costal defenses but these are being damaged every year during stormy weather. Replacing the damaged protective barriers is being abandoned in some places as not cost effective and some costal salt marshes are being recreated to protect the land.

Fluffy clouds

Posted on September 24, 2018September 24, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Ceramics, Creatives, Life, Spode, Spode site, WorkLeave a comment

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.

Whats the point?

Posted on September 20, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blog, Blogging, Life, Reflections, Thoughts4 Comments

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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.

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.

Dawn

Posted on September 19, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blog, Blogging, Boredom, Life, Reflections, WritingLeave a comment

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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.

More iterations of transition

Posted on September 18, 2018September 18, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Colour, Filters, Life, Light, Photography, TransitionsLeave a comment

Transitions…….

Once I get an idea….these are photos that I have manipulated in layout and instagram. The spectra were caused by a peice of crystal I have hanging in the window.

The transitions are colours, shapes and facial ones.

I took the images further in each one, so they transition from something normal to something more obscure and unusual.

Use of colour makes them more interesting I think. I’m not the kind of artist that likes to write a long description next to their work to explain it so I will leave it at that.

Sleep

Posted on September 17, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blog, Dream, Life, Poetry, Reflections, SleepLeave a comment

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The Sun sets earlier every day now, by 9pm it is dark, the summer sun falls below the horizon, dropping down and bringing shadows.

My head nods with weariness, barely able to keep my eyes open. I long for sleep, ready to rest my weary limbs beneath cool sheets, but sleep sneaks away sometimes, I’m hazy with it one minute then alert and awake the next jerking back into the world with a jump, taken out of sleep by a noise or a pain.

So yes, I do need sleep, but it tends to grab hold of me in the daytime. When I’m not expecting it I fall asleep. Listening to the radio or watching tv. In a meeting. Thankfully never when I am driving. But I could almost fall asleep in a queue in a shop, tonight I was nodding at choir practice… but now at well after midnight, nothing, no sleep.

Sleep is the soft rest that gently rocks your body into dreams,

Sleep is the midnight air coursing through your veins,

Sleep is looking at your partner as he slumbers,

Sleep hides ills and heals woes,

Sleep shapes wakefulness, giving rest to the weary.

I want sleep in my eyes, sleep in my mind.

I want to be drousy, dreaming of soft down pillows.

I need rest, from fears, from worries.

Give me sleep, now.

Blah blah blah

Posted on September 17, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Creative writing, Humour, Life, Reflections, Short story6 Comments

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My head is spinning, I can’t think. Why? Because he keeps talking, on and on and onandonandonand……argh!

He keeps listing things, this and that and the other. ..more and more. Muttering, talking under his breath. It’s not a duolog, it’s a monolog. The pretence of listening trying to turn a blind ear to it. Please shut up! I scream over and over in my head, my aching ears, every tv programme is spoken over , every speech or argument is submerged by the verbal spewing of the same things, same ideas ad nauseam.

I try not to say anything. I did not want to start an argument. I’m polite, patient, trying to be caring. It makes my mind bend, trying to placate whilst trying to hear my own thoughts. Misery is close to love, partnered with it, shackled till bedtime brings blessed quiet.

Tinnitus waits when silence decends, whistling, high pitched, fracturing my mind even more, sometimes I switch on the radio, quiet words, only just audible either sooth, or I catch their meaning, and listen into sleep, leaning my thoughts into their soft pillow.

I know in the morning I will start again. I try and stay in the haven of quiet peace in the dawning of day’s, lingering in bed, hiding my thoughts under the duvet. Sometimes I want to escape, to talk to someone who will listen to Me, let Me be, let me be, let me be, my brain stumbles….

Selective hearing is treacherous, what did he say? What meaning did he put in that phrase? My off switch is too strong now. Like listening to a weather forecast that I never fully hear, only noticing a storm is coming at the end, but not hearing where…

Got to sleep, but the talking mutter is still going on….. no rest for the wicked……

No freedom, till death do we, in sickness, for poorer….where did the positives go? Where is there solace. Why do we change. Why does despair outlast joy?

But there is some joy, as a bird starts to sing into the dawn, as rays of light shine through the window and warm me, I know that I will carry on, calm down, face the future. Buy some ear plugs!

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life