Outside my back door, a twenty year old wall plaque from Yorkshire still resides. Held in place by a nail through its forehead. Brown oak leaves surround his face. Sometimes these ancient masks have leaves or vines growing out of their mouths. They are symbolic of life and death, new growth, or fertility? They are found in connection with old religions like Wikka? They are certainly pre Christian.
If you are interested in these ancient symbols then take a look at corn dollies too. These are made of tightly plaited straw with the heads of wheat left in place. There is a lot more information avaliable online.
My Cat is black and white so when he comes in from the rain he often looks like an otter. He’s like that tonight but it’s too dark to get a decent photo so here’s a little illustration I did of a cat walking through the rain… He looks very fed up!
Old buildings in our city don’t always last. They are often left to rot. Trees and bushes grow out of brickwork, splitting the seams and unzipping the building. Making the ancient pottery a ruin.
Some places dismantle buildings. For example the Black Country Museum in Dudley, West Midlands, England. It often numbers each individual brick of a house, or factory, or school and rebuilds it within the grounds of the museum. It has working chain makers and underground canals that run through caves with fossils imbeded in the walls.
Meanwhile our industrial heritage in Stoke on Trent is gradually rotting, or is even burnt down by arsonists. We really should take better care of out industrial archeology even if it means donating it to the black country museum.
My friend in our #bandofsketchers group asked me to come up with some drawing prompts. This is my reply. The list could be a poem!
“Sorry I’ve not been doing much again. I’ll try again soon! New prompts:
Ideas and dreams Sugar Black and white Green and red Purple and yellow Orange and blue Blurred Stitches Games Holding on Silly Ripples Fish Floating Suspended Itch Hobby Strap Festival Flop Book or booking African South American Asian North American Australian Shower Sunny Slope Feed Fright Parrot Hold Amphibian Resting Testing Opera Bulge Seaside Steps Happy Miffed Splatter Gold Metal Chomp Sold Smell
I think these can be quite open? Hope this helps.”
She got on MY bed again The cheek! She’s too big! Gets in the way Her feet are big Her head is large She sprawls Flops and squirms And all because Of my paws!
I once had a long argument with someone who told me that my way of speaking was not complax enough. So I deliberately changed how I was talking, I spoke about the method of communication I used and that while I understood his phrasiology I preferred clarity. In the end we came to an agreement that each of us had our own styles, but I did feel he had been condescending and patronising.
I still feel the same way about communicating with people. Yes you can be elitist, but what is the point? A teacher or expert might try and share information but if they don’t use explanations and analogies how can they pass it on. Simplification can help, visualising data using illustrations is a way of showing how things work. Teachers may assume you already understand the basics of a subject but you might not have attended the right courses. I never did Physics at A level, but did a course that required some knowledge of it. I had to resit the exam at the end because of that.
As far as I understand dumbing down isn’t simplification, it’s not even sharing correct information. It is using less knowledge and making it sound plausible, effectively cutting off dissemination (sharing) of any number of subjects to the detriment of civilisation. Instead of the sum of information growing and people’s lives improving, whether it’s in medicine, or finance, understanding the weather or geology, we seem bent on causing harm to people and places. An attempt to keep the masses down?
This post is a bit odd, I wanted to explain what I thought but I’ve been a bit verbose. I don’t know if I’ve achieved clarity, I just think dumbing down is not good for the world.
Mallaband-Brown 