Question

Is the cost of living crisis affecting whether you buy or collect art?

As a small time seller of art I’m interested in how the rises in inflation and reduction in pay rises is affecting the Art economy. I’m sure decisions are being made that people either put off buying, or don’t buy art at all.

Art is everywhere, in designs of clothes, furniture, architecture, advertising, maps, car design, and even the Art in people’s walls. The Art economy is worth Billions to the economy as a whole, but I think it is under recognised. We like to be surrounded by visual and auditory stimulation, but do people even notice it’s there. Do you notice a painting on a restaurant wall? Or classical music played in a supermarket. I wonder how things will work out?

Why?

Some of my icons on my phone are a horrible browny bronze. I wish I could find out how to change them. I’ve looked at themes and I can change the background but not the icons. I’d like to set my own but I have no idea how. Does anyone know how to change the settings? Is it simple or very complicated. Meh, it’s a first world problem! Ignore me.

It’s funny how you can be so attached to your phone that it makes such an impact your life!

On the other side of the sky

I just looked at the sky from the other side… I mean I watched the film Gravity and it struck me that it looks much the same from above and below? Maybe the clouds are on a different scale, but they are still white and grey, the blue sea mimics the blue of the sky. We are truly a blue and white marble in the deep ocean of black space. We fall up to space, or down to earth, the thin atmosphere is all that protects us against hard radiation and vacuum.

Autumn and Spring painting

Sometimes I just have to create something different. I don’t do many paintings of abstracts, I find them difficult to do. I don’t want to have to write a long explanation of what the painting means. I love all sorts of art, but it’s hard to pin down what would be my favorite. This autumn /spring painting is acrylic on canvas. With colours that represent the seasons. The shapes are meant to represent middle age, complexity, confusion, a city scape, and the spring is simple nature. See I said I hate describing what I’m doing, and yet that’s exactly what I’ve just done! Maybe I should do a Winter/summer one?

Missiles over Ukraine

Russia fired 70 missiles at Ukraine today. 51 were shot down, but 19 got through. One hit a maternity block of a hospital (over 700 medical facilities have been hit during the war). A one day old baby was killed. This is evil.

Electricity has been cut to most of the country and fresh water supplies are running low. A later attack on Kyiv killed at least four people. War does no good, it just makes peoples lives horrible.

Why are the people of Ukraine being hurt like this. Why is Russias president Putin making these people suffer.

It’s over one hundred years since the end of the First World War, the ‘war to end all wars’ and yet throughout the world men continue to wage war on mem women and children. Iranians are beaten and tortured for not wearing headscarves. Other countries treat their populations badly or attack neighbours. Surely it is time to stop fighting. We are humans that should treat others with humanity and the world as the precious planet that is being harmed by humans too.

Through the arched window

Arches are strong. Arches support weight because pressure is pushing inwards towards a central point. They have a keystone that holds everything together. I wish I knew the mathematics that explained this. But it is something amazing when you see arches in churches or castles or other religious or secular places supporting the rooves of buildings. They can be so elegant and flimsy looking but they have innate strength. All due to forces, and geometry.

Putin out!

The Russians continue to try and take over Ukraine and its citizens. They have run a referendum in the south and east of Ukraine to see whether the people there would vote to rejoin Russia. Four regions were balloted. Russian soldiers went door to door with guns and got people to vote for Russia. They have announced a 96% vote in favour. But these referenda were not free and fair.

The annexation is illegal, but Putin will use it to say parts of Ukraine are now Russian soil. Then he has threatened any fighting to try and take it back could result in the use of Nuclear weapons. This is madness. Seven months into a war on European land this must stop.

Other things that have happened include damage to the Nordstream one and two gas pipelines bringing gas to Europe from Russia. Methane gas a kilometer wide US bubbling up from the baltic sea.

Ukraine continues to be bombarded but the army is fighting back. Where it will end? No one knows.