Strange challenge

I’m doing the January 64 million artists challenge on Facebook. _20200113_171621

Today’s challenge is a bit strange, write for ten minutes automatically. (when I write I think the words so that’s hard). Then either cut up or wet the paper to turn it into something else.

What I did was write in pencil on an old envelope to save paper. As I was watching an old film called the flight of the Phoenix I then decided to rip and fold the paper into a vaguely plane shape. Using rips and folds to hold it together.

I decided to change the colour to black and white because the background was a bit confusing. Plus it enhanced the writing a bit which wasn’t very clear because I was using a 4H pencil.

Two years!

Screenshot_20200103-162006

Two years! I’m still here, still blogging, still trying to come up with new ideas, poems, short stories, but above all art, including drawings, photos and paintings.

I don’t know what subjects I will choose. I’m in a bit of a void at the moment. I did a lot before Christmas, but now things have calmed down, and some of the paintings people asked for in December have been postponed because of circumstance (not on my part). So if you decide you want a painting doing please get in touch. I might be available to do some commissions..

X

What is a blog for?

sketch-1577646571126

Blogging seems to be all sorts of things. I follow poetry, science, history, art and all sorts of other subjects. I post pretty much anything I’m interested in. I try and write things that are interesting, sometimes short stories or poems, other times about my art.

I started out thinking it would purely be about painting and drawing. But I suddenly realised that I wanted to include more than that. My writing and grammar skills are not honed. I used to write essays in English or History classes, but that was on the subjects on the syllabus. When I got to Art school I had to write essays and a thesis, so blogging came slowly. I hope what I write is enjoyable or interesting.

X

Concentrating

_20191124_120301_optimized

Concentrating on her mobile phone, thumbing her life away. While the world passes her by… Those women could be pocketing her goods. Would she even know? Being aware of what’s around you is so difficult when you are scrolling through Facebook or looking at Instagram, I know I do it too.

It’s when people start ignoring family and friends (I do that too). Sometimes I say ‘put the phone down’ to myself, but it doesn’t always happen.

TV programmes I want to see, radio I want to hear. Pass me by nowadays. I’m composing in my head, or commenting, or supporting causes. How did life get like this? At least I don’t use my phone when I’m driving… Just too much concentrating….

Rushing by…

_20191002_184359_optimizedOver the hills,

Rushing by,

Stony landscape, see it fly.

Fences blurred, ground so grand.

Limestone cliffs across the land.

Sheep and birds, flocks and herds,

Many miles across we sped,

Down to sea the river led.

Craggy hills round Snowdon lie,

Reaching up into the sky.

Grey clouds scudded on breeze up high.

Rushing wind makes me cry,

As the weather bites, cold again,

Then it comes on to rain.

End of journey, time to rest.

A drink of tea or coffee, best?

A sweet hot cake, a refreshing drink.

Then into bed, in sleep, to sink.

 

Writing in the past….

sketch-1573420572103

I’m watching a programme about the author George Eliot and I suddenly realised how different the world must have been then.

She took a man’s name so she could get her books published. She went from a deeply religious belief to someone who became strongly atheistic.

She lost her mother at age 16. She was self taught, and learnt a lot from being allowed free access to a local land owners library.

But apart from her history how was she influenced by the world? Modern history had  not happened yet. No Einstein, no Marie Curie, no first world war, no one knew about the Universe, the world was not fully explored. No TV, radio, computers, no electricity supplies. How did people communicate except by letters and books. No telegraph. Travel was by carriage, or horse. The trains were only just being thought of. How would she have described the modern world and how it affects the life you lead. She was living through a changing era. The chartist riots were happening.

Women were rarely published. The books by Jane Austin and the Bronte sisters were only ones of a few women authors. If she had lived now, she could have written under her own name, Mary Anne Evans, not a masculine pseudonym. She took the pen name George Eliot when she started to write fiction, not the romantic novels that other female writers were creating at the time. She wrote books like the Mill on the Floss and Adam Bede and Middlemarch. 

You’re welcome

sketch-1572452652107

I love blogging. Its almost two years since I started and I’ve got a few followers now. Each day I think what can I write about, and most days I come up with something, whether it’s about art, design, poetry, short stories or about science. My mind jumps around to various subjects, but that’s what kers me going. Perhaps I’m a frustrated teacher? I don’t know.

So Thank you everyone for taking the time to read and look at this blog. I probably post too much. I might slow down a bit?

Anyway there will no doubt be more.

X

I don’t remember…

FB_IMG_1571531733931

I don’t remember it happening. It must have been long ago, before the sky fell, before the Mirohs arrived. When I was young?

The world had been burning, literally, fires everywhere. Ice melting. One day it was cold, the next boiling hot.

I don’t remember the day we reached 3..

Three degrees of global heating. They had said two was bad, but we got it even hotter. The seas won’t rise. My Mom told me that, it will never happen said Dad.

It’s all a blur. Running from the sea, trying to find homes in the hills. Millions crushed in the cities that were not on rivers…

They could have called it the great flood, but the papers said the sky was falling. What it meant was the rains and storms, so heavy they flattened towns in seconds, crops died. We started growing rice in paddy fields, it was the only way to get some sustenance in all the wet, dank weather.

Two years of hell passed. I was growing up and worked in the fields. All of the children worked. No schools, just back breaking work, bending and shoveling.

We hated it, but we were not  polluting anymore. Life seemed to pause and take a breath…

Then the Mirohs came, an alien race. We saw their ship, huge, like a great storm cloud. They looked down at us. Like bugs we were to them. Then the killing started. The message, you didn’t care for your precious planet. So we will take it. Humanity is a pestilence. They put something in the water. Now no one can have children. In a hundred years or so…. We will be gone.

Will anyone remember us?

Why do I write?

IMG_20190825_210312_674

I don’t think of myself as a writer. I love words, but mostly I’m more of a reader, and then as a dabbler at writing. I don’t really plot things, they generally fall out of my head and onto the paper or my mobile screen. I guess it’s just the way I am. I love being creative and since I finished work I’ve started to branch out. I feel like a little dabchick or duck. I paddle  away, my feet just gently moving the water of words around, breaking the surface tension but not going deep. And what for? I’ve been told my grammar is not as good as it could be. I don’t do this for likes and views, it’s all quite low key. I don’t expect to ever write a novel. I did once try and write a children’s book, so long ago it’s still stored on a floppy disk!

As long as I don’t bore you too much.

X