Thursday

caught thinking...

My friend just sent me this picture of me, taken in the Lady Lever Gallery, in Port Sunlight, Liverpool. It's an interesting place, full of Chinese porcelain and English Wedgewood, jade dragons, Egyptian pots, various furniture, tapestries, paintings in huge gilt frames and slightly saucy sculptures of Victorian ladies. All mixed in together in the gallery, the collection of a rich Edwardian who made his money in soap.


We went to see my tutor's exhibition; bronze casts of everyday things; carrots, rubber gloves and spoons, placed amongst the other objects in the gallery, in the glass cases and behind red rope barriers, to perhaps draw our attention to what we value and how we show it.

Many visitors didn't like it, their comments in the guest book saying 'how can you call carrots art?' but perhaps that's the point... anyway... I had a lovely thoughtful day.

brrrr

Today it was freezing in the office. Apparently the heating has been turned off because the students have gone home! Charming!

Anyway, home now, for bagels and chocolate and some new book experiments...

Goldsworthy at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

If you are anywhere near the Yorkshire Sculpture Park before January 2008 I would say it's worth making a trip... I visited the Andy Goldsworthy exhibition there this weekend and it really took my breath away.


I love Goldsworthy's work, although I have only seen it in books before now. I find his work unpretentious, thought provoking, beautiful, real. It's not often I go into an art gallery and and feel I don't want to leave, but the things Goldsworthy does with twigs and thorns, logs, stone and clay (to name just a few) just draw me in. There are pictures of the sculptures here, take a look, but I don't think they can quite convey the feeling of being in the room with those objects. The egg shaped Stacked Oak sculpture filled almost the entire entrance lobby, and squeezing round it to enter the gallery was an almost humbling experience, it's such an impressive structure, made entirely from logs wedged together, so strong and imposing. And in the next room a curtain made entirely from leaf stems and thorns, so delicate and fragile.


In fact I find it hard to pin down what it is I love so much about Andy Goldsworthy's work, I find my self amazed by each new piece I see, and thinking 'that's spot on that is'. I like the fact he works with natural things, things everyone has access to and can relate to. And then he does these amazing things with them, that seem so simple but in fact take and draw attention to the detail in nature, the repetition and pattern, the force of the weather and the passage of time. All the things that we might miss as we potter along in life. And he does this on such a grand scale, his output of work is prolific, so many ideas. I think it takes someone very clever to make something so simple and say so much. Spot on.


I think he sums it up best himself in this time lapse video of the construction and installation of the exhibition, worth a watch!

work in progress

hmm...

veg and art, what more could you want?

Hurray! It's 5x7 art time again organised by the lovely Tiffany! I'm so excited, and this time there's an exhibition too, which is just brilliant, I need to get my thinking hat on! Anyone can sign up, so if you fancy it...

Now for an update on the vegetables...

So, this weekend I:

Earthed up the potatos...


Weeded the shallots, they have all split now, which is good, and also rather pretty!


I planted some more purple broccoli because I don't want to run out this year...


And re-potted the cucmber, sharp spiney stems stuck in my fingers


Look what the tiny sprouters that took so long to push through have grown into! Could they be the beginnings of flowers??


Some one got there before me with the kale...


And after all that hard work I took a well earned rest!

dummy love...

I'm going on a first aid course tomorrow. it's something i've been meaning to do for a long time now, but i've been putting it off because i'm scared of these... aggghhhhh! I've been scared of dummys, waxworks, manequins, in fact any fake human thing, since my freind's mum took me to the Industrial Museam when I was about 5 years old. There were models of Luddites and Coiners and worst of all someone's head being chopped off in the Gibbet. I ran out screaming and had to be taken home. I can still remeber the dreams I had of Luddites with wild dirty hair laying beside me at night... But I think it's time to put things into perspective, i'm sure those dummies won't come alive and get me, i'm sure the resussitation doll won't wake up and grab me (it won't it won't) so i've taken the plunge and i'm going to do it beacause I think it is important knowledge to have. Time to face the fear :)


I was going to put a photo of a waxwork here, but looking at them on google images made me feel all aprehensive, and to be honest, I don't want to look at them! So here is a nice picture of Lemony chicken and her chick Linda instead. Much better.

the wonders of string

One day last week I noticed that the old underpass near my bus stop had been cleared of all the rubbish and junk that normall half fills it. And what should appear there today!






Beautiful!

cock-a-doodle-doo!

This is Speckled Jim, she is a lady chicken. She has layed and succesfully hatched 6 chicks. Today my mum called me, all excited, she was walking up the lane when she heard a cock crowing. That's not Ducky she thought! (Ducky is the cockrel in case you didn't know...) Has someone given us another cockrel?? But no, it was Speckled Jim sat high up on the fence crowing! crowing - cock-a-doodle-dooooo! I know her comb is big, but she's not a man... or is she?!


Went for tea in a lovely Japanese restaurant called Little Tokyo, tables on the floor and waitreses in kimono. The view from our table...


And a peek into the Oxfam shop window, must remeber to go back and have a look when it's open!

photos photos everywhere

Have put my first photos on flickr today if you fancy a look! The joys of flickr are fairly new to me - but there is so much amazing stuff on there, so many insprirational images! I think I am addicted to the internet...

grrrr

The bank called me today. Some nasty person has stolen £500 pounds from my account. They went shopping online at Tesco with my card details. What a cheek!! And now I have to wait til monday to sort it out (but I think it will be ok...)






A tree to cheer me up :)

rainbow

The rhododendrons are out in the woods near my house. The whole place is in bloom, photos can't do it justice, but here is a taste...

slowness

Not feeling very inspired today. Raining again. I did try to do some drawing last night but I only had rubbish paper and it just didn't go right. So I ripped up an old drawing I didn't like that happened to be on nice paper, and drew some bits on that. It was all going well until my boyfriend got back and we had an argument. Great. I hate arguing (who doesn't), I'm no good at it, I get all emotional and irrational and can't control my emotions. Ho hum.


Anyway, I was still feeling down as I got off the bus from work, so I walked the long way home through the woods. Slowly. The smell of the woods in the rain always comforts me. I wouldn't say it makes m feel happy, but nostalgic. I feel it grounds me, puts things into perspective. I walked slower and slower. I sometimes feel like if I stop walking I'll never start again. When I feel myself walking and thinking like that I often think of a book I once read, by one of my favourite authors; Milan Kundera. In his book Slowness he writes (and I'm sure he puts it better than this, but I can't find the quote so you'll have to read it...) that when walking to forget we walk quickly, but when walking to remember we slow down. The deeper in thought we are, the slower we go...


Sometimes it's nice to go slow, to think and follow the paths of memories. Sometimes it's like wading through treacle.