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.