I cant believe its been 16 months since my last blog! So many things have happened and life is unrecognisable from my last post ..... wonderful and sad beyond words and beautiful life just does not stop happening. Picking up the baton of certain aspects of life has been like Sisyphus' story but decided to let go and let it be ...... and like with this pipe (above) at North Manchester General Hospital......the rain fell and rust grew and suddenly it was unexpectedly fascinating and beautiful ...... so with a rusty baton in my head, Im off again on my painting journey ...... see you along the way ...........
![]() Took this photo from the car, driving towards Owd Bett's to watch the fireworks over the City ..... was thinking maybe we would drive into the City and see them closer (I LOVE fireworks) but then again Im not so keen on crowds. I like watching them up in the hills.... space and a different perspective. This year.... there didnt seem to be as many spectacular bursts ....the recession? ..... but, there were more children in the small group of us that gather up there once a year, and they lit sparklers in the first few moments of 2014..... and it was lovely. ![]() So, A New Year and a new light ..... closer... and held by hands that are full of innocence and still forming .... and they always drawing circles .............
![]() .......Just watched a programme taped by a friend.... Her Master's Voice ....there's a small snippet here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=09z2seL4NF8
She was at a turning point/crisis point in her life and had more or less decided to turn away from ventriloquism. She planned to tell Ken Campbell (her ex-lover and mentor) about her decision when she discovered he had died .... and so her journey begins .... I know watching this is meaningful coz of my emotional reaction to it .... but the grey matter hasnt caught up with the heart yet ............ As Im filled with ideas, longings, hopes, misgivings for the coming new year, I am clearing away the clutter that has invaded my studio ......... the Christmas Card Box, Wrapping Paper Box, cellotape, scissors and all seasonal leftovers ......and underneath it all was the palette from my painting of Keevah Mae. I noticed it formed a circular movement and checked out the plates and palettes I'd worked from and lazily put on the shelf under my desk without cleaning ...... more circles. Its significance is personal; I remember a conversation I had late one night in the City Centre Streets, when I was in my 20's. A group of us were giving out hot soup and sandwiches. I was paired up with a guy who was a Christian and he was asking me about my faith ...... his faith had form and words and well-known stories peopled by heros and heroines .... mine didnt have words or form yet and my 'stories' were still being written with no beginnings or endings. He was a lovely guy but he was compelled to find out where I was coming from so he started to ask me about love ..... true love ...... and he and I found out at the same time what I really believed. I said love needs to form a circle otherwise it never fulfils its potential..... which is endless............... This truth, for me, has stood the test of time ......
![]() It's been a while ..... Weddings, Funerals, Anniversaries and general family static interspersed with portrait commissions. Now Christmas and another handful of birthdays are knocking at my door.
Ive been longing for a break in the maelstrom but a very wise and inspirational friend told me to stop resisting and lean into it and somehow I have ridden the waves instead of doggy paddling madly, though it requires minute-by-minute focus to achieve sometimes....... I am a Work-In-Progress ................. x It's been a long time ........... time to come 'home' ........ Ive just returned from 2 weeks in Ireland to discover that my beautiful friend June has died. The world will not be the same without her. She was a TRULY a special person and I think that the church will not be big enough to hold all the people whose lives she touched. She changed my world with her love and her belief in me and her sense of humour. She once told me that I had a special gift, when I said Well, its a long time coming .....she said Then it must be a very special gift.
This photograph has sat above every table I have painted at and will continue to do so always ...inspiring my work and my life. I think the special gift I had was you June........ you walked on hallowed ground and we were all blessed when you walked alongside us. Home at last with Gerry...............x ![]() .....Ive just had the privilege of painting John, known in his family as Big G. He is 90 years young and his son-in-law Martin, also an artist ... http://www.cobbybrook.co.uk ..... told me a little bit about John's life.... so inspiring... and written in his face. Ive just spent the happiest 2 days painting Ive had in a looong time .......THANK YOU to Martin and his family and John x
![]() ........ A fallow painting season - but fruit still forming after the pruning. I have learned over the years that when the muse leaves and your creative self is like a ghost, wandering the halls, to just turn up at your 'place of work' even if your clocking-in card is missing.
I have been feeling my way towards making my mark in Tony's Book, for the Collective Book Project..... I had a blueprint of where I was going....and determined today I would work on it. Tony's Book was sitting on top of 2 books I bought at a Car Boot recently - a book of poetry and an old, beautiful book titled "The Story of 25 Eventful Years" , full of photographs taken between 1910 to 1935. I picked all 3 books up and sat down to begin work. I noticed that a piece of paper was sticking out of the book of photographs and it marked an image with the clock of Big Ben showing 11 o'clock. The work I had intended to do in Tony's book related to clocks so I was intrigued enough to wonder what the poetry book would reveal .... in the index was a poem entitled 'The Layers'. Layers and connections is a theme running through my work so I went straight to that........ what a discovery! ..... The fate of the mark making in Tony's Book was sealed .............. The Layers by Stanley Kunitz I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was, though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray. When I look behind, as I am compelled to look before I can gather strength to proceed on my journey, I see the milestones dwindling toward the horizon and the slow fires trailing from the abandoned camp-sites, over which scavenger angels wheel on heavy wings. Oh, I have made myself a tribe out of my true affections, and my tribe is scattered! How shall the heart be reconciled to its feast of losses? In a rising wind the manic dust of my friends, those who fell along the way, bitterly stings my face. Yet I turn, I turn, exulting somewhat with my will intact to go wherever I need to go, and every stone on the road precious to me. In my darkest night, when the moon was covered and I roamed through wreckage, a nimbus-clouded voice directed me: "Live in the layers not on the litter." Though I lack the art to decipher it, no doubt the next chapter in my book of transformations is already written' I am not done with my changes. ![]() ........this was one of my Mum's sayings......and I guess I inherited its fruit ....... I discovered a BEAUTIFUL ceramicist - Elizabeth Howe and after saving my pennies I could finally afford this exquisite plate ..... it arrived this morning ...... YAY!!!!!!!!!
Have a look at her other beautiful works on her Etsy site - http://www.etsy.com/shop/ELIZABETHHOWECERAMIC Now to save some more pennies for another piece....... |