Luminous...a thought...and a photo on this Photo Friday

Luminous, illumination, enlightenment.Don’t you think those are three of the most terrific words we can hold in our heart? Don’t they make you feel like you can rise above criticism, generate understanding and recover from a slap in the face? Yeah...they do.It’s funny how very susceptible to criticism I can be. It’s not like I never criticise, and I know I’m not the perfect little enlightened, luminous being I want to see myself as. You know...this is my problem: I write the ideal script for a situation and then when that situation doesn’t follow the script I get a reality check.Yesterday, an on-line conversation turned nasty. I apologised for having my say in it and withdrew from the convo after the first critical comment but the virtual slap in the face continued. Funny that. It stung. It stung like crazy because the kind of slap it was was a completely ad hominem attack and also because it was on-line...in MY space, my protected little happy space of friendship and camaraderie. (I know...Disney) But really, people can behave much worse from behind a wall, can’t they? Illumination!But then a wonderful, sweet friend – someone who I cherish, messaged me and we had our own little convo and she made me feel loads and loads better. I’m grateful to her for her support. She is luminous!And, I have to remember to stop writing these scripts...to stop trying to control situations or possibly twist them to my taste with my comments. I have to remember I can choose what I see in my on-line world and to use the hide/delete/unfriend/unfollow options more often. Enlightenment!Photo taken in St Denys, the 13C church in our village of Northmoor. Posted for enlightenment but also for Photo Friday :)

A walk to The River, and what I found when I got there.

Sunday Whirl...dreaming

Swing Rosy Powers Fling Gold Grasses Spray Stray Erotic Melancholy Pale CoverDo you feel it?This melancholy mood.Yesterday I watched the sunset, rosy then gold then gray.Remember seeing the crows swoop and swing on the pines.Into the night,And silence.But then the moon cast down lofty, private powersFoxes were screaming, owls screeching, smaller things scuttling about and taking cover in the cloverErotic rutting in the fields among the grasses in the pale light of the waningThen I was runningI was running thru the fields on long matchstick-legsRunning with the deer to the riverTo the river to fling my sleek, silver body into the darkness and float with the silvery minnowsI rose and fell with breath, with the flow, with the minnows, in the darknessAnd lifted up on heron wings to spray starlight across the skyThen... the dawn chorusAnd I lay in bed and stared at a stray cobweb on the ceiling till 10am.Brenda I loved the words this week, thank you. What a treat it is to have a random group of words to play with each Sunday. And also loved reading thru my friend's, especially Walt, Sara, Jo Ann, Carol, Misky and the amazing Hannah. Go have a read when you get a chance. (Poetry is good for you...like a great, big yummy salad of health for your brain.)Art: a sketch done with my new water soluble charcoal pencils on a piece of a 1971 Ordnance Survey Map (Go new pencils!)

Sunday rest? Never! Sunday RACE! The turbo mini and the Carterham 7 at Avon Park.

Sunday morning jumped out of bed, fed the cat, jumped into the cars and roared off for Shakespeare County Raceway, at Stratford upon Avon, about 35 miles away. R drove his turbo mini and I drove the Vauxhall Astra. You know those early Sunday mornings when there’s no one about and you can hoon down the country lanes at 90m/h instead of 50m/h? Yeah...one of those lovely mornings. Met up with Jason in his Carterham 7 half way, somewhere around Chipping Norton, and then all bets were off.The Astra has a turbo and loads of power, but nothing compared to two lightweight racing cars with something like 500bhp! I had a hard time keeping them in my sight and the only way I could take photos of them is if they got slowed down by a transit van. They raced and chased and overtook everyone in sight, including each other.Finally at the track I found my friend Dave Derry and signed my life away for a media pass and high visibility vest. The mini and Carterham had to go thru their scrutinising before they could race.Stylin' the high visability vest!Finally in the line. These cars are so easy to push.The banter about who's going to get who.I'm officially media and can go where I please!Warming up the tires...and they're off!Again...And off...Back it up and do it again!Don't mess with me...I've got a high visability media jacket!The line got a bit backed up after a battery exploded and the track had to be cleaned up.So I got inventive with the photos. I love the way the mini grill is reflecting in the Carterham.Also love this little guy's keep calm and jr. drag race sticker.Finally, end of the day, packed away the crash helmets...And hooned home.I'll put more photos on my Facebook page. If you're not my friend yet...why not? Come be friends. :)

A variation: Two...er...challenges with one shot. Don't say it!

Such full days...so much to write about, to photograph. The challenges pile up and I really want to respond but there's not enough time. So I have to start getting creative. Photo Friday Challenge asked for "Youngster", while the Weekly Photo Challenge from WordPress asked for "Inside". These little guys satisfied both. (from my point of view)They live inside a small shed on the estate. Aren't they sweet? I know no-one will say anything about stones! :)

Prepare to be overwhelmed...Art in Action 2012 !

Tell me, what would you do if someone gave you the opportunity, for £15 (about $24), to meet around 400 like-minded, creative people, all open and smiling, willing to share ideas, inspiration, techniques and personal sketchbooks with you. What if I told you they would also let you handle their work, muck about with their supplies and take away the things you make? Would you be in heaven?Yeah, me too.That’s what Art in Action 2012 is all about.To tell the truth, I really wanted to go because of a friend – Jackie Morris. Jackie and I have been corresponding thru our websites for a while now, she lives on the coast of Wales, I’ve been in Van for an extended time, so when she said she would be in Oxfordshire while I’m here too...well, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.(Jackie demonstrating her watercolour/gold leaf technique) Plus, I must confess, I love, LOVE her illustrations and so had in mind to get several of her books for Binky and Isla Violet. (Actually I got them for me too :) )The show takes place on the grounds of a beautiful estate, Waterperry House. (R called it Katie Perry house, now try getting that out of your head :) )There are sculptures all over the grounds, about 25 huge marquees each dedicated to one discipline, a best in show marquee and several small tents for workshops and food stalls.A small church beside the house. The setting for floral displays and a restful place to get away from the 6000 people who came this day.My new friend Amanda Hislop demonstrating her technique.Amanda's sketchbooks.Me looking totally overwhelmed!Inspiration board from Jane Corbett. (Yes, the Princess Kate hat maker)Four of my most favorite pieces in the Best of Show tent. That's Jackie's "The Heart Between" painting (sold, I'm not surprised)One more of that exquisite glass sculpture. Next time I have $2000 I don't know what to do with...My books from Jackie, a painting of fish done while mucking about with new acrylics, more fish done with super beautiful charcoal sticks, my new water-soluble and erasable pencils and some memorabilia from the day.Such a good day!!!

Call me a philistine...go ahead...I can take it

Let me tell you something. David Nash is sculptor in residence at Kew for a year. I went there yesterday and saw the sculptures....Um...So is this what happened?A very, very old and magnificent oak died at Kew and at some point someone somewhere said, “Let’s give this very, very old, magnificent oak tree to a sculptor to make something commemorative with. Let’s then display this in the garden.” Someone else said, “Great idea, let’s have an artist in residence create something magnificent to honour this magnificent old oak and let’s let him use other bits of old wood around the garden for more commemorative sculpture.” Someone else probably said, “Yes, and let’s pay that sculptor loads of money.”Do you know what happened with that very, very old and magnificent oak?This:Now I’m the first person to admit that there are millions of things I don’t understand. And I really do try to always come to a piece of artistic expression, poetry, images, sculpture, with the attitude of, “OK, what do I understand?” and I take it from there.I had a good look. Really I did. I saw rough-hewed huge chunks of wood, some of them burned black and I saw some of the wood chunks reproduced in bronze and painted black. Really and honestly most some of them looked like a pile of dinosaurs droppings.You know I sometimes wonder what life would be like if I was so successful as an artist that I could have my own show at Kew. I’ve spent a lot, a lot of time there and have seen the most glorious works; seen glass installations by Dale Chihuly, toured the Mary Ann North gallery over and over, seen the most intricately woven willow seed sculptures by Tom Hare...well, you get the picture. (I’m not just turning my nose up on one form of art without at least some knowledge.)I even read the press releases and the reviews of this instillation. This kind of writing gets me every time:“Nash’s philosophy places particular emphasis on the fundamental role that nature plays in humanity’s continued existence. He sees the environment as our ‘outer skin’; we are not separate from it or its master – everything that we do impacts upon it, for better or for worse. His work results in sculptures in which form and material have a deep mutual sympathy, and retain some of the essence of their original form.”...huh?...Looking at these David Nash-es I had to wonder “why?”, you know, what drives an artist to create like that? Is it the love of working with wood? The rough and hewn bits of it? The charred blackness of it? How is it artistic expression in his mind? Or is it all just so much self/mass-delusion and money signs?Then I had to amend my equation: “Modern art = I could have done that + yes but you didn’t” to “yes but you didn’t have the connections or the OBE”.Is there something I’m missing? Please, please explain.

A lovely day at Royal Botanic Garden Kew...and a cup of tea

The sun came out! Braved the London Olympics traffic, (Especially Junction 3 on the M4), to have a lovely day at Kew. But a sunny day at Kew! What could be better?

Sunday whirl...warning...this is a dark one

The words from this Sunday Whirl led me to a very dark ocean.humility relish trigger swells flicks chain crack brittle spray gravity plant claim refrain

carrying an iron chain in my handswandering in silence on a rainy beachamong the sand, the shells, the pebblesI step closer to the green swellsimbued with humilitysilent and sad

I look around to see othersalone on the beachwandering with chainsthe chains that they claim

they will wander the beachand carry their chainslike mejust like meuntil a trigger sends them closer to the swellssilent and sad

and they will drift away from medrift in a dreamdrift away and sinksink in silenceand they will fadeand their gaze will fade from my memory

I expect I will wander this beachI will feel the crack and weight of this chainI will relish the green swellsI will not refrainand I will drift away and sink in silence....

oceans away a small wave flicks a brittle chaingravity brings it down to earthto plant it in the sand with the shells and pebbles

Edit:

Showed the words to R and he dictated this:

I relish the trigger of creative spray which swells my mind and flicks the brittle crackling chains constraining my thought allowing me in my humility to refrain from mediocrity, I am not a plant, I claim my right to think.Spontaneously and in 20 seconds! Great work!

From one extreme to another

Watched the Moto GP race today. As Moto GP races go, this one was a bit tame. No one fell off, there were only a few slight wobbles and one little bump. But if you’re like me and love, LOVE beautiful, sculptural things, you’d love to watch those super bikes move. Like beautiful, brightly coloured gyroscopes coming so close to touching the ground around each corner. After the race I wanted more beautiful sculptural things and so decided to take my Austin Seven mini and Project 17 out of the garage for a photo.This week I want to get my mini thru its MOT so I can drive it all summer.Project 17, sleek, turbo, 158m/hr?...even though it’s the most beautiful one of a kind bike in the world, it’s just too fast and scary for me to even try riding. Those kinds of thrills I’ll leave up to R.But aren’t they the most beautiful things together?