Identity

An exercise in patience

I recently joined a Facebook artist’s group for people with an interest in stencil cutting and spray painting. I’ve been cutting for a while now, making pretty simple designs, sometimes adding more complexity through developing multi layered stencils, and on the whole, keeping it simple.

Being in this new group is proving to be a really useful experience for me. I’m seeing people working at varying levels of expertise, folk are really generous with their knowledge, sharing tips and ideas, and encouragement too.

One of the reasons this group came into existence, is to invite people to make single layer stencils for a forthcoming exhibition. I’ve been wanting to take part, watching and waiting. Earlier this week, I decided to stop wanting, and start making. I drew a design, and began to cut. Several patient hours later, I have my stencil.

Identity : An exercise in patience

In case you are interested, I thought I’d share some work in progress photos with you, including one where I almost ended up with a beehive hairdo design!

Joining this group has encouraged me to up my game : Ask questions, try something new, be patient, keep going. I am particularly grateful to Korp and WinnieMMay for kicking this project off, and to everyone who is providing encouragement.

Next steps are to think about the spray. What kind of surface will I put the design on to? Will I design a background? More to follow…

Cherry Blossom

On the first day of spring

This poem was written by Adrian Thirkell in 2018, after Adrian came across my Japanese Cherry Blossom painting online. I’ve never met Adrian, yet he offered his art freely, and kindly agreed I could share it with you. His offer slipped my mind, until I got one of those ‘One year ago’ memory jogger thingies from Facebook yesterday. Finally, a year after it was written, and coincidentally on the Spring Equinox of 2019 – here it is.

The morning tree is hung, profuse, in blossom.
Speaks from every budding flower
Of how, notwithstanding that a vial of poison
May leech us of our love, turn all things sour,
We may find ourselves again renewed,
And from each cast of air strewn light
Absorb upon the skin, then through and through,
The means to our own blossoming, and free of blight.
And then we wake to more transcendent mood;
Each bloom, unfettered, calls the spirit up.
To speak, we make emollients of every word
And every touch distills the petals’ sap.

If you would like to own a copy of the picture which inspired the poem, it is available on Etsy as a signed numbered limited edition A4 print, as an A5 print, and as a greeting card. Thanks in advance for your support.

In The Fullness of Time

Be curious. Start something. Keep going.

It’s been a choppy week with more than its fair share of anxiety and stress. Fortunately, I’ve got better at spotting the signs, and learning to move with the flow, rather than resist. In turn, this has meant I’ve also been able to enjoy a lot of what is going on around here this week too. Things like…

On Monday I gave two career talks to local school kids. We talked about art, travel, hard work, ups and downs, and more. We shared lots of questions about what’s good, what’s not so good. I appreciate how younger minds, yet to be corporatised often seem more willing to just ask clear questions, getting straight to the point. And there’s a friendliness in the exchanges too.

On Tuesday I had some great business development conversations, and ran a community art class. Wednesday was also primarily about business development, and Thursday contained a lovely joyful moment of handing over a finished art work to its new custodians.

The week is drawing to a close, and the next opportunity approaches. This is the 150th consecutive week of the We Are All Artists free art project. Almost three years ago I started hiding art, and where this project has taken us since, never ceases to amaze me.

I’ve decided to hide this guardian to celebrate the milestone. I painted this a while back, and I’ve been waiting for the right moment to do something with it. ‘In The Fullness of Time’ will be hidden some time over the weekend. Thanks to everyone who supports the project, I appreciate it very much.