Who we are

On a roadtrip with my manager she got me talking about my future career, what I intended to do, if I planned to use my degree.  I don't think it's always as easy as that but it did get me thinking.  I ended up rambling on for ages about the nuances of illustration and it's place in the world... but have I really drawn anything lately?  Sure, I've been insanely busy during term time and getting used to work but nevertheless, why didn't I draw?  So I got home, broke out the paints and wandered off into doodle-land for about 4 hours...

Originally I drew these two side by side, and they make more sense that way, but blog layout tool says no :)

And the rain rain rain came down down down

It's been throwing down rain all day.  Spent my lunch break staring out the window at it pelting the river, pencil in hand.  Time for all sensible birdmen to roost up for the day.

(The longest part of this drawing process was hiding my company's logo that was on the notebook paper!  Copyright laws and all that ;) )

Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel...

Last week I picked up a new habit that has already begun taking up my attention - the drawing of celtic knotwork.  You know, those woven patterns you get on all things Irish where there doesn't seem to be a beginning or end to the line.

In a moment of boredom I decided to find out how they worked and now I'm hooked in the same way other people are hooked on sudoku.  Anyone who has seen me draw knows I normally steer clear of repeating patterns and straight lines so knotwork seems like an odd choice but I think the pull comes from the intricacy of it and the fact that you never know what you're going to end up with.  It's a different result every time.  Although now I'm starting to be able to predict my patterns really all you can do is set up the grid size you want to draw on, insert your 'breaks' (the markers that show you where there you will create gaps in the weave) and start drawing, hoping for the best.  I might try set up a really interesting set of breaks only to begin drawing and find that that particular configuration doesn't work and I'm stuck in an infinite loop (naturally I only make this discovery half way through the drawing!), or then again it might work out perfectly on the first try.  One of them confused me so much I had to draw it out 3 times before I got it right!

I've been doing them at home, on trains, on the phone, at my work desk, embossed onto the backs of foil wrappers, down the sides of my conference notes, over dinner, basically at any time when I should have been concentrating but wasn't.  Below is my current collection of knots I have drawn over the past week or so.  Most of them were drawn very small, and are wobbly and scribbly so they've been enlarged and some given colour to help you make out the patterns.

Now someone knowledgeable will tell me off because most of these involved more than one line of weave, but I don't mind that so much:) 

I've got up to a speed now where I can set up a new set of breaks on a grid pattern and knock one of these little scruffy ones out in about 15 minutes.  But then I went through them again, picked out a favourite and copied it out on big A2 paper, geometrically correct, with a ruler and a set square and everything.  It took me about an hour, not including the colouring.  The paint that looks ochre is actually metallic gold.

So, next challenge, circle-patterned knotwork!

Oh, and on a slightly related note of other people with obsessive hobbies, check out the blog of my friend Magical Mark Watson.  He's already a very capable performer of juggling, magic and pantomimes (plus a really nice guy to be around - I defy anyone to spend more than a minute in conversation with him without smiling), but as part of a rather impressive plan to do something useful over his summer he'll be performing and posting a new juggling trick every day.   This was Day 4:



 "But surely!" I hear you cry "Surely you can only juggle so many tricks!  How many can there possibly be?"  Well we have 103 days to find out - roll on summer!

Tilting your head

One of the nice things about my current job is that I'm out of the office quite often, going to meetings and housing schemes around the country.  Already I've been to Guildford, Warwick, Birmingham, Coventry, Middlesbrough, and Liverpool several times now, and when I have a little time before my train home I like to go for a wander and see the sights.

A while back I visited a sceme which has the awesome Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral directly outside the door.  It is a gorgeous traditional-looking building, roughly based in the gothic style even though it was only started in 1904, and finished in 1978. 

Now I love a cathedral.  Love the dedication it takes to make one, particularly before modern building techniques came in and sped up the process, love the sense of history and tradition, love the architecture and the skill of the craftmanship, and most of all I love the light.  Light is one of the major things that makes a scene for me, and the Anglican Cathedral is brilliant for it.  It was in there about 3pm and got to see this dancing display through the coloured glass windows.

The northern sandstone is a lot darker than the cream-coloured stone you get where I'm from, but the darker backdrop just shows up the light even better and makes for some brilliant effects. 

I also managed to accidentally acquire a tour guide near the Mary Chapel, so I got to hear a bit of the history of the place as well.  It was designed by a man whose father and grandfather had designed churches but who had never made anything on his own before.  But Giles Gilbert Scott was a guy with big ideas (his cathedral is still the longest cathedral in the world) and won a competition to design the massive structure.  It just goes to show what you can do when you combine your dreams, your talents and a decent amount of hard graft - what emerges is truly impressive.

On my most recent visit I walked back to the train station by a slightly different route, so as to visit the Catholic, or Metropolitan Cathedral instead, which is a completely different affair altogether.

It's a very modern building, going completely away from what you's expect a cathedral to look like (more on that in a bit).  Everywhere are fantastic examples of sculpture, coloured glass, tapestry, painting, textiles and collages.  The room is circular rather than a long corridor, with rooms around the outside that are intended to help you focus on different aspects of the life and message of Jesus.  Each is different from the last, with it's own atmosphere and message.  It's also in a room of this magnitude that the panoramic function on my camera really makes sense!

Some of these artworks are genuinely stunning.  Each of them has been clearly thought about and uniquely and skillfully made.  Some of the smaller wall sculptures in particular are very raw and moving.  They really make you stop and look again, and consider what they are about rather than passing them over out of familiarity.  Even if you're not a Christian yourself, I'd highly recommend a visit if you're in the area, just for the level of artwork in there.

This kind of constant creativity is something I definitely approve of, particularly in churches.  Tradition can be a fantastic thing, it imbues our actions with meaning and reminds us of our history and how we have come to be where we are, but our faith should also be relevant to our everyday lives in the present.  Every generation - every individual - will connect with God in a slightly different way to everybody else in the room, so as much as I love the hard work and splendour of the old-style cathedrals, this one seems really appropriate to it's purpose.  This place is up to date, so it makes sense to people, they can see how it relates to their own lives rather than boxing their faith into someone else's package of what it should look like.  In the Bible we see that the first thing God did in the universe was to create, He made us to create new things too, and the Bible is constantly re-applying itself to the new cultures it encounters (one of it's great strengths, in my opinion) so we should always be expecting and looking for new ideas.

Lately I've been reminded that this certainty of change and development is true of faith, and also of life.  Rather than be afraid of change it might be an idea to begin cautiously embracing it.  Yes, new ideas need to be closely monitored as they bring with them their own challenges and insecurities, but they can also bring amazing opportunities for growth, for a change of perspective, and a new understanding of the endless posibilities that you had never considered before.