South West holiday - the Villages

Got up and checked out early to give Jenna, another guest, a lift to Moretonhampstead where she was catching a bus. It was a drivingly wet day on the high roads, and persistently drizzly as we came down, so I was glad I'd chosen today to see some of the villages.  I was heading North East to my sister's in Bristol, and there were a couple of stops I wanted to make on the way...

Sometimes A Wild God

Something marvellous has arrived in the post. 

This is 'Sometimes A Wild God', a poem by Tom Hirons, partner to the wonderful artist Rima Staines whose work I've been following for about seven years now.  I have a couple of prints of her work.  This beautiful artefact, however, is a collaboration between the two of them.

I first came across the poem almost by accident, and it's rare that I'll stop for poetry that isn't spoken aloud, but I read it all the way through three times and then stopped and looked at it for a bit.  There's no telling why some things hit you and other things don't, but Hirons seemed to catch on something that rings true.  Something terrible and horrible and beautiful and incomprehensible.  The kind of thing where it's more a feeling than anything you could put into words yourself, but when someone else says it, you go 'Yes.  Yes, that's exactly what it's like."

So I bought a copy.

It came in the post.  It's small, and neat, and unassuming.  The paper is solid, not flimsy or cheap (as someone who draws, I'm a student of paper), and it manages to be professionally smart yet subversively tactile at the same time.  As I say, it's nothing half-done, it's an artefact.  Not just a carrier for the poem, but an object in and of itself, made with care.  There are six illustrations, and the cover, all done by Rima in simple black and white.

You can read the poem for yourself Here.  Perhaps you'll feel the same, perhaps you won't.  Who can say why some things hit you and other things don't.

Remember...

... and, perhaps more importantly, remember to learn from it.

The Folklore Bookshelf

I've been working on a personal project since I moved into my current house about a month ago.  Since I like to track my progress I took some photos as I went along, although most were taken in the dim bulb-light of my room and may have come out a little fuzzy.  What do you think?

When I first got this bookcase it was very very purple.  A bit too purple in fact, so I decided to redecorate it.  Being me, that doesn't just mean painting it a less scary colour, but covering it in images and stories I enjoy that really fire up my imagination.  So in there, hidden amid the oak leaves, you might see a Wasp Salesman peddling his wares, a leaping hare the size of a Shetland pony, a selkie just beginning to change into her human form, an owl brewing a kettle, and a motley gang of musicians scattered about, some of which are not quite human.

It took about a month to do from beginning to end, as I painted in one or two figures per night, and only then when I had the time, but I love having this in my room!  Totally worth the effort.

Blank canvas

Been doing a bit of painting.  I've not sat down and tackled something big for a while.  It was really fun!

Here we are about three-quarters done.  I'm not much of a planner when it comes to drawing.  I find it I draw the same thing too many times it tends to take the spark out of it.  If you're lucky I might doodle you a scruffy thumbnail.  I'd rather have a rough idea in my head, and then tackle the whole painting as it it was a massive problem-solving exercise...

One or two more evenings should do it and then I hand it over to go up in the lovely Lizzy's office.

Hidden Loughborough

You think you know a town just because you have your day to day routines, your favourite haunts, and your regular aquaintances.  You think you know a town that is ordinary, but you don't.  Right below the surface, tucked away in back rooms and modified sheds, is a vast well of incredible people with hard-won and well-nurtured talents and interests you never saw before in your life.