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.

Stop. Look. Listen.

At the end of April myself and three friends, laden with food and canvas, bundled ourselves into a car and drove down to a very picturesque part of the countryside to visit the Art Exhibition of our friends Rachel and Darren Allwright.  They are an amazing and very creative couple, (just check out their blog All Things Allwright, where they display all these wonderful creations) and it had gotten to the point where they had so many works of art in their house that they were beginning to get in the way!  So they put on a fantasic evening of live music provided by Darren and friends, tastey homemade food (including some very amusing Kate and Wills cupcakes left over from a street party to celebrate the royal wedding.)  It was a lovely evening, and great to meet up with past friends who also knew Rach and Darren, as well and new ones from their lives before and since I've known them. The atmosphere was so warm and friendly, there was a real sense of connection between everyone, but of course the real focus of the evening was the art.

Rachel was 2 years above me in the same course (and in fact I remember her showing me around the floor of the building used by the final years and offering me some of the tea she kept stashed up there) and I've always loved the brightness and thoughtfulness of the pictures she creates.  Darren I will always associate with boundless enthusiasm and a vast array of woolly jumpers, but he has been bitten by the artsy bug too (as well as being a musician.) and it was great to see what they'd been up to since they were married and to support them by buying some of their art!



We had a silent auction, and I saw a piece I loved very early on so I put in a bid, but it was only in the last 10 minutes that a bidding war started between me and another guy!  We kept driving each other up by a couple of pounds each time, but just as I reached the limit of how high I could bid he switched to another painting in the series.  I won!!  It turned out he'd liked both and hadn't been able to make up his mind so... I helped?  That's the version I'm sticking with anyway!  Anyway, I got my painting, and it's now installed on my bedroom wall.  I look at it and wonder if the figure is coming or going.  The house on the horizon is home, a place of warmth and safety and freedom, but he's standing on the edge.  Is he admiring it?  Is it his or someone elses, and is he hesitant to approach?  Is he coming home after a long jourmey or taking a last look before embarking on a new one?

It's said that art is supposed to make you think, and I like that it does.  I get the feeling I'm going to see this painting different ways a time goes by, and I look forward to finding a place for it when I get a home of my own someday.



Jubilee Woods in Blue

I know I'm overly fond of blogging photos of my walks in the wood, but how could you possibly resist when your favourite trail is looking like this...

The bluebells are out, and stunning is the only word for them.  I spent a good hour wandering through the woods entranced on such a lovely spring day, admiring the blackthorn blossoms and the catkins.  As usual all the photos will shortly be appearing on Flickr.

In love with your sound

I believe what C.S. Lewis said in 'Mere Christianity' is true when he talked about emotions. He was describing how our feelings rise and fall, and how it's impossible, even ridiculous, for us to feel one thing all the time. We can't be constantly ecstatic, or constantly sad, but instead we go through phases and seasons. Equally, we can't be completely in love all the time: most long-term couples I know have attested to this. Sometimes you're madly in love... and sometimes you aren't. We're just humans, we wax and wane like the spring to the autumn, and it takes more perseverance than we'd really like to trudge on through the winter months.
This is what it is for me anyway. Although I don't think I could ever go back to a place of denying God's place in the universe, sometimes I'm not as in love with him as I think I ought to be. Some days I think about the wonder of God's creation and all the joy I take in it... and some days I don't. Some days I wake up and I can't wait to talk to Him, just nattering away all day long, and sometimes I don't. Or I spend the day thinking about Him and spending time where He is. And other days I just don't fancy it. I can't explain it other than admitting that I'm not the faithful person I wish I was – I don't always stick out the rough patches or the dry spells in order to be with Him. Sometimes I feel like I need a break from the relationship.

It worries me whenever this happens, because I know I'm ignoring Him, and I never want to do it but sometimes a break feels better. There's no moral standard, no voice of conscience or distracting conversation, no need to make time for someone else, I can just get all my own stuff done... I'm stubborn too, and I know better than to try and force even myself to do something when I feel like resisting it. It's that sense of 'I don't need you. Look, I can do it all myself.' I can't of course. I find I like who I am a lot less when I cut God out of my life. My patience shortens, I'm uncharitable and mean towards others, if only in my head and not out loud, I lose the sense of underlying joy that sustains me from day to day. And why? Because I'm intent on keeping him away, I don't want to be dependant, I don't want to surrender, at least until it really comes down to the wire.

At the art show of two friends of mine today I had been feeling that way for a few weeks, not abandoning my God but certainly not giving Him the attention He deserves. I couldn't see the point in it, why not just take care of my own business? It was an excellent show, I bid on a painting (more on that later), ate some delicious food, met some great people and all seemed well. But in the quieter half of the evening when night had come on and the band had played, I found my feet moving without permission as one guy played a guitar and sang at the front of the hall. For some of the songs, not all but some, I found myself wanting to dance, to be graceful (which I'm not) and to express something. As I listened more closely I realised the songs that were having this effect were all worship songs, all sung heartfelt to God. I went, and sat, and listened, letting my mind run, and felt that strange sense of longing you have when you remember the house you used to live in, or the friends you used to know. I wanted what I'd had before. I'd been unfaithful, cold and distant, but God's great love and wanting for me had never changed, never faded. He loved me as much as before, was as wonderful as He had ever been. Where had I been? What had possessed me? I looked forward to the next time I could see Him and begin to rebuild the parts of our relationship I had let slip.

I think I may be ready to fall in love all over again.
 

In love with your sound - Spoken Groove

Two in a million

I was so lucky to get this shot, you almost never see these in the wild any more...

Spuggle and Jin

So it's over for another year; the British Juggling Convention 2011 has come to an end.  Oh but it was glorious.  There was dressing up, an awful lot of undressing too, sunburnt noses, fresh waffles, dream catchers, barefoot frisbee, wild tales, regular defiance of gravity and several other laws of physics, folk instruments, spontaneous dancing, twister, bed hair, cardboard box robots, sleeping on the floor, food cooked using minimal amounts of cutlery, feet so dirty they looked like their own shoes, showers with no doors, dreadlocks and weed, baggy trousers, singing, drinking, spinning into the wee hours.  And of course juggling, which is a topic all it's own.

The weather was gorgeous -it really is April now and I spent my entire time there in shorts.  It feels great to get my legs out again after months cooping them up in the warm.  For some of our group it was thier first ever BJC - or even their first convention so it was great to see how much everyone enjoyed themselves.  The older ones among us tend to be a bit more sedate but no less enthusiastic.  I've started drawing down all the tricks I can do or need to work on with a hula hoop just so I dont forget any of them!  They are tiny drawings but already they cover 3 A4 sides and I'm still only counting single-hoop tricks.

Of course, being me, there's always time to take a few pictures of a passing tree.

As usual the rest of my photos (the good ones anyway) are on Flickr.  And now, thanks to the Easter holiday, I have 4 whole days to sit and draw, and watch all my camping laundry dry.

Spring walk!

Once again I've been out in the woods. Although technically March does count as spring, the weather won't get to what most people think of as warm until mid-April. But despite this there's already lots to see.  I've put all the photos on my Flickr page, but here are some of my favourites:

My first discovery of the day! These otherworldly little creatures are baby ferns. Aren't they brilliant!  They are born from their seeds like this, all curled up small, and then as they grow taller they slowly unroll themselves and spread out their fronds like little alien invaders.

At first glance everything still appears dry and brown, but look down, and you'll see hundreds of green shoots breaking out through last year's leaf litter. There are whole new plants down there; brambles, tree shoots, grasses, flowers and ferns.  Jubilee Wood is a bluebell wood so under the shadow of the oak trees I found the first of this years bluebells scattered in the new grass. The little white ones beneath are wood anenomes, very pretty to look at but poisonous to eat.

And these tiny blue pin-pricks in the forest floor turned out to be violets!  I think they are Early Dog-Violets but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Now look up! Buds are forming on twig-ends, catkins dangling down and blossoms of blackthorn twisting up, new green branches growing out of the junctions of old trees, reaching for the summer sunlight that is just around the corner.

There are also animals and birds up there. I managed to sneak up on a squirrel until I was only a few metres away, before it saw me and shot up the tree like lightening. I also bumped into a robin as I rounded a corner, in the perfect spot for a photograph. Slowly I lifted the camera, got it in my sights, moved my finger onto the button... and the battery died. Nooo!!

Mosses and lichens are everywhere, and in so many different colours! During my route I found everything from thick grassy green through to lime green, turquoise and even orange. I love the sculptures of the woods, the bleached bones of last years fallen trees and upturned roots that become the basis for the green growing things of this year.

Anti-Lent?

 That's right, it's update time again! Busy times, busy times. I have a job now, which I am enjoying very much, but amidst re-balancing my life I have had some time for a few other adventures:

Luxuries for Life

It's a little rough around the edges, since it was made for a friends weblog in rather a hurry.  But hey, now you know what I look like!

I'd also like to direct you to PostSecret Blog this week.  For those that don't know, PostSecret started as a way to anonymously get your burning secrets off your chest -whether trivial or serious, deeply personal or universal, by writing and decorating a postcard with your secret on it and posting it to a guy called Frank, who turns them into books and also updates this blog with the weekly arrivals. 

Some are heart-warming, some are heart-breaking.  There are happy secrets, sad ones, angry ones, funny ones and downright weird ones.  I love the idea of humans connecting with each other over the sharing of their most hidden thoughts -the things you've always wanted to say out loud but didn't know how to or didn't feel you could.

So, to mark a pretty significant date for me I decideed that I would mark it by sending in my own PostSecret.  Due to the time it takes to post anything to America it's only just appeared this week.  Yes, my secret is live on the internet, for one week only!  I hope it will encourage someone else with the knowledge that really we are all just as pecualiar as each other... but I'm not telling you which one is mine  :) 

Slightly irreverant... but in the good way!

Here's a neat little video my friend Amy and I made the other week.  The idea was to make reading a Bible passage a bit more interesting for our church, so we scripted it, she laid down the voiceover (very comical to listen to) and then we drew the objects out together before I scanned and animated them.  It was just a bit of fun, but it's always good to do stuff like this.

Quickfire drawings

When I'm at Club Mission, and a bit tired, and too stubborn to go home like a sensible person, and I happen to spy a pen a paper just lying there, I do a bit of drawing to pass the time :)  Mostly just the people in the room, sitting and chatting, so generally I only have a few minutes before they move

Just for comparison, my friend Nat's drawing of the same guy is on the right.  I love how she drew his nose.  And there below are two other friends of mine, Stacey and Joe.

Ideas I wish were mine

THIS song by the Kinks has been in my head all day long.  Which is fine 'cos it's a totally awesome track. But here's why... 

11/01/2011


Cop Show

A runaway train of thought.

Alan Day investigates the daylight world tag-teaming with Oliver Knight who gumshoes the sleazy after hours. No doubt each mystery climaxes at either dawn or dusk when the pair are united. Theme tune by The Kinks.

I'll get back to what I should be doing now.

Posted by WJC at 12:34

See the original post on WJC''s blog by clicking HERE  But seriously, someone HAS to make this show for real.

Hourly Comic Day!...

...was actually on Feb 1st, but being me I did mine on the 3rd and didn't even post it until today :).  The idea is that every hour you are awake on that day, on the hour, you must draw/comic what has been going on in that hour.  Check out loads of far better ones by other artists here
Including my old classmate, Luke Pearson who also did one which you can see here

Anyway, I had a go too, and it was a good challenge to do.  It's no Vetruvian Man, the doodles are quick and sketchy, very inconsistent in quality and you can definitely tell the hours where I was tired or fed up with it, but that's the point.  It's honest.  You can't tinker with it later or add bits in.  It is what it is, messy patches and all.

I had to split it into sections to post because it's so long, so do excuse the disjointedness if there is any and we'll see if this works...

(Note: The computer wasn't actually rendering for the entire day, just whenever I sat down to draw!  There was actual work inbetween)

Aspiring

I think this is beautiful



It's done using rotoscoping -tracing live film to produce very accurate animations- the same technique used for parts of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, but they've added in all these extra swoops, and the constructions lines, taking the existing movements and then breaking the laws of physics.

The Artist as a Young Lady

(Click image to view full size) 

Realised I never put this little doodle up here.  Just something I was wondering.

I was such an awkward teenager -or at least I felt like I was.  But hang in there all you teenage nerds!  One day you'll suddenly look down and realise that you have finally grown into your knobbly knees and are, in fact, shaped like a real person!

It's COOKIE TIME!!!

Since having to make more of my own food (plus trying to buy less snacks) I have become majorly attached to making my own cookies.  They take about 20mins to make in total, are HUGE and GORGEOUS and I can stash them away for the next week or so.  Each batch I make gets better and I would even say that quite often they're better than a lot of shop-bought cookies I have tried ...not to mention much cheaper!

Wow, I sound like the quite the home-maker and I'm only twenty-two!

(I actually made about eight, but I'd eaten most of them by this point!)

Michelle goes all arts and crafts

...Well kind of.  Happy 2011 by the way!  This is my first post of the new year, what with being at home for Christmas and still working on this animation project (we're in the final stages of the first video now.  It's all getting exciting!) but I thought I'd spare a few minutes for my poor neglected blog.

Speaking of Christmas, I've not had huge amounts of money to spend on presents this year so my siblings and brother-in-law decided we were going to do a Secret Santa instead.  That way we would all get one or two more personal presents for just one person each rather than engaging in the less-than-festive scrum of struggling to buy many cheap presents for absolutely everyone.  It worked really well, and my present to my brother was a T-shirt I drew up and had printed for him.  Trust me when I tell you that the design made perfect sense to him, however it's still quite a fun image even if you don't understand the joke, so I thought I'd put it up here for you guys to see.

Also on the topic of hand-made presents, I made one for my Mum's birthday a few months back.  We knew she wanted to go in a hot air balloon sometime -but it's one of those things you always mean to do for yourself but never quite get round to, so we thought we'd help get her started.  The others all put a little money into the pot and I ... well I made the pot!

Okay I admit, I bought the jar from a homeware shop but that's my parents flying on that balloon jar and I put them there!  I still wish I'd been able to think of a way to put a real 3D balloon on the jar lid, but since I had to post it home my options were pretty limited.  Either way, it went down really well (although all parents are biologically disposed to adore any artwork from one of their kids) and it was lovely to tailor-make something for them.  I think I'll do this more often!  My sister's twenty-first is a few weeks away, that warrants a hand-made present, surely :)