It's been a while

 It's about nine months since I last posted something here. 

My Dad died a few weeks after my last post and my world has changed. 

I was thinking about posting again here and thinking about what to upload 

and then I found some pictures on my Dad's camera. 

He liked cycling around the countryside around his home and often took his camera.

 

 

Thank you for all the kind comments and messages I've received around here, 

I hope to be around a bit more from now on.

Following the i ching

i'm trusting in the wisdom of the i ching and being creative whenever i can...a new term starts today though so time for this will be reduced to slithers. i've probably got my priorities wrong, but i'm just trying to survive. thieves stole my number plates and they are going to clone a car and do bank jobs and i'm going to get millions of parking and speeding fines (or worse).

these pictures aren't finished...i'm not good at finishing....i've finished my entry for seth's call for work....but i'm not good at posting either....i hope it will get there...otherwise it will have to go and sit in the drawer with the sketchbooks from last year's sketchbook project

which never got done.

************************

This girl blew my head off tonight

****************************************

i get to watch 'the voice' every week when i am visiting dad in hospital and i'm totally hooked. if you like mega voices and in your face style then check out tonight's performance by Ruth Brown. she is my new hero.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

what the I Ching told me

my sis has an I Ching book and sometimes we open it and throw the coins. I'm not sure about the fortune telling properties of it (in fact i don't know much about it at all) but occasionally it has been remarkably accurate. Never more so than when my Dad took part just before his cancer diagnosis and his readings were all about coming to the winter of his life and letting go of life. We were a bit taken aback at the time and I don't know about everyone else in the room but it brought a massive lump to my throat.

Anyway, for a while now (well, since January to be precise), each day I have been doing a tiny drawing in a small diary I carry around with me...it's true what they say about doing something daily for more than 21 days...it becomes a habit. It's become a little ritual, even on days that I don't feel like making art or on days when I don't have time to make art. Each space or day is only about 7cm x 4cm so it doesn't take much to fill it. I think it's a good way to be creative even when you're on the move and it's a nice record of days.

Here's a pic I took of the diary last week and a little picture of some figs that I drew on Friday.

Recently, I did another I Ching reading and I asked the I Ching how I can get through the challenges I currently face. Sometimes, it all seems overwhelming with so many problems colliding and sometimes it feels like I won't get through it. The I Ching told me loud and clear that creativity is the way. I was quite cynical when i first read the readings because I felt that art had become trivial and meaningless. Now I've had a few days off work and a chance to splat some paint about it does feel like it is a way through.

Thanks to everyone for the supportive messages on my last post and to Celestehttp://celestebergin.blogspot.com/ for encouraging me to blog. I'm not sure what the next months and years have in store for me but I will do my best to be here and at yours and to keep being creative whenever I can.

Long Time No Blog

I can't believe it's nearly three months since i last said something here. A day after my last post and the luscious croissants, my precious Dad was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery (as if having terminal cancer wasn't enough). He underwent four major operations in three days and spent a week wired up to machines in the critical care unit. He pulled through and has been recovering in hospital since then. It's been a horrendously difficult time, juggling work and as much visiting as we can every day and seeing someone we love suffer. Soon he will be discharged from hospital and he'll need 24/7 care. I don't know how on earth we will cope.

How people survive more stressful situations than this is remarkable and my thoughts are with people around the world dealing with oppression, war, torture, violence and starvation. If I survive this ordeal, I mustn't forget how unbearably difficult life can be and I must help people who are finding life difficult.

This picture was taken by a friend in her living room...hopefully she won't mind me putting it here.

Give-away time-up

I had a lovely morning yesterday. some time to wander around the city centre

and treat myself to a few non essentials
Neal's yard products aren't cheap
but they are fabulously wonderful

These giant chocolate croissants were

completely over the top but a special treat

I couldn't resist this ribbon

or this !

and now for the winner of the teeny weeny zig-zag book..

Thank you all for commenting.

I loved everyone's ideas...they are all very inspiring

i now feel highly embarrassed that the prize is so measly

just a tiny little book that has been (not very well) made by me!

Anyway Rosie is the winner because she's going to take

the book on a journey....and who can resist a journey.

Can you email me your address Rosie and I'll get to the post office asap.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

cosy

This winter seems long, dark and cold.

Nights are spent by the fire ripping up old clothes

and crocheting them into weird floppy baskets.

i salvaged this from the bin at work

an interesting technique

has anyone seen it before?

you kind of over sew in different colours

then clip the yarn so it makes

sort of a rag rug but with wool

small things

*******************

it's nice to work big when space allows for it

it can be liberating

and bold

and a good way of using up lots of materials

that need using up.

but working small is good too

you can find beauty in tiny scraps of materials

and focus on small buttons

and titchy found precious stuff.

I've been making teeny-tiny zig-zag books

they fit in pockets and purses easily

handy for hospital visits.

they measure about 3cmX4cm

and, because they are so small,

maybe I should be selective about what goes in them.

I have this one to give-away.

To win it just leave a comment saying what

you would use a book this small for.

I'll pick a winner at the end of the week.

****************

disorder and hope

If you get a chance go here and watch a fascinating documentary

about the lovely Mr Wallace and his incredible obsessive hoarding problem

and have your heart warmed by the compassion

of Mr Honey who is a ray of hope in our judgemental world.

Happy Christmas to you all from me and the new man in my life :)

simple pleasures

I've learnt a lot recently.

More than I have ever learnt..

including degrees and masters degrees.

I've learnt about what matters in life.

I've learnt about courage and loyalty.

About friendship

and

its limits.

I've learnt about myself.

About daily rituals like lighting the fire and cooking comforting wholesome foods.

About making the most of life.

and sharing simple pleasures.

We'll be making the very most of this festive season

enjoying every simple moment.

hello

we've finally got an internet connection at Dad's house which

means that I will be able to keep in touch with blogland while caring for him.

It'll make things a little easier for me to have a world outside work, cancer and caring.

I'm having a good lesson in how hard life can be.

It's hard to remember what my life was like before

and it feels like I wake up every day in a horrendous

bubble of disaster while normality seems to surround everyone else.

We are a small close family, dad has prostate cancer,

I have a thyroid problem which I've struggled with for years and

now I can't take the medicaton for it because it makes my heart go bonkers

and my lungs fill with fluid...if anyone has had similar problems I would be very

interested to hear from them. . On top of this, regular car, house, work

stresses sometimes seem like the last straw.

i see these paints and sometimes think i can paint my way through this nightmare.

sorry to offload

I know others have difficult lives too

and there must be plenty who experience much worse

i don't know how they survive.

i don't know how i will survive.

all i can think of is that if i do survive this ordeal

i will have learnt a lot about how hard life can be

and i'll be able to use my experience to help others.

it's good to be back here.

x

print

it's been a bit of a nightmare week

and i don't really have anything creative to show from it

here's one i did earlier

my head's so fuddled from stress and lack of sleep

i can't even remember if i've posted this before

the night's are getting darker

and the air has turned cooler

i chose this print because the colours

make me think of autumn and winter

i made it using a reduction technique

with lino. it's easy...cut and print..cut a bit more and print..

keep going and keep going using different colours each time you print.

i'm still waving

seaside memories

our holiday by the sea seems an age away now

i haven't even had time to unpack the beach treasure

or the stash of art i started by the sea

and will hopefully finish sometime soon

waving to strangers from a train

a ten minute ride on a seaside toy town train

with 3 little kids behind me

shouting and waving hello

was the complete antidote for

recession

cancer

and

riots in our streets

everyone smiled and waved back

young

old

even the crack heads under the bush shelter

it was the best £1.75 i have spent in a long time

and i'm gonna make it my business to travel

toy town

more often it occured to me that blogging is a bit like waving to strangers from a train

i'm

waving

to

you

holiday art day whatever + 1

there's been so much art
going on around here

even the birds are leaving

coordinating sculptural forms

on the balcony

holiday art days whatever and whatever

see that man lying on the beach?

that's how i feel in this place

holidays by the sea should be prescribed by doctors as a tonic

there's enough inspiration here to last a lifetime

nature is a wonderful artist

i can only try and capture a fragment of this beauty