Saturday 29 May 2010

Spiritual Sponging

Just think of me as the pages in your diary...

It doesn't take a deeply spiritual person to realise that I have an overactive throat chakra- like most with a persuasion towards writing really I am full of the verbal, the language, the word. I have these thoughts inside of me and my throat chakra feels the needs to keep going and going. That said however I like to feel I counter balance that by at times just completely switching it all off - and just absorbing.

I had made the decision to go out with a friend, same old place, same old people which in itself is always really enjoyable but we got ready and just began to talk and a few minutes turned into a few hours and suddenly it was evident we weren't going anywhere. I do like to talk - hell that's obvious - but I love even more so to listen. I can feel my soul being fed as I sit and listen to people, blessed and privaledged to be given an insight into themselves and their views on the world. I believe empathy to be sacred and I feel as I listen to people I can be taken on a journey with them, the emotional path and I know in turn I'm learning.

Recently a neighbour of mine commented (albeit slightly drunkenly) that wasn't I "quite the avid note taker". It has become a habit of late - I feel like in every single encounter I'm growing and learning and as different things are presented to me I feel the need to encapture them in my notebook with heightened awareness that these things are going to teach me valuable life lessons at some point or show me that I need to teach others.

I'm beginning to understand even more so the importance of human interactions, I have begun listening with eyes and heart not just ears and daily I'm feeling myself being nourished. I'm not quite sure what made the shift or whether I just let my spiritual barriers down somewhat but I feel like I have a been given a gift an insight into growing in wisdom and I feel it slightly my duty to translate this and share it with others through my pen...

Thursday 13 May 2010

I am what I am... and I don't get modern art!!

I simply just don't get modern art - I'm sorry - I just don't. Call me uncultured if you like but you could give me a big fat stack of it and I simply just would not be able to tell you what was supposedly fantastic and what was supposedly utter bollocks.

Today I have spent a considerable amount of time in art galleries in Liverpool - the Tate Modern and the Walker to be precise. Now don't go misunderstanding me - I LOVE art - I love looking at it, I can appreciate things aesthetically, I can understand and empathise with it ... but I just don't "get it".
My interest in art really does lie with the issues around it, it's meaning, it's purpose, the politics of it all - what does it stand for, what motivated the artist to produce it and most importantly why? Things need to have a reason for me to understand them and all too often I feel modern art takes the proverbial when it comes to bending reasoning to fit their art. "Oh it's just a dot on a page therefore it represents the microscopic scale of which I feel I am within the suffocating oppression of the Capitalist world in which we are imprisoned" yadayada.
Take for example one of the John Moore's prize winner pieces in the Walker. This is the equally imaginatively titled "Two Geese" by Peter Kinley (and er me):



Now I must say it is indeed a very nice picture of two geese, one facing one way the other the other ... but I just don't get it? How is that prize winning? It's so incredibly simplistic (or shall we get all technical and use the art term "naive") that a child could have produced it. It's not thought provoking, there's no real usage of effective colour harmony going on, there's seemingly no message or purpose or to be honest any real talent involved in creating that image. Oh do please forgive me if I am being so ignorant I'm actually beginning to personify the word ... I'd be more than grateful if someone could fill me in?!

I know I absolutely drive my fashion tutor Gerry potty when we go to art galleries because I spend most of my time reading the little labels attached to pieces and scribbling down the background information and details about the artists and their lives rather than actually taking time to appreciate the visual piece in front of me. I have no interest in sketching it - I'd rather take a photograph and go home to spend 17 hours on the internet and researching in the library learning all about the hows and whys.

I might not be able to tell you much about the construction or techniques or what can of chuffing paint was used on every last piece I looked at today (or even what it looked like much to be honest) but I had an absolute field day in the Walker gallery and it's exhibition (or celebration as I like to see it) of female artists. They had a beautiful little corner with a big pile of books relating to females in the art movement and I betcha all I learned so much more about the art itself from reading all that than actually standing and sketching it - that is just how I learn and we are all different.



Though Gerry will try in vain - I will never make a designer, I'll never be an artist - I cannot help it - it is in my nature to ask questions and I know I was born to be a writer. You can take me anywhere and I will utilise the space for my own needs, I will think in words, in essays, in reporting, in social reasoning, in media, in promotion - in language. That is my way of absorbing and appreciating art and I do believe I should be allowed to take that in however I want.

Thursday 6 May 2010

Powder Puff

Concealing mask,
Viable task,
War paint, top coat,
A facial basque.
Powdered face,
Saving grace,
Elegance, perfection,
And knowing her place.
Survivalism,
Obscuring vision,
Contours, emotions,
All crafted with precision.
Painted on,
Realism gone,
Eloquent, beautified,
The show must go on…