Silent Sunday
Saturday …
Went back to work this week and hoped the pain might relent or at least the distraction might be comforting … but no.
So this morning without my usual busi-ness and hope; I wish for those who cannot sit or stand to make art, a moment or two of painfree-ness
and little memento of a happiness.
Friday Snapshot from the Museum
Our Museum is still closed but its reopening is getting nearer ….
Since taking an interest in printmaking I have looked more closely at ‘paintings’ and I had not realised a picture that I pass by daily here at the Museum of English Rural Life is an engraving by Andrew Davidson. It depicts the contrasting landscape of the 1850s with that of the 1950s. It really is a ‘work of art’ and well worth a visit when in the area.
Alphabe thursday … When is for Who controlled our education?
Veja um exemplo de Mourão versos, cantado pelos Sebastiaos Marinho e Andorinha,
sobre o assunto “escola”
Marinho
A escola e o caminho
de uma nação feliz
Andorinha
Quem estuda se carinho
sabe o que faz e o que diz
Marinho
Quem estuda se controla
Está nas mãos da escola
o futuro do país
Concluída a estrofe, o outro repentista inicia uma próxima. sempre pegando na deixa
Andorinha
Faz algum tempo que fiz
Os meus estudos primeiros
Marinho
Fui um menino feliz
Junto com meus companheiros
Andorinho
E nos bons livros que a gente
Aprende, percebe e sente
Os valores verdadeiros
This is a Mourao poem sung by Marinho and Andorinha on the subject “school”
Marinho
The school and the way
of a happy nation
Andorinho
Who is studying affection
You know what it does and what it says
Marinho
Who is controlled study
This in school hands
the future of the country
Andorinho
Some time ago I made
My first studies
Marinho
I was a happy boy
Along with my fellows
Marinho
And in the good books we
Learn, perceive and feel
The true values
I think they agree that free education is vital for a free and happy nation. Not so good to air such views when others wanted something different.
I am unable to translate the repentista and think it describes this sort of poetry that is almost a debate … immediate. But I am not sure.
Nice wood cuts though
All women and Zumbi on Wednesday and the Day of Black Consciousness
I have been grumbling about my back for some time now and not without reason but now I find myself thinking that perhaps I should remember women who did so much through pain and neglect…
Wednesday has crept up on me; so today I will celebrate my daughter who sent me some nice pictures from Brazil at the weekend after having enjoyed a National Holiday. She had been a exhibition and seen some wood cuts and shared them with me.
She told me also that today she would be having yet another day’s holiday today for the Day of Black Consciousness in Brazil. Since the early 1970s, for a week around the 20th November, the anniversary of Zumbi dos Palmares’ death in 1695, time has been allowed celebrate Black culture in Brazilian society. The Day of Black Consciousness is a day to remember the black resistance to slavery in general and the first transportation of Africans to Brazil in 1594.
Zumbi (1655-1695) also know as Zumbi dos Palmares was the last leader of the Quilombo dos Palmares, a fugitive settlement in the state now known…
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Weekly photo challenge … extraordinary
Extraordinary? For me it must be someone with a vision and a fearless pioneer attitude. My dad fits the bill … but I was never able to tell him so.
This is a drawing of a boat he built and took us on some daredevil adventures.
This weekend …
This weekend was to be decision making time. I began wood engraving as a progression from my beginnings with cutting into pencil erasers. This with hindsight was not perhaps for me a natural progression. Wood engraving is a fine art, steeped in tradition and discipline. During this time I began lino cutting and that seemed more suited to my now developing, more sophisticated style.
While, I enjoyed my 6 monthly workshops and the occasional opportunity to exhibit and sell some pieces I still find the the wood engraving style a little uncomfortable.
So this weekend with Kate Dicker was a time when I should think seriously about my continued practice or not.
Sadly, my painful back issues of the moment didn’t make it easier. However, as I am no longer a beginner I am in a position to disregard the preliminary stuff that is vital when learning. It soon becomes second nature and we can learn how much or little we need. In a beginner’s class this is a stressful time and best overlooked (for me) if at all possible.
With all my printmaking, I begin with an object and often hours of drawing until I am ready to draw straight on to the plate. When the ‘drawing’ begins but in reverse like a reduction print each mark is carefully considered.
Sounds like a plan … but two or three hours in, I was still feeling vulnerable, afraid of the tiny piece of wood and the uncontrollable need to ask ‘teacher’ to find assurance. This is a mistake, plan already gone, lost, was my trust in ‘my’ teacher instinct, disappeared was my devotion and love for my production … I sought ‘outsider’ reassurance.
So, Sunday morning, I began again; breathing, mark making, proofing, loving and centring … smiling as decision’s made.
Silent Sunday …
Saturday …
After a couple of weeks of severe pain, I have tried to manage the obvious discomfort and mood, I have found ways to be creative, albeit a little upsy downsy at times. So there has been some positive happenings and results.
Last weekend I was able to exhibit at a local show and sell some work. On Monday I had my first session with my new art teacher. It was much like most inaugural lessons with some preliminary plans but we began with some dry point two hours went by in a flash but I think the next few weeks will be spent colourfully and playfully.
Today, I am hoping to attend a wood engraving weekend at Badger Press. I am well prepared with some pain killers and some exercises just in case things get difficult.
Friday’s Library Snapshot … of Joan Hassall.
Still absent from work with sadness; but looking forward to returning meanwhile a reblog …
The wood engravings of Joan Hassall with introduction by Ruari Maclean
I came across this little book in a the Mark Longman Library; which is an Aladdin’s Cave of jewels from 1900 -1980 that never ceases to delight me. As with other collections, if I don’t see something immediately, it will point me to something else.
For instance, last week I posted a piece about the Two Rivers Press’s translation of the Drunken Boat by Arthur Rimbaud. I was reminded of a translation by Samuel Beckett. This is without images so not as graphically pleasing for me. However, it was published here at the University of Reading in the Typography department and typographically most attractive and complementary to the my first choice.
You will see later that Joan Hassall does not stand alone for me in the collection (s).
Joan Hassall (1906-1988) was widely known as one of the…
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Coat Hanger Doll's House 