October Sticks.
The colours in the woods are marvellous.
And it makes you feel that whatever you do is just lightweight in comparison.
So: off to by some chicken wire?
compose an expression of interest.
pay check in bank
juggle dates in my diary
and visit a school this afternoon for another project.
All I really want to do is walk about the woods taking photos.
My Application was Successful
My application to the local City Council for arts funding has been a success. I have signed and exchanged contracts and a condition is to acknowledge the support of the council on all publicity associated with the project by the use of two logos.
So that is actually a right result, and thanks to the Kent Wildlife Trust for input with that. And big thanks to my city council as well.
This project is no longer me just making it up as I go along.
It now has an agreed schedule with defined outputs, performance indicators and feedback mechanisms. I will be furthering the aims of my patron (the men who count butterflies) and working with another stakeholder. So more thanks are in order for; The Friends for Mental Health who will contribute finacialy and have very specific objectives as well. They have not sent me a logo ……niether have The Kent Wildlife Trust I wanted to collect the set and display them like cub scout badges. But hey-ho I’ll get them later.
My next post will be my October Sticks, then we will see what happens after that?
Now to finish this post before I forget: It apears we may have a squirrel living in, or near to our garden. This seems extraordinary considering the level of urban development I live amongst.
In Native American Culture if an animal comes to you it has something to show you, or a lesson to teach you…..so when I have posted this I’m going to google squirrel behaviour and characteristics.
The Creation Myths
If you ever read one of my other blogs ‘A Walk with Cosmo’, you may remember the creation myths?
In the beginning there were only the four winds. The North, the East, the South and the West. They blew all the moisture to one place to form the sea and all the dust to another place to form the land.
After many years the land formed and within the dust were the seeds for the trees and wild flowers, these grew and formed the Blean Woodlands. In these woodlands the Blean Men were created. There are four Blean Men, one for each season.
A day of two halves
So this morning I have Seen the Trees….. Walked in the Rain….. Heard the Birds….. Stopped along the Way….. Smelt the Flowers….. and Trusted the Universe….. and I have followed up and carried out some of my ideas. I have seen stuff and been influenced. Motivated even, by what now seem like whims and fancies even self indulgent nonsense.
This afternoon I visited someone else’s world. I wondered if I would also live there myself one day? A world where making a small descision, or committing to an idea is too hard and doing what I am asked is all I can do…..A world about watching and never doing, can you phone my wife and tell her I will be late home. Talking is OK but I don’t want to do too much of it. A world which travels at half speed but is still confusing, a world which passes in front of me but I am unable to engage with….A world where I am exposed and vulnerable and can you phone my wife and tell her I’ll be late.
A walk back in time
Me with two, and my canine companion with four legs are off to check out an area of the woods I never go, this is because I may have to carry out some work there in the future. This is close to a kind of zoo place which keep all sorts of wild animals, called Wildwood. We are walking on our way over there through the mud, I can see the ponies in between the trees (never seen them in this part of the woods before). I look at the deer that are behind a hire wire fence in the Wildwood Zoo, they are wary of me and jittery. He with four legs just kind of prances about and looks perky making them skitter off into the shadows. Round the corner I encounter two wild boars, they charge at me ‘yeh fat boy, you wont get me fella’, and I am confident on the other side of the wire fence. Then I can see him (with four legs) is in the zoo, running and barking at the wild boar.
Suddenly it’s 16000 years ago and the images within the caves of Lascaux have come to life, I am in a forest surrounded by wild animals and I have to get my companion out of a fight with several Mo-Fo’s. The massive grey one is getting up now. I found the hole in wire fence (they keep wolves in this place as well you know). Its almost dark and I cant see too much, but I can hear it’s kicked off big time, leaves, shrubs, barking, frantic running though undergrowth sounds and the realisation that this is happening in the section next to boars, there is a wire fence between this section and their section. Him with 4, is so brave, as he knows they can’t get him. I can hear birds taking off out of the trees as this has caused a bit of a kafuffle.
I can only see groups of dots in rows, red ochre bulls, yellow ochre horses, and burnt ochre deer swimming through a river. My companion is panting heavily as we stop (in the woods not the zoo) at a muddy puddle and he drinks. I can see the ponies in the distance and again he (with 4 legs) is off to investigate. Ponies galloping at full whack are a wonderful sight, marred only by the embarrassment that your friend has caused a stampede.
Animals were experienced, not looked at that evening, as the caves of Lascaux show.
Rob Turner's art is about places. His studio work is about the landscape around his North Kent home and his commissioned work is about the history and heritage of towns and landscapes all over the UK. Rob has described himself as both a 'landscape artist' and a 'map maker', but not in the traditional sense.
