Still Life:
Unwittingly appropriate it seems.
I had a planning meeting yesterday to establish this residency with the men who count butterflies (though my contact is actually female) and the other stakeholder in the residency scheme. Who are The Friends for Mental Health. They are able to contributre funds and start match funding my application for money from my local city council, the deadline is next week.
We met The Friends and their ‘clients’ who are elderly men living permently on a hospital ward surrounded by photos of Bobby Moore, Muhamed Ali and other sporting legends along with virile Hollywood action stars. These images have not provided the zest and lust for life they represent.
Still life is a good description of my new friends.
I am not an artist I am a Citizen Smith. One who works with citizens, a phrase coined by my wife yesterday.
But I am Citizen Smith.
It is Still Life after all.
I have concluded these coloured sticks are not ceremonial but are in fact ‘Still Life’. Arrangements of objects, just that they are arranged in the landscape instead of on a table top etc.
What is the plural of a still life? Still lives or still life’s?
This realisation is a breakthrough as I can begin to understand what is happening. The painted longhorn cattle and konic pony arrangements were also still life.
The Blean Man he is a still life object. This all seems to sit more comfortably now.
No Words at the moment.
Finding it hard to use them, Finding that I am using them in a way that I think others want them to used, like second guessing what people want to hear ………….why….to convey what is being asked of me…its not working that well. Best keep it simple.
The Autumnal Equinox
Today or may be yesterday (not sure) is when the day time and the night time are the same length. This is a marker that summer is well over and autumn is setting in. I love this time of year.
Yellow……my favourite colour and I can see it creeping in everywhere. Green was dominant but now things are drying out and there is a shift. I love yellow it goes from white to green to orange and brown. In the woods a strong yellow is like a light bulb it shows up so much.
I have spoken with the men who count butterflies and have a meeting fairly soon with a new stakeholder in the residency scheme. I will also have to write a funding application to my local city council under the theme of aspiration. Another task which I am committed to, is costing out a ‘sensorary trail’ as there are plans ahead, so I think I am justified in including the Kent Wildlife Trust on my client list as they do have my invoice!
The man who counts butterflies is concerned about the ponies. He told me they had got extremly thin in last years harsh winter. They have not put as much weight back on as he had hoped due to lazy feeding patterns, dispite extra nutriants given in animal feed. Ponies digestive systems are not as effective as the long horns (who eat their food about 3-4 times and have 3 stomachs). So the ponies may well be moved to another site with under cover shelter during the winter.
The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth?
I thought the woodland festival would be just a fun day out. It actually made me really question what I think about the world. There was the Caent Vikings explaining how weapons technology helped them expand and conquer, wood cutting with axes no saws, spinning wheel, basket making from twigs and pole lathes etc. This is all technology that had real impact on peoples lives, just old technology that is history now.
I was walking in the woods the next evening and saw flecks of orange glowing in the dark, turns out it is a large pile of white ash with hot embers underneath. I sat down and poked it with a stick and the heat came out and I sat there for quarter of an hour remembering what I saw. I remembered the woman on the spinning wheeling saying that when clothes were too expensive to buy she would be able to make her own……there was an organisation selling bush craft courses………survival skills….. and the wood cutting guy could build a boat without a saw. I remembered a book by Stephen King called The Stand and thought these woodland peasants would actually be the kind of people you want to hang out with if you were a survivor of a society meltdown.
We have lost touch with nature and are moving into an era where we should rekindle that relationship.
