The Garden of the Moorish King
Abandoned soft toy.
November 2011: I had the luxury, as I see it now, of open spaces, wild wildernesses at the backs of gardens, running into the bush, streams to follow and vacant lots. I created houses with fallen leaves and whole alternate worlds in a neighbourhood. I got to explore the ramshackle spaces behind the work sheds on farms where treasures lay among the discarded farm implements and made clandestine excursions to explore abandoned houses. Vacant lots, freedom and play...
Hinterland
On crossing from Portugal, heading for Carceres, Extremadura, Spain.
In Spain, the first time I entered Extremadura, in the Spanish hinterland, I felt almost at home. It was the first time that a Spanish landscape spoke to me as if I had come from it. This vast expanse of isolated, stony, barren cattle country, is hot in summer, freezing in winter and its name means what it is: extremely hard . It can simultaneously uplift and oppress. The hard road of a creative life: On being stuck, artistically blocked, lost and annihilated ›› more
Feria
Feria de Abril (Which actually took place in May this year)
I really can't recommend Christian Dior red nail polish enough. It's lasting pretty well, though requiring a second coat after a few hours of painting and clanging things and digging for old tubes of paint.
I try to be more careful. I try to clean the pots without touching anything with them. Just want them to last a little longer. It's my birthday and you shouldn't really have to clean pots on your birthday. ›› more
Marking Lent
Ruapheu, 12 March 2008. Image downloaded during 2008 Lent Project: "40 Days"
"A life is the weight of a small insect that has flown accidentally into your eye.
Now you've crushed it with your eyelid, drowned it in your salty tears and washed it out, discarded and formless.
And the earth shudders and the people bounce on top of it like polystyrene balls...
...The Desert Road is a journey south in the night.
Pulled over by the side of the road, we breathe in the velvet dark.
The volcanic cones are cloaked in indigo and in the night sky the space shuttle is passing over our heads.
It's dark and quiet and still.
Hey, there are some people up there.
They're passing over the Earth.
My breath slows as I stand in the silence.
My heart is still.
The night returning."
My heart goes out to everyone at home, remembering Christchurch ›› more
Cold Hard Cash
Little Monkey, February 2011.
Ain't nothing sexy about me this morning. I lie back on the couch and think I need to get off again and clean that child, or I could ignore her, be a bad mother and continue to feel sorry for my sickly self and my artistic lot. The latter I think. Hmm, settle in, now where were we?.›› more