Towering Tauruses

Joseph Beuys on Giants Causeway.

Ian Dury on bench.

John Agard and Neil Astley at the T S Eliot Prize-giving.

Joseph Beuys
Ian Dury and
Neil Astley
Happy Birthday threefold!

Happy Birthday Salvador!

Salvador Dali photographed by Carl von Vechten in 1939.

Salvador and Gala in NYC.

Salvador Dali born in Catalonia, Spain in 1904. Famous, infamous, notorious and well-known he and his living was art. His paintings and prints and drawings are stupendous. To some Surrealism embodied. His imagination unbridled, to him life was art and vice versa.

Soul Food

Please look up www.bloodaxebooks.com and the front page has all about Soul Food on it.
It is my latest endeavour co-edited with Neil Astley and dedicated to Noah.
Poems from ancient to contemporary and worldwide. It is a book to live with, to keep on your journey of life, to go to before bed time or upon waking and especially to enjoy the wisdom of the written word.
The cover is a detail from a favourite de Zurbaran painting of ours! The cup is half-full for certain and the rose has a special fragrance.

Peter Pan

Peter Pan over the ages as time has changed the imagination of him. Peter Pan statue in Kirriemuir where J M Barrie was born.

The most recent film version of Peter Pan. I loved the film!!!

Disney's Peter Pan.
Petra Pan below.Peter Pan statue at Queens Gate in Kensington Gardens. There is also one in Central Park NYC!

Has anyone seen or read this one?This Peter Pan illustration in one of my favourites. Such a pixie!

J M Barrie

J M Barrie with a child, he passed the Childrens Hospital on Great Ormond St every day when he lived near there. This made a deep impression on him. He also came from a large family.

JM Barrie with his dog Luath ( Burns had a dog called Luath and there is Luath's stone near Aberdeen-a menhir).

James Matthew Barrie born today in 1860 in Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland. A novelist and a dramatist he is most famous for Peter Pan.

Tarset images

Both these photos are by Simon Fraser.

Working Title

Today was the first actual day of work on a new project I am involved in with VARC (Visual Arts in Rural Communities). The artist in residence Gavin Thorogood and two composers Luke Daniels and James Wyness are collaborating on a piece together and I am documenting it.
It should be an interesting project and the final performance will be in July at the Queens Hall in Hexham followed by a Ceilidh in our local village hall!
The title has not yet emerged but the working title is The Spirit of Tarset.
I will keep you posted as the process of collaboration continues.
See LINKS for VARC website.

Marilyn Arsem

Today is Marilyn Arsems birthday. She is a performance artist, co-founder of Mobius a performance space in Boston and teacher who is based in Boston, Mass. Above are all stills from her performances. The last one is from a performance on US Foreign Policy.

She has been creating work since the seventies and certainly deserves more attention. Recently she was in Glasgow at the annual live art review event.

LYC

Lanercost Priory Gate

Lanercost ruins Lanercost Priory

Spent the weekend in activity connected to the LYC Museum in Cumbria near Brampton.
Li Yuan-chia had a space in Banks on the Roman Wall where he lived and worked and exhibited other artists work for many years in the seventies and eighties.
My friend Paul Martin visited many times and showed his work there as did David Nash, James Hugonin, the Ward family, Joel Fisher and many many others.
We spent Sat afternoon clearing the drive in front of the house and around the back. It was wild and overgrown. I picked seven wild flowers from around the property at Banks and then Paul and I put them on Li' s grave at Lanercost Priory, a beautiful serene place.
We then went to Heads Nook south of Brampton to Jeremy Latimers old mill house for delicious appetizers and a talk on the future of the LYC Museum. Guy Brett and Nick Sawyer, the trustees, told of the past several years and what has been accomplished. Mark Wilson, of CLEAR spoke and several others also. It was a good beginning and there was plenty of interest. Many artists and other people want to support the endeavour. Simon Patterson was vociferous and had good ideas and Jeremy Latimer has a great deal of positive energy.
On the Sunday we went to the Lowood Gallery near Armathwaite and saw an exhibtion of Li Yuan-chia's work which was very interesting and continued conversations started the day and evening before. On the way there we drove over the Pennines and Eden Valley visiting Long Meg and her daughters, and saw some of the Auden country.
I especially enjoyed meeting Tom Pickard, Josephine Dickinson and Liliane Lijn again as well as learning more about what the future could hold for LYC.

See LINKS for LYC website.