Crossposted from artspark community on LiveJournal.


A philosopher once asked

Why do you write?
Why do you draw, paint?
Other art?

I do to express soul. I use the word express in the original sense - in the same way that mothers express their breast milk - because they have to get it out - or it will at best lay waste and at worst cause pain, discomfort, infection. It's not very often a nice or pretty process. The things demand to come out. The words speak themselves out, the colours draw attention to themselves, the paper or yarn or glitter arranges itself violently, like spiritual vomit. For a long time I had no creativity - it had been chased out like a demon. Pressure began to build. Something began to swell, like a boil, like a pit of magma. One day, I poked a finger through the wall of a dam and the dam crumbled and swept me off my feet. There is no rebuilding the dam now that it is open. Art, like liquid, must find its own level.

I give you free permission to comment on my blog.  Indeed, I actively encourage it, LOL!
It's way too quiet in here!

If you own a gallery, won't you please check out Mars Tokyo's work?

http://teenytheaters.com/

She creates tiny TINY teatros - it's pointless my trying to explain their impact to you, you must just see for yourself.  They are intensely personal, inversely powerful in relation to their dimensions; compelling, awe inspiring little churches of the imagination. 

Please have a look, and if you are in control of a gallery - exhibit her, because I want to see her work in real life. 

My business website went live with its shopping cart facility this weekend.  It's very exciting, and I hope will lead to more work.  It mainly features greeting cards, gifts, and bespoke stationery such as wedding invitations, all of which I make myself by hand.

Both myself and my partner have worked very hard to get the site working perfectly, and ironing out the million creases that come from accepting international orders, integrating PayPal with out own shopping cart etc. etc.!! 

Still, now it is DONE!  Please have a look, and I welcome your feedback.
More stock, both cards and gifts, are being added over the coming weeks.

*excited!*

http://www.farleyheath.co.uk

I have just completed the set up for Thatu's online charity shop:
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Thatu-Charity-Shop

Please have a browse and bid on any thing that takes your fancy!  Thanks to a kind donor, we currently have an embarrassment of Kylie Minogue riches!  :)  Please swing by and up the bidding if you can.

If I were called in
To construct a religion
I should make use of water.

Going to church
Would entail a fording
To dry, different clothes;

My liturgy would employ
Images of sousing,
A furious devout drench,

And I should raise in the east
A glass of water
Where any-angled light
Would congregate endlessly.

By Philip Larkin, from 'The Whitsun Weddings'

AMONG the men and women, the multitude,
I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs,
Acknowledging none else - not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I am;
Some are baffled - but that one is not - that one knows me.

Ah, lover and perfect equal!
I meant that you should discover me so, by faint indirections;
And I, when I meet you, mean to discover you by the like in you.

Walt Whitman (1819–1892).  Leaves of Grass.  1900

Yoko's Lettuce Soup

About 3/4 lb lettuce (it's OK to use older lettuce that has gone to seed for this!)
1 medium onion
1 Oz. butter
2 level tblsp flour
3/4 pint vegetable stock
3/4 pint milk
salt & pepper

Slice onion and sweat in the butter for a few minutes.  Coarsely shred the lettuce leaves, add to the pan, cover, and continue to cook for another 5 minutes or so until wilted.  Stir in the flour and then pour over the stock, then milk.  Continue to stir until the soup comes to the boil.  Season, cover again and simmer for about 20 mins.  Pass through a blender or fine sieve.

To serve immeidately, return the soup to the pan and bring back to the boil, test for seasoning and serve with a swirl of cream if liked.

To freeze, allow to cool and freeze in plastic containers.

(Note:  Have used this same recipe to make spinach and other mixed vegetables soups)

A day once dawned, and it was beautiful
A day once dawned from the ground
Then the night she fell
And the air was beautiful
The night she fell all around.

So look see the days
The endless coloured ways
And go play the game that you learnt
From the morning.

And now we rise
And we are everywhere
And now we rise from the ground
And see she flies
And she is everywhere
See she flies all around

So look see the sights
The endless summer nights
And go play the game that you learnt
From the morning.

by Nick Drake

http://this.is/comet/images/emotional_wallpaper.jpg

Haraldur Jonsson (Artist) 'Emotional Wallpaper'
http://this.is/comet/