Saturday 26 November 2016

I am grateful for ...

...knowing Dr Jan Goss

A little while ago when planning Art Circle sessions, I thought creating something around "gratitude" would be appropriate for Thursday, 24 November, Thanksgiving Day.

Within 24 hours of making that decision, Dr Jan Goss published the article, "PositiveExpectation 'vs' Negative Bias".  This was the starting point for the activity.

The books we made and their content is mostly personal, plus I forgot my camera again... so no images however do read the article:  it's something everyone can do and from experience it works.

Thank you Jan.

Thursday 10 November 2016

playful portraits...

Continuing from last week, this week we made self-portraits or images that portrayed an aspect or aspects of ourselves.  Most excellent... 

Dorothy:  cycling, fairy fantasy & talking nuts! 

Norma:  favourite flower earings, the love of the theatre and a dislike of clowns 

Monica:  fast cars, family & frightening films

Monica:  detail

Sheila:  holidays, blossoming & vibrancy 

Angie:  nurturing nature for nutrition

Christine:  a compendium     




Friday 4 November 2016

beautiful bonfire blessings...

Following in the tradition of the wealthy burying live animals, slaves and wives with them alongside valuable artefacts and money, the practice of burning paper models of worldly goods to ensure the dead are well supplied in the afterlife dates back millennia.
Although less commonly practised today, this ancient funeral rite has been updated by the inclusion of paper sculptures of modern technology, fast cars and luxury items.  All carefully made and then burnt as part of a ritual.
To an onlooker, the paper sculptures can be seen as a temporary, life portrait of the deceased or maybe their unfulfilled life aspirations poised to be experienced in the afterlife.
Our task was to make something from paper that represented an ancestor which we could add to a bonfire as a blessing.

However... when trying to transfer them from my phone they disappeared into the ether much earlier than planned.  Thank you Angie for forwarding yours and apologies to the others - your work was beautiful too. x 

Christine:  I spent some very happy holidays with my grandmother who made me dresses.  This is for her...


Angie:  Joan of Arc just came into my head so here she is...


Dorothy:  In memory of my dad who loved gardening and was a printer in the printworks, Manchester.