He is a bit sketchy early in the morning…

He sure was.  Just a bit after six in the morning and while Chris got the cameras working Michael started on the sketching - while keeping the hand from shaking too much in the early morning chill. The rising sun was starting to catch the Opera House and the glass of the city. But it was still dark enough to make a black and white pencil sketch entirely appropriate!

Weird yet Intriguing

While it is a truism that “there is nothing new under the sun” sometimes, just sometimes, there is  something that is actually so outlandish you can be forgiven for thinking this is a thing which new and never seen before. Perhaps like this  camera created from the skull of a thirteen year old girl. A working camera, and one of many strange but working designs - from Wayne Martin Belger in California. Have a look at his other cameras at his website. But also the art he creates from them. It is clever and mystical stuff. But don’t you wonder how he gets his hands on a skull of a thirteen year old?

Our Vision of Beauty is Distorted(?)

Putting Your Heart on Your Sleeve

Not every “bloke” is keen to put their heart on their sleeve, let alone doing so by writing a poem about how he feels. It’s not something we do well  - as a rule. So a feather could have knocked me down when one of my colleagues let me read (and now publish) the poem below. What is especially interesting was that he wrote it in response to the “Push the Limit” video on the right hand side of this page. He was responding to the words of the backing track, as much as to the images. “Bring me to Life” by Evanescence is a powerful song which arguably refers to an appeal to Jesus (that is another debate altogether but the words certainly fit that context, and it works for me). Damien’s poem below, words to the song below that. Read more

Kea

Another amateur photographer friend took this brilliant shot in NZ. It is the mountain parrot, best known for plucking the radio aerial off your car, ripping open your pack to get into your cereal and fruit and otherwise being a likable rogue. For the most part. Farmers take a different view when they select lamb or mutton off the menu. He is known as a Kea. Great shot Peter. (Photo: Peter)

Face Painting at the Church Fete…

…and then there is this.

Palintology

When I was in DC last month, or was it the month before? (time slips away) we were all being distracted by a bleeding Wall St, falling dollars and the presidential race - and in particular DC was distracted by the Alaskan phenomenon. At the time no one seemed to quite know what to make of her but this clever cartoonist of the Washington Post caught the feeling nicely - along with a terrific pun/play on words to boot. Made me laugh out loud, which does not usually happen when I am reading the newspaper.

India is not…

…a country of poverty and perverse Victorian customs lost in time and place. It is not Mother Teresa or slums, cholera or cyclones, terrorists or dodgy airlines. It is first and foremost a country of the senses. India is felt on the skin, tasted in all the mouth, heard through every pore, and smelt even when sleeping. It is spices and aromas and sensuous fabrics. If you are the remotest bit tactile India is seductive. Read more

Art Deco At Fair Park

In an area of the US which boasts one of the most rapidly growing urban areas in the country (I understand it competes with San Diego for that dubious honour) not only are places like Frisco and McKinney keeping some grip on their heritage but so too downtown Dallas where Fair Park retains most of the buildings erected for the 1936 Centennial Exposition. Read more

Scarlett on Digital Canvas

Painting in oils is something I don’t do enough of but it is one of those activities which is brilliantly eccentric (especially if you land up in a collective of wanna-be’s in an evening class (a “brush of artists”?)) and something that eats up the hours in a flash. Therapeutic in a word. Read more

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