Storytime

I am in no way an art person...craft yes. I will tinker and play around with most craft activities however when it come to art I have no idea. I am in total awe of those that take upon artistic endeavours. I am drawn to colours...put a mash of colours that fight each other and I think, wow, want that for my garden. On the weekend I managed to get myself out and about and went to the Red Tree Gallery  for the opening of an exhibition by Yvette Stubbs . I have known Yvette for years (we won't go into how many)..and have admired her work as a poet, writer and artist. I found the exhibition, a solo exhibition, amazing. I loved the colours. The fluidity... the life and movement. I stood in front of each piece of art just wondering how you do this. How do you create a piece of art? Where do you begin? Where do you end?  How do you know which colours to use...and where?  It is something I would love to do, however have no skills in t...

Sometimes, just sometimes, when I know I should be writing and I even know what I want to write, I find it damned difficult to start. I mean where exactly should I begin? With this word, this phrase, this moment, with this action or perhaps over here? And yes, I know we are told to simply write and before you know it you'll be in knee deep and problem solved....however.... Remember those workshops you did where the tutor/ speaker/ author would start a writing exercise with those words 'I remember...'. That's because we all do, remember that is. Something, no matter how close or distant, there is always some memory that catches us off guard and before we know it, we are putting it (and all its emotional baggage) down on paper. Often used when facing the dreaded blank page...writers block...or simply a way to find a way in. Last week at Storytime I was giving the usual 'hints' to what the day's theme would be. In this case it was ducks, and I talked abo...

Well we've just survived Easter. There was too much food, too much chocolate but never too much family (which is what it is all about). We had my son, his partner and three young ones up for the day.  There was old fashioned fun...hide and seek...penguin bowling (with interference)...and of course the obligatory Easter Egg hunt. There is nothing like watching small children - with the helpful hints of bigger children - scramble around searching for those gaudy decorated eggs. I mean they do stand out...how hard is it to find some of the above nestled amongst books or sitting in a pot plant? Then I remembered a book I read recently. It was a Young Adult, it was set in a futuristic society...there were vampirish like creatures..the world was a dark and bleak place. Or was it? Half way through I had a niggle that something wasn't working for me. Three quarters of the way through and I discovered there was no colour. Don't get me wrong- I didn't expect fl...