Poetry Friday

I have decided to take part in ‘Poetry Friday’, I don’t know whether anyone can join, it may be a closed club but what can they do?

Here is my first poem which I downloaded from the Poetry Archive, if you are interested in poetry this is a good site, it has recordings too.

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do   

Marigold by Vicki Feaver

Not the flowers men give women-

delicately scented freesias,

stiff red roses, carnations

the shades of bridemaids’ dresses,

almost sapless flowers,

drying and fading – but flowers

that wilt as soon as their stems 

are cut, leaves blackening

as if blighted by the enzymes

in our breath, rotting to a slime

we have to scour from the rims

of vases; flowers that burst

from tight, explosive buds, rayed

 

like the sun, that lit the path

up the Thracian mountain, that we wound

 

into our hair, stamped on

in ecstatic dance, that remind us

we are killers, can tear the heads

off men’s shoulders;

flowers we still bring

secretly and shamefully

into the house, stroking

our arms and breasts and legs

with their hot orange fringes,

the smell of arousal.

I’ve chosen this because I have some marigold seedlings waiting to be planted. Also because the poet talks about how women fade like flowers and I’m feeling a little faded just now. But I also like marigolds and orange, they make me think of July, the beginning of summer.D

On the Edge Exhibition part 2.

 

Moment-Sean Campbell

This is kiln fused glass, the photos don’t do the glass justice, there are layers of colour, possibly enamels. Look at the detail and you will have some idea of how much is going on.  Has anyone done tests using tin oxide between glass? Just a thought.

Sean Campbell- detail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will Sheakspeare - Hot cast glass

Low Tide Quins (detail) Will Shakspeare

 

 

 

 

 

 

The detail on this hot casting by Will Shakspeare shows inclusions of copper wire and dichroic glass with glass trails (they look like worm casts) where the molten glass had started to cool when being poured. This process takes a long time and the glass has to be kept hot thru each successive layer.

 

Cello-Colin Reid

 

Colin Reid-Cello (duplication of copper oxide cast)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colin Reids work is exceptional, the photos aren’t wonderful but you can just see the suggestion of the veil running thru. the piece the second photo shows how the polished glass mirrors the image in the copper oxide casting, there are more duplications according to where you stand. You can just make out the scroll work from the neck of the violin he cast and part of the sound box. I wish I were rich I’d go to one of his workshops, oh for money!

‘On the Edge’ exhibition

We don’t get national glass exhibitions here in Wales very often so this was a big treat. There were lots of pieces I liked but the cast glass was what I went for. Working by myself and seeing other glass makers rarely I forget how wonderful and varied the work can be, and there is nothing like seeing the real thing, photos just aren’t the same. The show continues at Swansea Waterfront Museum until the end of May, so if you can get there go and take a look. Ray Collins has posted lots of photos here  http://glassartswansea.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/on-the-edge-5-april-31-may-09/ and here http://glassartbyraycollins.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/glass-exhibition-in-swansea/

There was a peice by Joseph Harrington called ‘I See’ which used the lost ice technique to make the mould, you can see this and more of his work here http://www.josephharrington.co.uk/3.html frm_data1=2&frm_data1_type=large He has some photographs of his salt & ice sculptures at St Pancras which are worth looking at to. I didn’t get a decent photo so can’t show an image, but I had been interested in the the technique after hearing a Bullseye lecture on glass casting at the Welsh School of Architectural glass in February so it was useful seeing the end result.  He uses salt to erode the ice and this results in interesting textures and opacity in the glass.

The work I’m showing isn’t necessarily the best but its what I found most interesting and it would be difficult to choose a favourite as they were all very different, but I did like this a lot! 

Parallel Verve-Fiaz Elson

Cast glass-Fiaz Elson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These pieces by Chinks Grylls were as interesting for their reflection as the glass themselves, they had been mounted on hinges so that the glass could be angled to change the way the reflection fell and really did appear to be a reflexion of a blood red sunset.

Chinks Grylls

Glass panels Chinks Grylls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wish I had thought of this title, the glass has been painted & sandblasted. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sea Shushed-Mary Mackey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

detail of In Sea-Shushed Secret Places- Mary Mackey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were 3 light boxes by Debbie Dawson, they were the only leaded pieces in the exhibition, one of which wasn’t lit.

 

Like a door opening- Debbie Dawson

Turner Prize 2009

Good news, Roger Hiorns has been short listed for the 2009 Turner prize, fingers crossed!

Read more about it here http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/apr/28/turner-prize-shortlist

 

and feast your eyes on this photo taken from the Guardian, I love it.

 

Time

 

Pwll-Y-Myn

I haven’t posted for ages, not because I’m working on my glass but because I have been working on the garden (more later), allotment and helping my son Aaron to decorate while my partner made the curtains, Aaron and his family moved recently. Amelie (Grandaughter age5) has a pink room (of course) she decorated foam butterflies with glitter and they are now flying all over her walls, this was a success.   The sitting room less so but I’ll not go into that. I have also helped start a Stitch n’ Bitch group with my partner & daughter, this is going well and I have started to get involved with a local ‘Transition Town’ group so I haven’t been ‘losicking.  Although I have  taken time out to look at some local architecture that I thought people might be interested in,  these photos are of some houses in Peterston Super Ely that I thought were Art Deco but turned out to be something else.  This is what The Buildings of Wales (Glamorgan) says about them p515

Wyndham Park (or Glyn Cory Garden Village)

  “John & Reginald Cory, the coal magnates, began a garden village here in 1909…    

… a most surprising terrace of ten flat-roofed houses,nos. 1-10 Pwll-Y-Myn Crescent. Each house has a turret feature, canted window bays, and a tympanum of brightly coloured mosaic over the front door. Sadly, only one house retains its original fenestration. Who was the architect of this paradoxically early essay in the modernistic?”

I think the green windows are original

 

another view

 

 

 

 

 

 

and possibly the best bit, the doors with their mosaic tympanum, only one house holder has interferred with this, they put a porch over the front.

 

 

 

 

The final 2 doors look original but what were the other two thinking of?

 

 

 

 

I keep thinking, where does the time go?  I still haven’t got my head around text/image layout on WordPress. Does anyone know more about these houses?

Wedding panels

I promised some friends 2 panels for a wedding present. This was sometime ago but I have become bogged down in the designs, the biggest problem has been the text. They want people to really have to look to be able to read the text and I’m not getting this right. 

 

This is Valeria’s panel its based on a Monarch butterfly wing, Valeria is Mexican. The poem will be etched onto a second sheet of glass in front of the fused panel or if I decide to encapsulate the frit I will etch onto the front, I’ll have to use a dremel for this, I wish I still had access to acid. The verse is taken from ‘Te Quiro’ by Mario Benedetti.

si te quiero es porque sos

mi amor mi cómplice y todo

y en la calle codo a codo

somos mucho más que dos

 (translation)

If I love you, it’s because you are

my love my accomplice and all

and in the street elbow to elbow [arm in arm]

we are much more than two

 

Derek’s panel is based on a heat map of the city of York, Valeria & Derek live there, they were married there and Derek studied at York university so it seems fitting.

His text is taken from a Philip Larkin poem, I can’t make up my mind which verse to use.

Side by side, their faces blurred,

The earl and countess lie in stone,

Their proper habits vaguely shown

As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,

And that faint hint of the absurd–

The little dogs under their feet.

 or

Time has transfigured them into

Untruth. The stone finality

They hardly meant has come to be

Their final blazon, and to prove

Our almost-instinct almost true:

What will survive of us is love.

 

Both poems were read at the wedding and are very beautiful. I hope to finish them by the end of April so will show the final panels here. I have also decided the text will follow the black & cobalt lines.

 

 

 

Print

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monoprints

Darfur, crimes against humanity.

The international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Read about it here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7923102.stm they also have drawings made by Sudanese village children that will be used as evidence against him. You can see these here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7923247.stm  An estimated 300,000 people have died in Dafur in the last 6 years.  Whilst the warrent may be toothless if it draws attention to the crimes committed against these people then it isn’t ‘worthless’ as some of the media believe.

Drawing by Ishmael age 15

 

My thoughts are with these children and all of those who have been murdered or displaced by the actions of this Sudanese Government.  I am also sorry to hear that Medecins Sans Frontieres have been ordered to withdraw from Darfur.

Women Centre Stage Exhibition

The Women Centre Stage exhibition starts this week, they accepted Landfill despite it being too big. The exhbition is on 4th- 30th March at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea. 

Information re. Landfill  ‘Landfill’ measures approx 410mmX 820mm Materials; Recycled Industrial fridge door made with safety glass donated by the Old Swan, Llantwit Major. The coloured glass is kiln worked bottle glass appliquéd using silicon. Why recycled glass?  Glass is one of the best materials for recycling; it can be recycled repeatedly, saving energy and raw materials. It is not known how long glass takes to breakdown, but glass made 3,000 years ago in the Middle East can still be found today.  Recycling 2 bottles saves enough energy to boil water for 5 cups of tea.  We are great tea drinkers. The other side to this is that women have historically been the recyclers in the family (mainly to do with family economics) using jars for jam making and storage, colored glass for mosaics, and textiles for patchwork, rag rugs etc.  Much of our (womens) recycling has made the materials more appealing than their original incarnation. So hopefully ‘Landfill’ continues in this tradition.   Landfill becomes another part of the landscape and part of our geology, so this is what the final work looks like (a landscape). I hope it reflects all these ideas.

A Geisha neck painting

I have been looking at more ‘napes’ and also thought about what is happening when the subject is facing away from me the viewer, it could give a sense of loneliness or absorbtion, I can’t engage  the subject. But, I think the subject could also be signaling that this is private, this is my time, I have no time or energy to give to you. So then its me who’s lonely, excluded. I’m not sure where this is taking me but it’s interesting.

While I was looking at images I found these images of  Japanese Miyagawa (?) there are so many different names for these doll like dancers (?) which I think may describe a sort of heirarchy, but I’m not sure so forgive me if I have made a mistake. I think the painting on the neck is used to accentuate the hairline and draw attention to the graceful drape of the kimono collar.  I went to a Bullseye lecture recently, one of the speakers had been an artist in residence in Japan for a while. She said the Japanese were very welcoming, but although they spoke English their culture is so different that it was very difficult for them to understand one another.

© Karen Kasmauski/Corbis

Karen Kasmauski is a photographer working for National Geographic, she did a whole series of these photos. The mirror the girl is using has a Micky Mouse decal on its back.

Kyoto geisha girls. Photograph: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert

The UK Guardian has a number of articles on the increase in young women training to become Geishas.

Justin McCurry reports from Kyoto on a surge in girls wanting to become apprentice geisha

, guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 June 2008

Tuesday 6 December 2005

This is the header from Melissa Chasse’ blog. There are lots of really good photos of Kyoto Miyagawa here. mboogiedown-japan.blogspot.com/ 2007/05/kyo-od..

The formatting has gone to pot but I’m still getting my head round this. Also I’m not sure if you will be able to go directly to the link, if not just cut and paste.

I have had an email from a photographer claiming copywrite of one of the images and demanding money, I thought I had  referenced them properly but apparently not. I’m not sure which image he is referring to but I have deleted all of them and will investigate what I had done wrong in the mean time you will need to look at the images on the websites and blogs referred to. d