MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND

THIS
is the best summing up I've seen so far concerning Jeremy Corbyn's actual policies.

ELECTIONEERING AND SNEERING

I know that my posting of the link below will annoy some who visit here but hey, can't please everybody nor do I aim to. 

This space is for things I care about, think about, notice, or am working on. Outrage comes into it too sometimes because sometimes, letting out rage is all you can do. Donald Trump, Brexit, Theresa May and the impending election ....I could go on. The list of things to worry about and rage about gets longer every day. 

The blatant bias of the media over here is obvious to anybody who's got eyes and ears but since it benefits those whose bias it supports, well, eyes and ears can close down when it suits them.  Anyway have a look at this and see if it grabs you.

WALLS I HAVE KNOWN

Doing some website housework, I've added a page for murals I've done. I think I already posted some of these here quite a while ago but if you want to have a look, here's the link:

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Asunciòn, Paraguay and London, UK are the places where my murals came to life. Unfortunately the public ones are now dead, wiped out, but possibly a couple of private ones still exist.

Fresco study, Instituto Allende, San Miguel

Cement relief abstract mural by NdA for Hotel Guarani, Asuncion, Paraguay

Hotel Guarani, Asuncion

Detail of mural at Godwin Court Health Clinic, Camden, London 1982-83

Preparatory drawing, Hampden Community Centre mural, London 1983-84

RESURRECTION

To everyone who passes by here,  a happy Easter and Passover and springtime and any other feast of rebirth and renewal that you care to celebrate today or other days.

The concept or belief in resurrection is as old as humanity as is its expression in symbols. If the traditional religious ones don't appeal, have a look at some of the others.

 

Phoenix from Aberdeen Bestiary, 12th Century

The Ascension from Four Gospels, Northern Ethiopia, c 14th Century

 The view from my back window today, Easter Sunday afternoon.

CAT MINDFULNESS

What I love about cats and some other animals and young children is that everything is always for the first time for them. I put some food in the plate for visiting cat Pushkin and he lights up as if the Messiah has just offered him eternal life. And every single time it's brand new, the excitment never dims, no routine is ever boring, everything is wonderful or frightening and invariably surprising. I like to think that I'm a little bit like that, most of the time.

Meanwhile nuclear war is in the air, Trump remembers chocolate cake and forgets which country he bombed.

HODGKIN'S ABSENT FRIENDS

If you're in London, it's definitely worth going to the National Portrait Gallery for the Howard Hodgkin show Absent Friends.

Absence certainly takes centre stage because those people whose portraits Hodgkin painted at various stages in his long career are not actually depicted. What he did was to invent a carefully constructed visual language to translate his memories and feelings about certain individuals or situations into pigment, colour and form. They're not abstractions, not abstract expressionism, and not merely "mark making" (irritating art-speak!) The subject matter is always essential and Hodgkin is a narrator, telling stories which remain alive in his memory. The exquisite Indian miniatures which Hodgkin loved and collected also tell stories - he borrowed from their intense colours and precise construction  but deftly removed all illustration from his own tales. An acrobatic tour de force.

Unfortunately that vigor and inventiveness didn't persist into his late years and the final paintings in this and other recent exhibitions have an unconvincing, floppy bravado. You could say, well, that's what old age does. I'd vehemently disagree (I would wouldn't I?) and I don't know what took the vim out of Howard Hodgkin but it surely wasn't old age, even if he was 84 when he died in March this year.  Anyway, see the show if you can or if not, look up his work.

 Howard Hodgkin  Rain 1984-9