Many tongues

About the different languages I spoke and heard while in London.

IMT- Stepping out of my comfort zone

Stepping out of my comfort zone this week with my trip to London. Especially the tube which is very scary when you're claustrophobic like me. Eek!

Art Pilgrimage Part One

To start off the new year I decided to fulfill an ambition and go and visit my favourite ever painting. "Crows Over Wheatfields" by van Gogh. It is at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. This painting truly changed my life and is where it all started for me. The passion and emotion in this painting was profound to teenage-me when I first saw it in a book and learnt about it. So to see it in real life was amazing and quite emotional all over again.

So now when I look at it I can see lots of new things there. For example there is a hair from the paintbrush stuck in the paint just above the big cloud!

I wanted to capture and remember the moment and how I felt right there in the gallery.

This is the second little painting here - of that moment and my thoughts.

It was a great experience and a good start to the new year for me. I've as much as possible decided to just go for it. Do and see the things I've always wanted to. Stop putting things off and dedicate time and energy to the things I am passionate about.

On The Road

To pass the time of the long car journeys on my trip to Amsterdam I did these sketches. This first one is of things I saw from the window of the coach when travelling from Rotterdam into Amsterdam. It was quite a dark rainy day as you can tell. Although I did get to see a windmill which kind of made up for it :-)

The second one here are a couple of pages from my new mini-sketchbook. What I do is just move the pen across the page gently and the bumps in the road make the random spikes and shapes. I've just coloured them in back home to make them look more interesting.

I used to do this when I was little travelling in the back of the car. I'd run my finger along the condensation on the window and the bumps and turns in the journey would make my hand fling about allover and make patterns on the windows.

60 Random Questions

Thanks Ina for this.

1. What time did you get up this morning?

6.30am - Thanks Captain Woodhouse!

2. Diamonds or pearls?

Pearls - freshwater iridescent black.

3. What was the last film you saw at the movies?

I Am Legend on the ferry 2 days ago.

4. What is your favourite TV show?

CSI (the original and the best).

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?

Kellog’s Crunchy Nut or sometimes a marshmallow - a white one.

6. What is your middle name?

Ann

7. What food do you dislike?

Beans make me cringe. Honestly.

8. What is your favourite CD at the moment?

“Sing Away The Sadness” by Paula Ryan.

9. What kind of car do you drive?

Ugh I don’t - driving is too stressful. The last car I drove was our Nissan Micra to my Grandma’s house.

10. Which is your favourite sandwich?

Tuna, red onion, black pepper & cucumber. From Moon on A Stick (Random name for sandwich shop!).

11. What characteristics do you despise?

There isn’t one I despise.

12. Favourite item of clothing?

My Harley belt or maybe my Land of the Giants T-Shirt.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world for aVacation where would you go?

Just one place? Iceland, Croatia, South Africa or ideally a long round the world trip. I know - I’m spoiled.

14. What colour is your bathroom?

White

15. Favourite brand of clothing?

Don’t have one

16. Where would you retire?

Scotland

17. Most memorable birthday?

18th for all the wrong reasons.

18. Favourite Sport to watch?

Snooker.

19. Furthest place you are sending this?

Cyberspace!

20. Who do you expect to send this back to you?

Michael, reluctantly, when I bully him to do so. And ‘cos we rock the random questions.

21. Person you expect to send it back first?

---

22. Favourite saying?

Not a saying but my current favourite quote is “I’m rushing ahead like a painting locomotive”. Van Gogh.

23. When is your birthday?

19th December

24. Are you a morning person or a night person?

A 2am-person.

25. What is your shoe size?

8 :-(

26. Pets?

Beautiful Hoppy and Mora.

27. What did you want to be when you were little?

A barmaid!

28. What are you today?

Undiscovered

29. What is your favourite candy?

I’ll take it all.

30. What is your favourite flower?

Don’t like the smell of flowers (bad job experience at a florists) but I’ll say a white rose for Yorkshire.

31. What is a day on the calendar you are lookingforward to?

13th January, my trip to London.

32. What church/temple do you attend?

None

33. What are you listening to right now?

My dad talking on the telephone, (Multi-tasking) he just said “I got another bloomin flat tyre.”

34. What was the last thing you ate?

Fish & Chips (good to be back home baby)

35. Do you believe in Angels?

Yes

36. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?

Yellow

37. What is your pet peeve?

People reading the newspaper from back to front.

38. Last person you spoke to on the phone?

Dad - right now.

39. Favourite soft drink?

Orange juice dilute.

40. Favourite restaurant?

Samarkand Indian restaurant in Heckmondwike

41. Hair Colour?

Red

42. Siblings?

Nope

43. Favourite day of the year?

Birthday, but did it have to be so close to Christmas?

46. Hugs or kisses?

Hugs

47. Chocolate or vanilla?

Chocolate

48. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?

Yes of course and with random facts.

49. When was the last time you cried?

Yesterday when I saw my favourite painting at the Van Gogh Museum.

50. What is under your bed?

My cat.

51. Who is the friend you've had longest?

KP

52. What did you do last night?

Sailed on the ferry from Rotterdam to Hull.

53. Favourite smell?

Creasort - is that just me?

54. What are you afraid of?

Children

55. How many keys on your key ring ?

2. Despite my dad’s continued efforts to give me keys to front door, back door, shed, garage front, garage back, gate …

56. How many years at your current job?

...

57. Favourite day of the week?

Saturday

58. How many towns have you lived in?

One

59. Do you make friends easily?

I don’t know really - do I? Yes I think so.

60. How many folks will you send this to?

Anyone who reads my blog.

Sketches Three

Still experimenting with the "draw without lifting" sketching. I like the style and technique of this because it is easy, quick and expressive. Also it takes me away from my usual drawing style. When you can't lift the pencil from the page you can't obsess about the next line, where the pencil should go next, does it look right? etc. Just keep going, keep drawing.

The Wolfman & Other Cases

I've been reading about three of Freud's most famous case studies, that of Little Hans, The Ratman and The Wolfman in the book shown above. I know that Freud is kind of outdated and out of fashion compared to today's psychotherapy and counselling methods. Quite possibly his analysis of these three patients is nonsense. Yet I always had a lot of time for psychoanalysis when I was studying psychology. The idea of the unconscious mind fascinates me. The way he suggested it manifests itself in our conscious life or through dreams.

I'm also interested in the subject of dream interpretation because I suffer myself from reoccurring nightmares. I seek insight and understanding into them in the hope that if I discovered what it is about the past that still disturbs my mind I might be able to let it go. Does it work like that? I don't know.

Anyway for both Little Hans and the Wolfman I've drawn the ideas, dreams and memories the patients were troubled by plus the things Freud interpreted from them. Its kind of like seeing someones subconscious mind there on the page. That is what I was going for anyway.

Its Freud so expect lots of disturbing scenes, nakedness and phallic, well, everything..

Little Hans

You can read more about the case of Little Hans Here and that of The Wolfman Here should you be interested .

The Wolfman

Not a pretty sight!

I was planning to do the Ratman too and make it a trio of paintings but the night after I finished the second painting I had the most truly terrifying nightmare myself. Really horrifying. Is it because of the paintings? Either way I'm definitely leaving this subject behind now.

IMT - New Year Resolutions

~ Let go ~ Create without restraint ~ Be expressive not self-conscious ~ Trust to instinct & creative passion ~ Let them reveal themselves on the page ~

I wrote in my diary at about 3am on new years morning. (I always seem to get creative bursts at about this time!) I wasn't planning to make any new year resolutions, but now that the theme for IMT has made me think about it, I realised I made a big one right there and then in my diary.

I had something on my mind and on the page, I just began to write a poem. I've never written one before, don't know how to and didn't think it was my sort of thing. But at that moment it just seemed the natural way to express what I was thinking. So that experience demonstrates my resolution for 2008. To be creative and expressive without restraint. Without feeling self-conscious about the way I do it - just go with the moment and whatever feels right. Even if its out of my comfort zone - let go.

So here is the poem:


What draws me to you?
Between us is a bond nature made.
No man can understand let alone break.
Together we are strong.
I am not a one, I am a whole.

Its about getting in touch with feminine energy, with being a woman, with mother nature. Women being strong together- the creators and nurturers. After I wrote it , I illustrated it returning to the imagery and symbolism I'd used in an earlier painting about femininity (on the left). The colours, lines, shapes. I developed it into a full painting and here it is..

My celebrity look-alike

I checked out my celebrity look-alikes at myheriatge.com. I chose Janeane to morph into because I like her. How weird is it? Its how I'd look with proper eyebrows I guess.