The Creation Myths
If you ever read one of my other blogs ‘A Walk with Cosmo’, you may remember the creation myths?
In the beginning there were only the four winds. The North, the East, the South and the West. They blew all the moisture to one place to form the sea and all the dust to another place to form the land.
After many years the land formed and within the dust were the seeds for the trees and wild flowers, these grew and formed the Blean Woodlands. In these woodlands the Blean Men were created. There are four Blean Men, one for each season.
A day of two halves
So this morning I have Seen the Trees….. Walked in the Rain….. Heard the Birds….. Stopped along the Way….. Smelt the Flowers….. and Trusted the Universe….. and I have followed up and carried out some of my ideas. I have seen stuff and been influenced. Motivated even, by what now seem like whims and fancies even self indulgent nonsense.
But
This afternoon I visited someone else’s world. I wondered if I would also live there myself one day? A world where making a small descision, or committing to an idea is too hard and doing what I am asked is all I can do…..A world about watching and never doing, can you phone my wife and tell her I will be late home. Talking is OK but I don’t want to do too much of it. A world which travels at half speed but is still confusing, a world which passes in front of me but I am unable to engage with….A world where I am exposed and vulnerable and can you phone my wife and tell her I’ll be late.
A walk back in time
Me with two, and my canine companion with four legs are off to check out an area of the woods I never go, this is because I may have to carry out some work there in the future. This is close to a kind of zoo place which keep all sorts of wild animals, called Wildwood. We are walking on our way over there through the mud, I can see the ponies in between the trees (never seen them in this part of the woods before). I look at the deer that are behind a hire wire fence in the Wildwood Zoo, they are wary of me and jittery. He with four legs just kind of prances about and looks perky making them skitter off into the shadows. Round the corner I encounter two wild boars, they charge at me ‘yeh fat boy, you wont get me fella’, and I am confident on the other side of the wire fence. Then I can see him (with four legs) is in the zoo, running and barking at the wild boar.
Suddenly it’s 16000 years ago and the images within the caves of Lascaux have come to life, I am in a forest surrounded by wild animals and I have to get my companion out of a fight with several Mo-Fo’s. The massive grey one is getting up now. I found the hole in wire fence (they keep wolves in this place as well you know). Its almost dark and I cant see too much, but I can hear it’s kicked off big time, leaves, shrubs, barking, frantic running though undergrowth sounds and the realisation that this is happening in the section next to boars, there is a wire fence between this section and their section. Him with 4, is so brave, as he knows they can’t get him. I can hear birds taking off out of the trees as this has caused a bit of a kafuffle.
I can only see groups of dots in rows, red ochre bulls, yellow ochre horses, and burnt ochre deer swimming through a river. My companion is panting heavily as we stop (in the woods not the zoo) at a muddy puddle and he drinks. I can see the ponies in the distance and again he (with 4 legs) is off to investigate. Ponies galloping at full whack are a wonderful sight, marred only by the embarrassment that your friend has caused a stampede.
Animals were experienced, not looked at that evening, as the caves of Lascaux show.
Still Life:
Unwittingly appropriate it seems.
I had a planning meeting yesterday to establish this residency with the men who count butterflies (though my contact is actually female) and the other stakeholder in the residency scheme. Who are The Friends for Mental Health. They are able to contributre funds and start match funding my application for money from my local city council, the deadline is next week.
We met The Friends and their ‘clients’ who are elderly men living permently on a hospital ward surrounded by photos of Bobby Moore, Muhamed Ali and other sporting legends along with virile Hollywood action stars. These images have not provided the zest and lust for life they represent.
Still life is a good description of my new friends.
I am not an artist I am a Citizen Smith. One who works with citizens, a phrase coined by my wife yesterday.
But I am Citizen Smith.
It is Still Life after all.
I have concluded these coloured sticks are not ceremonial but are in fact ‘Still Life’. Arrangements of objects, just that they are arranged in the landscape instead of on a table top etc.
What is the plural of a still life? Still lives or still life’s?
This realisation is a breakthrough as I can begin to understand what is happening. The painted longhorn cattle and konic pony arrangements were also still life.
The Blean Man he is a still life object. This all seems to sit more comfortably now.
