Just Support Art - - #AnimalAugust #18

Working from has got me listening to CDs again. I did start listening digitally , and because my record player is downstairs , vinyl is not an option. I am listening to CDs that I have probablty never played but felt I needed in my collection, so I am slowly working my way through th eBruce Springsteen "Sound Stage" 15 Cds of radio broadcast , plus today there have been a couple of Yes albums and a couple bt Stomu Yamash'ta .

I usually start the day with a bit of 6Music and then drift into the CDs.

I bought a lot of my music because I felyt I should have it and should support the artist , so yesterday I was listening to "Coconut" by The Archie Bronson Outfit. I don't know what possessed me to buy the album , whether it was a recommendation or I had heard something , but it was a great listen, and I also feel good that The Archie Bronson Outfit will have gor a decent chunk of the CD sale rather than the 0.000001p they would have got if I had listened to it on Spotify.

Other art forms require our support as well , however we do it , by either buying the art , paying an entrance fee or donating , or ideally from taxes , so artists don't have to worry when they are next going to eat.

Art can take many forms and all of them need our support, however we can, so buy , support , go and watch. We need art.

Continuing with #AnimalAugust (I am surprised I hav posted 18 times this month already), I am going to go with the beautiful "Beeswing" by Richard Thompson , one of my favourite singers , songwriters and guitarist.

Just Do Art - - #AnimalAugust #17

Art takes many forms. I believe that for something to be art, it must have an effect , even if that effect is negative. One of the problems is that usually we expect art to be free . It's OK to be free at point of interaction as long as it is properly funded.

I always say that to produce art you just have to call it art. That may sound frivolous but you could call an empty coffee cp art if you present it in the right way.

Also with art once the artist has created the piece then when someone sees it then there is an audience.

Funding can be you paying for art , through taxes or through an entrance fee , but artists have to be able to live if they are to produce at.  I keep trying to do things but for some reason don't have the discipline to produce a finished product. I remember as a teenager joining a band on Tuesday for a gig on Saturday then writing and rehearsing and doing the gig , I really need to get that fire back, although it's best when you are doing it with someone else where you can bounce ideas.

I have incredible admiration for people who do thing solo. The inspiration for this post comes from my friend Hildy Harland who , despite the lockdown destroying all her scheduled work is still producing and sharing he art online.

#AnimalAugust will be "Journey of The Sorcerer" by The Eagles adopted as the theme for The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, and really all artists are sorcerers  because they create something where there was nothing , whether it be a paining , a dance , a song or a story.

Apologies if this has been an incoherent ramble , but we need to look out for our artists or else we will just have corporate  advertising.

Also if you don't like the art you see , do something yourself.... at the moment I'm just limited to this although there is the odd short story and poem in my many posts.

An Interlude With Bobzilla

Today while have a wander round the Tyne Bridge and High Level Bridge with Scott we dropped into Arch 16 and we were well impressed by the latest avian based artwork on display. You can see it here on my Instagram feed , I also had to use the loo and was very impressed with the repurposed vinyl single display on the wall (see here).

We had a cafe latte and the guy serving us told us this was all his work and he goes under the name Bobzilla, and apart from being a talented artist (you can see more by visiting his "I Am Bobzilla" site) , he makes a great cup of coffee and is remarkably engaging to talk too. Among other things he is also a DJ and had some excellent sounds playing while we were these. It was so pleasant we had another coffee before departing back across the High Level Bridge to Newcastle.

So you get art , cake , coffee , tea , good sounds and good vibes, a thoroughly excellent half an hour, worth visiting for a coll and chilled atmosphere in which to eat cake and drink coffee.

So it's the day before April Fool's day but it has been a most excellent final day of March , chatting with Bobzilla and enjoying his art and sounds, so continuing with the art theme I've included my slideshow of the Armageddon themes paintings of the North East's greatest artist John Martin. I've just found that the book of his work I have is going for up to £200 on Amazon, like my Handy Wah! compilation on the last post but one.

Anyway hope you have a wonderful week.

Sometimes It's Too Early

Woke up an 3AM , I haven't a clue why. It's Saturday so I know I can go back to bed if I need to. The wind is howling outside , but it isn't raining., though they say if March Comes In Like A Lion , It Goes Out Like A Lamb , so that may bode well for the end of the month weather wise. The best thing is , is that it is the weekend.

From The Back

This week I have been listening to some great music, and am fascinated by the picture of the simple mirrored arch I took in Sunderland this week , just love the disconcerting affect it has. When I look at it from the front , because of the very blue sky I don't see it at first and really have to look before I do see it. Looking from the back it is obvious but from the front , in the photograph it hides in plain sight.

When I took the picture I could obviously see it, which is why I took the picture, but then when I looked at it on my phone I couldn't actually see the thing immediately. It reminds me a bit of the effect of Anthony Gormley's "Domain Field"  which when you look at a photograph or from a distance you don't immediately see the figures.

From The Front

 Maybe it's my eyes and age but would be interested in your opinion. The Domain Field figures are below from an exhibition in the Baltic a few years back. Anyway I might go and grab a few hours sleep, so you all have a brilliant weekend. For a change there's no music on this one but hope you like the pictures

Domain Field With People

Domain Field Figures

Sort Of Normal

After finally getting up today after a good night's sleep today has been a sort of normal day. It's nine o'clock and I don't feel ready to drop. I've had a relaxing day visiting Helmsley, and my holiday has started in an excellent holiday type of way.

The weather is what you would expect in December, but I've certainly seen much worse and have plans to visit Helmsley Castle (part of English Heritage which is free with my Barclays Bank Account) and Castle Howard during the week.

The Last Glimpse Of Summer

Though being away from Newcastle has extracted me from the situation of choosing between four excellent gigs tonight so I can relax, listen to good music , drink , and just feel good. Though this is a remarkably short post it has taken me a remarkably long time to write, for something with so few words in it.

Maybe I am getting tired and maybe I should go to bed. Well my weekend has got off to a great start, I hope yours is the same and I hope all my friends who are enjoying gigs and socialising tonight have an absolutely brilliant time. I have to include a picture of Rebecca Cothers beautiful latest work one here because it is a lovely evocation of the last of summer.

I chose David Bowie's take on Jacques Brel's Amsterdam because my daughter Juliet is doing a presentation on the place this week. And that's another coincidence I've had reason to mention both of my daughters in consecutive blog posts , and that is another reason to put a smile on my face.

Picture Books

Hell everyone, I'm amazed that the number of views on this blog is about to hit 40,000. Most post get 50-100 views these days, so someone obviously reads it. Thank you to everyone that does.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered the art of Rebecca Cother and said that I'd put together a slideshow which you can watch above. I had a short musical motif going through my mind so played it in Garageband and used it as the soundtrack. It's very sparse and was thinking of Arvo Part's Spiegel Im Spiegel. I'm going to upload it to the various digital providers via Tunecore and will update the post at some future point.


So I hope you all enjoy the post , the slideshow and the music. Have a great Sunday everybody.

I'm In Love With Rebecca Cother......

Well her wonderful paintings and images......

There's a lot of things that I didn't intend to do this wonderful day. Yesterday I visited the Divine Bodies exhibition at The Laing , took some photos which ended up on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Todays CDs

I went to Reflex and ending up buying 9 CDs of 50s and 60s soul and rock. I have a lot of the tracks but the collections looked so good I just had to have them, listening to one of them now. And rather good it is too.

The weather is still fantastic, and I've just remembered I need to design a card for my friends 50th birthday fairly promptly as it's his birthday on Wednesday.

Alan is scared of flying

Anyway  back to the lady in the title of the post. She's an artist as well and started following me on Twitter . I had a quick look at her website on my phone and was instantly enchanted by her wonderful images and paintings. Really they are beautiful and you can just fall in love with them , I challenge you not to. Some are funny, all are inventive and just beautifully presented.

Owl-Vis

I've took this couple of examples from her website which you can visit here, or her facebook page which is here. I just love all these paintings and in our twitter exchanges turned her on to the brilliant Kelly Richardson, who is responsible for som amazing installation art pieces.

I saw her amazing Mariner 9 at Whitley Bay's Spanish City. Anyway I promised Rebecca she'd be the subject of my next post and this is it. Go visit her site , and be as enchanted as I was with her paintings. Have a brilliant day all!!

Rain Is Good

It's raining again, but only to be expected at this time of year. Maybe I should have mowed the lawn yesterday , but not to worry.

I'm almost shocked at the amount of good music around , if you want new stuff there's the excellent band from Northern Ireland The Strypes who are still under 17 , while at the other end of the age spectrum Yoko Ono has a brilliant new album out . Add to that new offerings from Franz Ferdinand, Janelle Monae,  Manic Street Preachers , Bill Callahan , Elvis Costello and The Roots, and many many more the music scene seems to be thriving. And next week I am going to see Wire for the first time in my life. You can find all of these on Youtube and Amazon or just go and see them if you get a chance.

Another success is that I finally manage to export a piece I'd put together in Garageband that I'd originally meant as an accompaniment for a World Book Night montage , but forgot about it and used some random Anthony Gormley images as well as the odd skyline. But it's nothing special , it just means now I can actually use Garageband as a studio now about 15 moths after gettin all the relevant bits and pieces.

So enjoy the rain , enjoy your day and enjoy your music.

The Art of Geoff Marston

Geoff Martson's Blues Suitcase Cards

Geoff Marston does Tom Waits

Every now and then you see something that stops you in your tracks. Sometimes it's something similar to something else , acombination of the familiar presented in an original way.



Today at the Summertyne Festival I was wandering through The Sage foyer to the concert area , when I saw an amazing display of suitcases !! I always imagine this image of Robert Johnson is him sitting on a battered suitcase.

Tom Waits

 
Anyway what Geoff Marston has done is set his paintings on real suitcases!! The look amazing and are an amazing piece of art combinng paint with a suitcase instead of your normal canvas. The problem being then is how do you display it ? You need room to do that but they do look fantastic.

About Geoff Marston

The artwork looks like an excellent blues album cover , and most of the artist are archetypal American musicians such as Hank Williams , Muddy Waters and Tom Waits.

Hank Williams

 Geoff also does mounted prints of his work as well for the more standard art display . There are examples of his art dotted around this post , obviously influenced by his love of music and major involvement with the Jumpin' Hot Club.






Check out his work , you will have seen nothing like it.

Art For Tantricity's Sake

"Northern City Renaissance: Newcastle, England (Mass MoCA #79-E)" by Stephen Hannock

I just got a letter from the Laing in Newcastle asking me for a donation of £30 to stage their latest exhibibition and was suprised to find that the well known tantric sex practicioner and part time jungle dweller (South America not Sunderland) , Gordon Sumner had commissioned a huge landscape of Newcastle by the artist Steven Hannock , and had been dispayed over the winter .

I wish I had seen this as the painting is well impressive and after seeing the John Martin Exhibition at the Laing , I am always impressed with the sheer audacity of painting of this size. Even just on the computer screen it looks impressive, and it is about time I got to the Laing.

Anyway if you click on the various links they'll take you to the various appropriate sites to gain more information. Below is a video of John Martin pictures:

Well impressed