Simon's Blog

All the kids are talkin’ slang I can’t pretend to understand….Frank Turner

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Guthlac

In life you push and push and then realise that you can’t push any more. When this happens the best thing is try a different tack and see what happens. Today has been one of those days. I tried and tried to make a drawing of a well known person and it just wouldn’t work. So I just let my mind wonder and suddenly something interesting started to appear. The morale of this story? There is none other than life is so full of frustration that you should enjoy the days when things go well.

I found your finger prints on a glass of wine…

Posted in General | Tagged drawing, ink, ink drawing, sketch | Leave a comment

Working with ink

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Guthlac

Still trying to come to grips with indian ink. I’ve had a few false starts but now I think I’m starting to understand, just a little, the potential of ink to my art.

Posted in General | Tagged ink, ink drawing, life drawing, male nude | 2 Comments

What is a Mylie Cyrus? – this morning’s rant

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Guthlac

This morning I found myself doodling whilst asking the question “What is a Mylie Cyrus?” I really don’t think that the Cyrus is a real person but rather some strange creature created by some very cynical media operatives. I know this is all too pat and of course there is a real person in the centre of this storm but sometimes I wonder. Family Guy, that great font of in depth thought on modern life, thought that Mylie or her alter ego Hannah Montana was an android created by the Disney Corp. Of course this was a joke but given the latest escapades I’m not so sure.

Up until quite recently the Cyrus/Montana was being marketed as the all American sweet heart/girl next door. However it was clear that this creature needed to be killed off and a new version created and what better way of doing this than sex. Now instead of the lovely girl next door we have the sex queen addict who is only too willing to bang anything that has a penis. At the moment there doesn’t appear to have been an appeal to the Lesbian demographic but it is only a matter of time. My bet is that it will be something around the rather large tongue that the Cyrus appears to have been gifted with. As a clear example of how manipulated the Cyrus is just compare the videos for the two versions of the wrecking ball song. The First is is a remix with Mumford and Sons and appears more interested in the song. The second video is the original Cyrus version which, not to get too prudish about things, is all about Sex. You can judge which is the better version but for me it is the Mumford and Son’s version.

It is all too easy to be cynical about all this but I think the wider point is that the Cyrus at the end of all this may well become another Lohan, a talented girl star who was destroyed by the image that was created for her. Of course Cyrus will be different but ultimately it is her singing talent that will save her which isn’t that differentiated from a whole raft of wannabe’s willing to do anything to get ahead. Of course what they don’t have is the head of steam that the Cyrus has got behind her – but this will only take you so far.

Now I know I’m not the demographic that the Cyrus is aimed at but for Cyrus to have a long lasting future then she has to start to produce music that will appeal to the wider market not just the pubescent. I have no idea how this all will work out and perhaps in 10 years time we will all look back to this and say this is just a phase in the development of a real musical talent. Perhaps. I guess I hope that we won’t remember Cyrus as that strange thing that happened for a short while then disappeared as her market grew up and left her behind but rather as Mylie Cyrus the talented singer/song writer who did a breath taking acoustic set on Jools Holland. I am,forever of course, the optimist.

Posted in General | Tagged Mylie Cyrus, Sex | Leave a comment

Wonderful Space for Art

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Guthlac

Sometimes a rooms or space just take’s your breath away. The spinning room at Salt’s Mill is one such place. For those of you who do no know Salt’s Mill is the centre piece of the World Heritage Site of Saltaire. It was one of the largest mills in the world at the time of it’s construction in the 19th century and the Spinning Room is right at the top of the building.

The room itself is 168 metres long and is in the roof space – some attic – the perspective appears to be exaggerated and seems to be an installation all of its own. Currently the space is being used to exhibit the Cloth and Memory {2} show – which consists of 23 installations all inspired by the room and the people who might have worked there. As with all such exhibitions some things worked whilst others less so. However, the most wonderful things about the whole experience was walking into that space for the first time. It took my breath away.

Posted in General | Tagged Cloth and Memory{2}, Saltaire, Salts Mill | Leave a comment

WARNING – Grumpy Man Alert – Why I hate Halloween

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Guthlac

I suspect that if any person living in the USA ever finds this blog they may well find what I’m going to say totally bonkers – however before getting bogged down in stereotypes I searched Why I Hate Halloween (my favourite was the Epic Rant on the Philadelphia website) and you know what not everyone in the US loves Halloween either. I really have no idea as to why we should now get all excited about halloween apart from one reason – making money for the shops and importers of cheap rubbish from China.

Take a walk around any supermarket and you quickly see that there are all sorts of Halloween promotions – yet another chance to purchase tat for your little precious. Then of course are all those pumpkins which up until recently was some exotic fruit mentioned on American TV. Now we have fields of the bloody things which only goes to prove how commercial and pointless the whole thing is becoming. We don’t see pumpkins in the shops at any other time of the year.

I guess this is a generational thing, and I don’t between me and the younger generation but between the twenty somethings and the youngsters. When my son was at school halloween wasn’t really mentioned and there certainly wasn’t any trick or treat. However, by the turn of the century Trick or Treat was becoming a real social menace – making many elderly people dread the night. The calls to the police would go through the roof from people complaining of unruly kids. Such a wonderful festival.

So what did happen around the change of the century to create this multi headed beast? Maybe we took another trend from the States, although the original idea originally came from these shores so perhaps we have only ourselves to blame. However, there does seem to be one other suspect in this sorry tale – JK Rowling. I have no evidence for this but the Harry Potter books became a phenomenal success at this time and maybe they were used as a way to get kids to read at school – which is great but did it also encourage the up take of Halloween? I don’t know but this is when Halloween became a real pain – especially Trick or Treat

So I am a grumpy old man about this. I hate halloween. It is totally foreign to me and I hate the thought of buying junk that will never be used again. I think the way I feel about this sorry mess is best expressed by this photo floating around Facebook …

Enjoy

Posted in General | Tagged Halloween, Harry Potter, JK Rolling, Pumpkin | 2 Comments

A very hoary old chestnut

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Guthlac

The other day an old college of mine got involved in a dispute over the term “direct from camera”. His view is that this adds value to the image produced and whether this is correct or not is not for me to say – it is his opinion and is free to hold it. What was more interesting for me was the debate about what is and what is not a valid image. Now I know this really is a really old chestnut and one I have no intention of reopening but this kept going through my head when I made this two images this morning.

They were captured at Saltaire, a world heritage site in West Yorkshire. Nether image is real, in the sense that both have been significantly worked on, yet both also capture what I saw when I captured the image. Now it could be argued that if I saw something in black and white then perhaps I should seek medical attention but that is not the point. We create images within our brain and both accurately reflect what I saw when I captured the image. They also reflect what I feel about Saltaire at the time and at the time of their creation. Maybe in the future I might have a different take but today that is how I want to view things. I suspect that this approach has come about from spending the best part of four years developing as an artists rather than simply as a photographer – another chestnut there – but what it does mean is that I view images in a very different way.