Sunday 24 July 2011

let's

Let's cook with the best ingredients
let's plant the best thoughts in our minds
let's reach deep into the well of provision
the bible of love so profound
let's dig and plant the best garden
and eat only of what
will bring joy

let's find the seeds of the spirit
plant in the Earth's furrows
not worry our brow nor annoy

one day there will be a fine harvest
the stream fed the fruits of the ground
the light and the rain did from heaven
pour all around

with fertile and dream filled abundance
the Lord touched the heart
of our town
the village
is bringing out tables
the children are starting to sing

the spring brought
the news we'd been waiting for
now w're wearing best smiles
and those frowns
are simply the skillet containers
the scoops to dip into the feast

as we spill
love joy peace
add the yeast
for we're eating from our father's table
faithful and gentle and kind
we're sieved of our sin
through the goodness
of Jesus
He has saved you a place
just beside him
Melchizedek there
self control
patiently Peter is smiling
Barnabas pass them a roll

Let us make for the grass
on the mountain
the Lion lies down with his lambs

Let us spread out the tent of
our our meeting
Listen the music now starts
its a festival day
for our children as they meet
 all the one's we have known
surprising to see who's included
Non one left out
all God's own

so the scripture
revealing God'glory
a story 's new chapter unfolds
Are you there? Did you hear the voice of a n angel now whisper
the name that you share all are known
You can eat from the branch that's outstretched for
nothing clever is needed somehow
feel the birth of the flowers beneath you
all of this
when's it happening?

now

Saturday 23 July 2011

Undoing the word artist-why do I want to?

Well I have been wondering that myself
go into lectures about how you need 6 primaries because 3 don't work
and that the schools didn't let you do it badly and so defined those who
they didn't understand as unable with their own photographic interpretation

Sort of I want to get rid of the word and its clumsy pal 'sketch'
because they don't let others in like protestant catholic and other
labels do not so much encourage our childhood with loving Father
as describe cliques that you must learn the rules to belong to.
Please join us other naughty imperfect children in a church that
acknowledges it is a collection of imperfect people loving a perfectly forgiving Father

Superstar well alright you are.
We all shine on-don't hide the lamp you say you haven't got because someone did not applaud /award you with a label please!

I truly believe breathing and heart beating to be more of a 'gift' than
the illusion or conjuring trick of drawing that probably is slightly
easier if short sighted in one eye
easier to turn the 3d world into the blackboard
we drew the 26 letters and 9 numbers from
by rehearsing our scribbling like the splasher
learns to be buoyant and therefore to swim


I ask for pay not for my gift but for my efforts.
But I really do love it when you become teachable.

A student of mine once said you can draw because you are 'an artist'

I want you to realize how impossible it is to rub
out the devil's well constructed tempting LIE
in that self defeating excuse of an assertion.People are drowning in self criticism
because no one said it is alright simply to splash to stay alive.They can't survive
following the same logical intelligence because they are not 'SWIMMERS'-oh yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Thank you.

Relatively accurately-approximately faithful-worth doing badly.Yes yes yes!

Oh no I am already late!

I have two clocks (3 and others) to be more precise
a watch and a pair of cuff links
which came first?
well the pair of cuff links
no they did not breed!

the cuff links are two small watches
and they read the numbers just as usual
long finger points to the five minutes slices
denoted by the twelve hour clock figures
whilst the small hand points to the hours
 represented by the same sections
no confusion there then ?Normality!

But the fingers go anti-clock wise
 i.e both the hours and the minutes
so you could suggest they are going
back wards but no for the numbers are mirrored
and the 1-6 are switched
with the 11 -6
so as I said before the time reads as normal.

The only problem is very few jewelers
 know how to get in
 to replace the batteries
so I have to  my stereo time keepers
need a special trip to Liverpool.

So there is one version of time

The watch I bought in Brighton and only
when they pulled its display tab out did it show its true joy.
The numbers go around whilst the fingers behave normally
and they have replaced some figures with math symbols like pi,

Again I read from the position of the fingers but ignore the
numbers which evidence the seconds as it is the seconds hand
that is on the glass mushroom stood that does the ticking.

So got me thinking then
how accurate is a watches second hand.
Do you know the time to the second?
Or do we accept relative accuracy.

Does God .Well

Where we are concerned yes.
There is nothing you can do that will make God love you more
and nothing you can do that will make God love you less.

Like the timelessness and time that his part of his infinite playfulness
we are forgiven our lack of accuracy.

He is Love and we are loved but we are all out of sink and sin fully so.

'If a thing is worth doing it is worth doing badly'
not deliberately badly but hopefully playfully joyfully
and in an attempt at some  helpful synchronization.

When did I cease to be a child?-never!
but rather than imagining I am learned or learning


I would suggest that is a foolish tree to worship at
the tree of knowingness try this

Be still in Eden
God just loves you .
His plan will satisfy you

Consider the birds of the air and the lillies
of the field they cannot add a second to their
watches by worrying about our time filled lives.

Oh dear I have messed that up
must be an 'artist' or  perhaps just a man..
 continuously running out of time


a bit 'tick '  then buh bum!

Gentility and trust

There is a stream that runs through my mind one of gentility and trust .
I sat down to read today's offering from the Daily bread and it was
Isaiah 61.The spirit of the Lord is upon me......to bind up the broken hearted.

Contemplating why I had been so assertive about not being an 'artist'
I scribbled something earlier about Don't be an artist but be artist.


It is a bit like the way the word washes me though I don't need to intellectually
own it fasten it down.Rather like water washing me or the lymph system
cleansing my blood when breathing... when I don't feel  I am over aware of it
that I know what to do...or why ..or how etc.

Being artist is breathing as everyone does.
( think this is expressed in a book called the Tao is Silent-not a Holy or religious book
just a humble natural unassertive and naturally blogged well breathed human moment
-Claske Franck after 30 years just thanked me a third time for giving her this book.)

Gratitude or praise for this gift of life is being- artist.An open invite of everyone to play
in the joie de vivre of this shared gift of life.


So being 'artist' is alright  it is just the 'creative?' expression of playful loving being.
Open to all to feel express and know gratitude-
no I do not believe it is for the 'gifted'
but it is a gift--oh yes that is true.

Open it for yourself be artist-do it badly
until it flows with hope joy possibilities unlabelled and kindly.
Share it  with someone and do not not let flattery
nor criticism get at you

Caught in the act of being an artist whilst
trying to simply get on with sharing
and being just 'artist'.
and then you will be playful--His SUN


Back to listening flowing with enjoying Isaiah 61.

Friday 22 July 2011

Shifting mind

The shifting mind's perception then is simply playing football with the words
Labels then a baby walks into a shop and chooses sweets and bitters
 the candy or Guinness of who to be or not to be.Thus starts the question.

I'll be Christian ,Buddhist Artist or Scientist-are these mutually exclusive
 or decidedly inclusive? That'll cost you .Try this box on for size.
Thus wrapped the baby buys in to the new self.

The potential and possibilities thus reduced
the pataphysical invite to look at the exceptions that don't so much ignore the rules
as question the cruelty of being defined by laws and limited group perception
which has been shaped to create compartmentalised schools
now means which church which scientific position
which newspaper is right for you.

No one will allow the correlation of exceptions or get back to the playing
oh no much too serious now for that
predeliction has been replaced with the cigarette
of aquired distaste.

And so the world now looks to feng shui and minimalism
to impressionist returns to nature and to a range of priests

Some will decide to believe in anything and everything
a smorgasborg of pig swill psycho delia
or Delia's well tried this works do it this way
comfort zones of good taste after the match

http://youtu.be/v-gtZdsburg

Oh well call me artist if you must
then tell me what one of them does
have me teach it


but do not be surprised if I prefer to play
and turn to my father and share my time with Jesus and the good word
of 66 authors in concert

instead of staying with the dunces hat
of labelling on my head

Thursday 21 July 2011

Staying in touchness

In touchness is simple gentle love.
Like when my son sent me two elbow albums for father's day.
I had only glimpsed them a couple of days before at televised Galstonbury
or when my daughter gave me Roald Dahl's tales of Mystery and imagination

Little touchstones of connectedness to things that make sense to them
and enable me to make sense of where they are momentarily at.

 My friend Claske Franck sent a wonderful card with doves and olive branches
drawn by Frederick and reminiscent of Matisse and Picasso
to thank me for a book I sent her 30 years ago called the Tao is Silent.

I recall in How to win friends and influence people
being interested in others interests is the key.

Jesus said what you do or do not do for others you do or do not do for me.

Staying in touchness.Amen

To stay in touch with him pray sing look walk talk
be with listen ,listen with your eyes,heart,all your senses
read Bible related texts like Max Lucado's A love worth giving.
Oh and children's books like John Burninghams-for the feel of the pictures.Amen

There is a melody in children's book illustration
that you can feel in your mind's music.
An in touchness.

Thursday 14 July 2011

Watching your own movie

Waiting for your own thoughts to upload/download?

As I walked through the flat half awake
through the beach-combed debris and prize of my life.
I thought of how we wonder in museums about life and thoughts before.
Yet here we are in one just as mysterious.

Amy my daughter when looking at a painting years ago whilst out on a school
trip drew a little picture from a picture of the three girls in and said
but you cannot tell what they are thinking

I looked up from the desktop just now and say the painting I made of an imaginary snowie paris
and saw that I had drawn and written my thoughts about my head
like mind mapping the invitation is to draw your thoughts within the
narrative pictures and snaps and scraps to share our innermost?
or perhaps momentarily obvious outermost being

in truth even then we are only offering clues

and what of ourselves passing through our own thought
in these museums for one homes of bits

Gratitude and psalms to being alive -thank you God
that is what songs and pictures and books are
seeking to make our feelings ponderings known
and talking ourselves up -enjoyable and enjoyed.

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Free er

When trying top find some fresh lesson
I do not want to repeat something  shared with someone
either with watercolour nor guitar

Mutual journeying but some reassuring ground
visual or aural that makes sense to sense and
the tuning of some shared aesthetic
language of being more alive.

Collage is a good direction
and so is compostion
associative flow is linear through time
tidies up in to a layered wall of staves
or radiating from a core with a sheet  thoughts and images
heart map

Finding something to share means going out
picking bits and pieces sieving them and relating
 to them and them to each other
Its the artist date thing.

Gently into the day

 I did have a row of words that should have
 bloomed seed like but I interupted them by reading emils first


Grab the song when you wake to its hope
There' always next time
help me to accept this sometimes ness.

Thursday 7 July 2011

controlling share

What a contradiction in terms
either you are controlling 
or you are sharing
like  the strange suggestion that
giver's gain
givers give would be more generous
and a better description
of the expectations
and joy of a  true giver.

Currency is meant to flow
current see?

Gentle thought after watching
 The Apprentice
and the contradictory
 balance of hugs
 and back biting.

Currency
perhaps concert instead of contest
would be a better model of sharing

perhaps surrendering control
would be a blessing to all

Firng people up
 rather than firing people
Alan 'Sir'-''sparky''-not  so spiky

now there a task 'harmony'.
not hairspray.

Monday 4 July 2011

morning pages open systems and the River man

My understanding of Julia Cameron's Artist Way Brief is

outpouring stream of consciousness automatic writing
 uninhibited free associative Jack Kerouac on the road
beat zen autobiographical flow is invited to fell
and understanding LETTING the thoughts just pour
will get the creative childlike mind simply be and feel more alive.
This first strategy enable us to look at the collection of stuff
select from it and be encouraged by its abundance.
Just write three pages a day she has suggested -thanks its a good invite
and HOLY for it is a gratitude prayer and a reviewing of the
 life and assets one has.Sure it is cluttered and so she says don't re reread.

The next strategy to this WAY is to have an ARTIST's DATE.
to go off somewhere and surprise yourself-not retail therapy
but simply with your senses and ability to move about go out with yourself.

Given the two you are escaping the closed system of RUT which liken to
an old single record will keep you going round in neurotic circles
whilst the eccentric tangent of orbiting out will invite fresh life giving experience and
oxygen in.My understanding is the the old fight or flight reflex enabled us to burn of the sludge of
adrenalin lymph system canals of the body to drain away anxiety in its physical manifestation
but our office and one way receiving of information meant we felt trapped
claustrophobic lost and alone in a modern cave.No wonder the mutual mud and music bath of G;lastonbury seems so attractive even if as I suspect the size is now providing over choice
of performances and a lonely crowd of faces.

Nevertheless  MONING PAGE  writing offers us our desk top bin to fill and
'do we really want to empty it ?'  YES Jesus said to lose it would be gain.
And the artists date Having let go the abundance Jesus offers based on trust
means you can now drink in the WATER from the River Man God Jesus
to offers you something that will last.

So then I have five jobs in
Two are short portraits of life ,Two gentlemen a teacher who is retiring and
an ex navy man.I am to create small water colours from items associated
 and meaningful to each one and pull them together into a flowing song
 on the eye of line and lyrical melody.
The aim they will identify and enjoy the portrait
it invites them to review for retirement and birthday
rather like St Ignacious of Loyola's method of praying
and NO there will be no clairoyance
Making sense is more interesting and does
 not have the pretense of being God

LET GOD BE GOD
unlimited trustworthy and true
beyond understanding
which is the closed system of
'resting on our own understanding'
(however big the individual ,the  group, or this  ego)
the next job is a portrait of a church in readiness for a wedding gift
Not trusting one photo I need to look from as many
 angles and associative feelings as I can
to give value for money and to gestalt together
something warmer than a single snap.
The next job is to create a further
ten characters for use in a company based brief .
The use the layered pdf file of photoshop
 to make the images easier to manipulate and publish
Meanwhile I have agreed to be in a tent at a school fair
working on Le Jog picture that includes school celebs
and associative conducting of watercolour and ink into
what I think of as a cross between a Tony Buzan mind map and
a pop album sleeve.

In a moment I will sit with diary/notebook ,book called Hope for each day
Daily Bread ,Word for today URC prayer journal,Barnabus prayer journal
a minimalist Inspriring Prayer book and be Christian.
Closed system ? No I choose to walk with the Holy Spirit
and in the company not of like minds but those who have found clean water to drink.

I am avoiding hocuc pocus smorgasbord  over choice when it come to spiritual things
like alcohol it is disorientating.The content of the material of the Christian literature
as with the Bible is one of fresh daily incite with several authors with spirit led hearts.
The journals are challenging and Bible based.

Just now sparrows are making their sharp sounds ch sch  the sounds are neither
 ch nor sh but are insistent  and even the car engine sounds roll gently like prams

So in preparation for the day this has been spontaneous morning page
 thoughts on a Monday of a working week.The high lights of the week
the punctuation funeral tomorrow with good hearts friendly face and fond memories
and aspiration for a heavenly hopefulness.The book of hope was something Allan
left in church with other things when moving house.
Well he is doing that again and leaving much HOPE
in his gentle wake
and friendly

Last weeks acheivements a visit from my daughter millet pie
trompe l'oeil ,Completing mural at Linghams Heswall
visit to doctor re tendonitus .Playing bass with Graham and Alan
New piano work chatting to friends and these pages began.

Sunday 3 July 2011

No one will ever have heard of you - yet again.

There's a thought that may be the true curse of the famous
one thought that God will simply not applaud
that just like when
'no one had ever heard of them'
'no one will have ever heard of them again'

Just like Nick Drake said on Fruit Tree
anonymous music playing on TVs 'Heartbeat' long gone
Just as actors come and go,an old story line
becomes original again
No copyright will matter
on the second time around

Yo never owned the body you stood up in Mr.Dawkins
Mr.Jones nothing is happening here
Dylan said he'd forever talk to us
Mr.Zimmerman's Bowie is only fooling horses
as darling buds of May are fading
the bar counter will never get the same applause
the Frost of I'm alright jack in a box
pulls sheepish wool over the famous fox
 in shepherd's clothings-new disguise

No one will ever have heard of 'me'again.

So then time to put your faith in Jesus
a famous name that simply will not fade to grey

Let's scribble some harmonica in God's altar
as the the old church organ's grunting goes away

Just a small praise band anonymous and yearning
for the riffs of Holy Spirit in our lungs
I remember in this temporary moment
Dylan's hymn 'may we all stay forever young'

As you deposit with the strength of the widow's mite n pain

don't get too confident
as the stranger does approach you
and lets you know
no one will ever have heard of you again.