Equinox at the Gallery

Saskia and her hand made trinkets.


Some of the staff

My crocheted cakes

More pictures of the Oriel Myrddin Garden Party here
I feel very fortunate to be able to work in the Oriel Myrddin Gallery, Carmarthen. Its a lovely old building that used to be an art school, we sometimes get stories of antics from the towns older residents , about things that happened when they were art school students. We are also very lucky to have a super relationship with our regulars , who turn up for openings and workshops on a regular basis. Thank you!

To celebrate the "Reap and Sew" spring exhibition, the gallery had a garden party.

It was a great success, with tea cakes and bunting, things for sale and things to make. It was a pleasure to go to work.

Perspective Halts Infinity

Deep new joy

This is a picture of french writer and philosopher (and of course obsesser, if there is such a word),

Geogre Perec. I am reading with mixed emotions, `Species of Spaces and other Pieces`. The book is full of lists , observations and comment. His style is unique, his attitude is expansive, in the most compact of instances. Most of it written with humour and delight in the every day. But as with all brilliance, there is a tinge of pathos and maudlin in the lonely, insular and obsessive. An intangible coldness seems to pervade his french magnanimity. A symptom of a tragic childhood, his writing is beautiful, but where is his joy?

`Since 1984, small planet no.2817 (1982UJ) has borne the name of George Perec`.

Above the picture of George Perec, is my new joy. My dear friend Bunwen ( really Sarah), bought me a very early birthday present, a glockenspiel. I have wanted one for as long as I can remember.

I am already quite adept at `plink- a -plonk meditative` style, which I find calming, but I`m not sure if thats a universal effect, and have got the vocal intro. to Gary Numans `Cars` off pat , even using 2 beaters. Need some sheet music now and I can begin rehearsing.

Inevitable Escallating to an Unknown Point.

Topological Chair



Crochet Chaos

Crochet Graffitti

Spring equinox brought about some sad changes in my life. I feel uninspired by them, really not very spring like at all . But the weather does not help, there you are then- as they say in Wales.

I have long ogled the crochet Lorenz Manifold , made by Hinke Osinge, that is well documented on the Internet.

Lorenz, the mathematician that the piece is named after was the originator of Chaos Theory, and the Butterfly Effect.

Chaos theory is interesting. Nothing to do with a state of perpetual uncontrolled disorganisation. `They` have, as always, the obligatory equations to describe the instigation of ever expanding systems, (visually expressed as fractals), that describe chaotic states. But have no way of predicting accurately the exact outcome of the movement, how it began, or where it will end. There is no complete control or prediction of a chaotic state.

The weather was Lorenz special scientific area. He used chaos theory to describe weather systems , and applied them with some success to the arcane art of weather prediction. As a result we know what the weather is supposed to do. Or at least a probable outcome as a result of certain situations.

It made me think of the earth quake that `Quilt Architect` felt on the little island King Salmon. That earth quake, butterfly effect-ed off to Haiti a couple of weeks later, and showed us all just how chaotic weather systems can be. I wonder who flapped their crochet.

Salvation and Visibility

Out and about in the West Wales countryside for a change. This time for a meeting at New Mill, Drefelin. I showed `Iota Island` at an exhibition at the mill , called `Rhod` last year. Dave Shepherd - (Image Salvage and Reclamation), was one of the other featured artists at the show. He too has revisited the mill, in fact it seems he never left! His installation has been there ever since, moved around in various forms, a bit like a conceptual squatter. I took some time to study the re-installed piece.

I found the immediacy of the piece quite striking. The new proximity of the materials animated the individuality of each `bin` and gave it all a sense of unity and purpose. The arrangement had elements of domesticity and urbanity, with a pensive, tense feeling.

Thinking- in relation to a piece I will be showing there later this year, it seemed definate and so visible.

Nature it seems, is the popular name

For milliards and milliards and milliards

Of particles playing their infinite game

Of billiards and billiards and billiards.

Piet Hein (1966)

Darker Dimensions

Here is a link to` Bird In The House` blog, that's her above, my good friend Kathryn Campbell.

She is a special talent with a vision that magically transcends cultural boundaries , using a lightness of touch over an uneasy darkness in spirit. Her work is loaded with symbolism referencing her own domestic past, tangled with many world religions and belief systems. Kathryn's work silently emits her own banshee howl. Its wonderful stuff of secrets and spells.

We went to the opening of her show in a lovely retro shop come exhibition space called `Milkwood Gallery`, in the Roath area of Cardiff. Of course, I forgot my camera, so this one picture was taken on Kath's own camera. There are more pictures on Kathryn's own blog. Just follow the link above.

While we were there , I was given the T.Rex album by one of the gallery owners. What a top generous present. Many thanks ! Marc Bolan was the singer and front man of T.Rex, he was a first pop idol love. I lived a mile down the road , in London ,from the tree where he was killed in 1977. I still visit the place every time I`m in London . It`s an official memorial site now, filled with tributes and fan paraphernalia.

Auricula Hysteria

The Old Auricula Theatre, or what was.

Auricula or Primula

The Auricula Theatre at Calke Abbey.

Click for three dimensional Mandelbrot fractals called Mandelbulb, here. (Thanks to Sam Knight for the link)

On a research and reconnaissance mission with Fibre Art Wales, at the National Botanical Gardens of Wales, we were taken to the Walled Garden. There we were shown the site that once was the old Auricula Theatre.

Apparently, in olden days when ladies of a gentler disposition were taken with a fit of the vapours or shocked by the appearance of an untoward table leg, they were directed to sit and contemplate the rows of Primula (Auricula) flowers in the Auricula Theatre to calm and steady ones nerves.

The flowers have striking, bold and velvety colours , which appear in concentric rings around each flower head which is made of a multiple of blooms. They appear to me to be quite fractal in design, and perhaps en masse quite hypnotic . They are reported to have been of a calming nature to the ladies of those times.

I was amused and inspired by the tale of flowers comforting the nervy. It also brought to mind the whole language of flowers fashion which was extremely popular in Victorian times.

But, even more interesting is the Pythagorean mathematical healing properties of the repetition and colour in nature.