BRICKING IT......

I have been reding up the art of wall building...several years ago a friend and I buit a dry stone wall in a garden near Newcastle ... I remember that it didn't stop raining but what I didn't remember was how complicated it is (http://riri.essortment.com/drystonewall_obx.htm). The idea was to build a wall for the access art show in July, but I just can't decide how to do it. Ordinary bricks are too regular and ...well ordinary! I thought about making a wall out of detritus, using rubbish or found objects, which may or may not work and how would I hold it together. Other ideas were to make a wall out of bricks made from crushed cans or metal, or to make bricks out of resin with thing inside it. It is a real dilemma. While I have been mulling over this problem I have looked at a lot of art made from old rubbish on the net. One of my personal faves is John Dahlson who makes enormous (and some very beautiful) sculpture out of rubbish found on Austrailian beaches, including a giant bottle made of old flip-flops!! http://www.johndahlsen.com/detail_commission/absolut_dahlsen.html
But back to the issue of bricks and walls...........hmmm any ideas??

Morning Pages

I have been doing my morning pages this week and I have to say I am feeling a lot more creative and a lot more positive. I first started when I was doing the Artists Way (Julia Cameron). Basically you write three pages of A4 longhand when you first wake up in the morning. Just anything that comes into your head - kind of like diary but not.

I write all kinds of things in mine - neuroses, dreams, lists, moans, wishes, poems, memoirs - whatever comes to me. The aim is to just keep writing until you fill up three pages. The idea is to declutter your mind, which will allow your creative juices to flow more freely. And it doe really work - I am a lot more productive when I do them, they make me more positive and in turn more open to change.

Julia Cameron is not alone in listing this as a basic vital tool to aid the creative mind - in recent years I have seen it cited in many creative and self-help books. A spiritual friend of mine who I described it to summed it up exactly - "you're just doing your stuff aren't you, getting it out so then you can get on with your day unhindered."