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I’m off to Amsterdam today to visit my lovely friend, Red. I’ll be away for a week and I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to update while I’m there but I shall certainly be taking lots of photos and journal notes to share with you on my return.
I’m planning to visit some art galleries and I hope to see massive amounts of these…
Kirsty Hall: Red Tulip, April 2009
OK, got to run, I haven’t quite finished my packing yet!
Kirsty Hall: Faded Hyacinths, April 2009
Kirsty Hall: Faded Hyacinths, April 2009
Kirsty Hall: Faded Hyacinths, April 2009
Hyakinthos was a handsome young man from Greek mythology who was loved by Apollo, the sun god. After he was accidentally killed by a discus, the intensely fragranced flower grew up from his blood and Apollo named it after him.
It doesn’t surprise me that this flower should have an association with death; as these ones were fading, their intoxicating smell turned sickly and almost gangrenous.
Apologies for the lack of posting – as you may have guessed from my last big post, I’ve not been too well. I also got stuck in a cycle of perfectionism, the sort where I think, “ah, I absolutely must blog about such and such a thing next but oh dear, I can’t until I take some photos or do some more research or until the planets are in the correct alignment!”
Sometimes I just get caught up in these mental loops and stay there until I realise that I’m stuck and do something to free myself – in this case, writing a very different blog post to the one I had planned. So here, to loosen me up and hopefully to inspire you, are two very different but connected videos about the nature of inspiration.
First of all, here’s Susan Boyle performing on the reality TV show, Britain’s Got Talent. Unfortunately, embedding is disabled, so you’ll need to pop over to YouTube to watch it.
Secondly, here’s a longer address by writer, Elizabeth Gilbert on the subject of genius, inspiration and creativity. It’s twenty minutes but it’s well worth your time.
I found this touching in a very different way – much of what she spoke about was deeply familiar to me as a creative person and I just loved the two anecdotes she relates. I’ve never been sure where I stand on the whole muse concept but I’m sure that we’re all familiar with the ‘where the hell did THAT come from’ sensation when we’re making our work.
I found this video on Denise Carkeek’s excellent Melancholie Dreams blog. It’s well worth a visit and do make sure you check out her wistful and haunting ceramics.
Firstly, some of you may have noticed that comments aren’t always appearing straight away. Unfortunately we’ve had to tighten up security after the site was hit by a bot that can crack the anti-spam word feature. So if you’ve not commented on the site before, your comment now won’t appear until I’ve accepted it. I’m checking every day to make sure that comments don’t languish in purgatory for ages. If you’ve commented before, your comment should appear straight away unless you include any URL’s.
Secondly, in celebration of April Fool’s Day, here’s an art-related Absolutely Fabulous clip to brighten up your day.
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