Death

Its that time of year when everything is dead and people can get depressed, The pagan Christmas is not about celebrating death, but the light that is to come, similarly, in Christianity the celebration is not so much about the birth of Jesus as it is disputed as to when he was actually born, but to draw attention to God in man, God made flesh. The qualities Jesus gave, and also the promise of his return one day when there is peace.

The picture above was created by my nine year old niece, she didn't like it and asked if I would take it from her which I have done as you can see, I understand completely as I have also created in pictures and clay things that are not loved and cherished, but dark and disturbing.

My niece prayed for and lit two candles, one for all the living people in the world and one for the dead. This was when we paid a visit to an ancient Abbey up North, this Christmas. Then she asked me some difficult questions, one of them was about death and what to do if and when faced with death. The agony and pain of it, she was indignant and asked how would I feel.

I said to my beloved niece that if there is nothing you can do about it and it is going to happen, you must resign yourself to death, let death take you. She was resistant to the idea, but then something in the Abbey, a picture I think caught her eye, and she accepted it, and I felt her relax.

This started me thinking then and I wondered how satisfactory the answers I gave her actually were, I felt them to be a little too harsh, especially for a child. I felt the need to tell her about Jesus, but she gets a lot of that from school and she would rather tell me about what she knows about Jesus than listen my ramblings on the subject, she was much more succinct and articulate about him anyway,to her it was all very simple.

So now there will be the returning of light as we head into the new Year towards spring, to everything turn turn turn, there is a season ...

BBC Jody McIntyre interview

It has just hit the news on TV, here is an extract, note the disdain the BBC presenter has for this young man, its awful. Shameful BBC!

Jody McIntyre being pulled from his wheelchair #demo2010

This is utterly shocking, footage of police dragging a man from his wheelchair. Onlookers manage to intervene and stop this brutality, but one thing sticks in my mind here, how, when the police are so clearly in the wrong, they still have the arrogance to repeat their mantra with arrogance "get back"!

This is an upsetting video I give forewarning to anyone who has a disposition similar to mine; you want to know the truth and it hurts when you see it. Sorry, but being as close as you can to the truth is so important in life, so, here it is and thanks again to Lenin from the Tomb for this one.

Captain SKA - Liar Liar

Okay, having been out of political activism for a while now, with the art exhibition, the holiday and a dodgy tummy on my return (ugg!). I am slowly returning to the fold, and how things have changed, the political landscape is new, its fresh and there is a dearth of young people getting actively involved in things like the tax dodging issue, how corporations are finding loop holes and not paying money in tax while children get denied education, disabled people get penalized and women bear the brunt of cuts in the public sector. The young people may be being denied education but they sure as hell can do their maths. The amount in unpaid taxes by the rich and by corporations far exceeds the amount in cuts.
Anyhow here is a very good song with a message and its just being launched now, I am secretly hoping it will make the Christmas number one spot.



Cool innit!

Holiday Art

I did four pictures while on holiday, one of them is unfinished still, and another was a drawing that I had done earlier this year and happened to be still in my pad waiting for some paint. The other two are below. One is of the Algarve coastline, the other is of a Moorish castle in a place called Silvis.

At the Zoo

Someone told me its all happening at the Zoo, and it certainly was true at this free for public Zoo in Spain. Of course those Lions were absolutely spectacular and I was smitten especially by the male who was very domineering and proud, and posed for me, best of all. The lioness was equally spectacular but in a different way, she was very muscular, she had rippling muscles all over her body and was very alert, but that beautiful male did take the limelight as the pictures in the previous post shows.
It got me thinking about our connectivity to animals and nature, how this male lion posed for me and the camera, there was communication there and he was showing his glorious nature. After that encounter, I went around the rest of the Zoo ( it was a small Zoo but a very impressive one ) spending time with the animals and birds, talking to them, I said to them:- "Strike a pose!" and to my amazement, many of them maneuvered themselves to get in a good pose for the camera, the tiger and African parrot in particular.
How marvelous are our beasts and how marvelous is nature itself?



The gazelles were a tad shy, but not really that surprising as they were only a short distance from the lion enclosure!
I have just finished a glass gazelle that I made for my niece which took me over six months to make and I was very keen to see how the glass gazelle I made from scratch compared to a living one. I will put up a picture of the glass one once I have got a photo of it and downloaded it.
Gazelles are stunning albeit shy creatures and I enjoyed spending time by their enclosure gradually gaining their confidence.



It really does all happen at the zoo, and free ones are simply the best!