More sketches to keep my Twitter / X active. It's too cold to be outside looking for resources and ideas. So let the imagination run free. The sketch of an oak tree in a clearing, is from a theme I worked on several years ago.
All artwork & text copyright ian gordon craig
I’ve posted about this in the past, but as she’s back I’ll mention it again.
When
I was 10, walking along a country path on my way to school, I had an
encounter with a fox. At first, because she didn’t run away, I assumed
it was a dog and started chatting to her. It was when she slowly turned
and walked away that I saw it was a fox, and also apparently pregnant.
During
my final year as a teacher I started seeing foxes again. These were the
months I was starting to think about leaving work, making that big
change. I remember on two occasions a fox crossing the road in front of
my car as I was heading for home. I remember one evening seeing one sat
outside the chip shop I was visiting. And there were many visits to my
garden during those years from 2006 to 2010 when I was in a relationship
and concentrating on my art. That’s when my story about having a
“spirit animal guide” started, and I named her Rusty Pearl. She seemed
to turn up when big changes were on the way, and my mind was
pre-occupied with them.
Last night she turned up again, for the
first time in years. Lately my mind has been troubled about the state
England has sunk to, the changes in my city and neighbourhood, and my
serious intention to move house. I think Rusty is saying “Go on, do it,
make the move”.
All text copyright ian gordon craig.
I keep my Twitter / X page going, mostly by posting sketches. Maybe it
will attract potential customers for my book(s)? The above invoked a
question on my Painters On-line page:
“What is the purpose of the white oblongs?”
What indeed?
all text and artwork copyright ian gordon craig
My "activity wall". Last October I returned to my intended novel with a
little more organisation in mind. I have six chapters almost finished.
That would represent the first and second sections of the book. (The
1940s & 1950s). As each chapter is presented as a series of events,
rather than a simple story line with start and end points, it has been a
little tricky including all the parts I want included, in the correct
order. I keep getting stuck on chapters 5 and 6. Or perhaps it’s the
space between them that’s in need of more content.
It would be
fair to say I have been going ’round in circles over this, to the extent
that my "activity wall" would best be named "inactivity".
All text and photographs copyright ian gordon craig.
I still like to wander around the homeland from time to time. I guess I always will.
All photographs copyright ian gordon craig.
It is one year since the publication of my first book, “46 Contemporary Poems in Various Styles”.
It’s been a year of sketchbooks, keeping my Twitter / X page active, as a place to promote my book and my art. One might say it’s been a year of promotions. But it’s also been a year, at least the last few months, of starting my second book. And this I have done.
All text and photographs copyright ian gordon craig.
Top to bottom: Parliament Oak, the Major Oak, a witch, and Byron's Oak, Newstead Abbey (only the stump remains).
Below: Felled tree and a Lightning Tree, Thoresby Park.
All artwork copyright ian gordon craig
Today I made a trip into town to place copies of my book inside those venues I once frequented, and wherein some of the inspiration came from. The trip resulted in an encounter which left a lasting impression.
I don’t give money to the homeless, but I always buy them a sandwich & drink lunch if I see them outside the store I get my groceries from. The guy I came across today was situated nowhere near a food store. So, in high spirits, I asked him if he read poetry, and gave him a copy of my book.
It transpired that not only does he read poetry, he writes it as well, and commenced to recite two for me. They were incredible! So there were, exchanging poems on the pavement. Good times.
I encouraged him to self-publish. But I don’t know how the homeless could access that facility.
All text copyright ian gordon craig.
Strolling around town today, with no particular intention. A young Hari Krishna guy asked me for a donation. I have no cash on me, not that I would have donated anyway, but offered a verse of the song instead. So, there I was, middle of a busy central city side-walk, singing a verse of “Hari Krishna, Hari Hari”. (You know the tune). His face lit up.
All text copyright ian gordon craig.
Some silliness on Twitter / X, when I know I really should be writing. This is the problem with social media, even when one is not really sociable. The urge to get noticed overrides all sense.
All artwork copyright Ian Gordon Craig
Top: If garden benches could only speak, what stories they could tell.
Bottom: I had to replace the heavy stone with an alternative arrangement in my tree-stump sculpture.
All artworks & photographs copyright ian gordon craig.
Bored (for a while) with observational drawing, I decided on marker pens, imagination, cardboard sheets, and see what happens.
All artworks copyright ian gordon craig.
March is my favourite month. The bleakness of January and February hopefully passed.
All artworks copyright ian gordon craig.
I personally regard my first book as the most important thing I’ve ever created. In my own opinion, my artworks aren’t always as successful in achieving what I was trying to say. I like to think that those persons I especially wanted to read it, did so. Little else matters. Certainly not any hopes of commercial enterprise.
The reception was positive, albeit at the same time rather silent in some quarters close to home. If you actually knew me in the real world, between 2006 and 2020, you would have totally “got” it. Feedback from those who have “known” me via the internet in more recent times, has been positive. Those who had formed opinions of me over many, many years, may have found it harder to assimilate and comment upon. I understand that. C’est la vie.
I am now intending on a second book, either 46 short stories or (more likely), the novel I’ve been toying with for years. Art is now taking a back seat called sketchbook, rather than canvas and exhibitions.
TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK ON AMAZON.
All text & artwork copyright ian gordon craig.
