Opinion is very much divided on the topic of street art and graffiti. Some dislike it all, regardless of the skill (or lack of it) of the artist. They feel it disfigures a cityscape, rather than enhances it. Others love it for its rebellious nature, again regardless of the skill (or lack of it) of the artist.
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Vincent Van Gogh spent the last few months of his life in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise just outside Paris. In that short time, he completed over 70 paintings, many of them of scenes in the village and surrounding fields. Today the village styles itself ‘Village d’Artistes’ and is a popular day trip from the capital.
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My surprise birthday trip to Florence, a city I’ve long wanted to visit, was naturally wonderful. In three days of rather mixed weather (one wet, one cloudy, one sunny) we managed to see many of its sights (but missed more than we saw), wandered its streets, ate gelati every day and excellent meals every evening, and slept well in a beautiful old house in the Borgo Santa Croce.
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People have been using clay and similar materials to shape objects both ornamental and practical for millennia. Today every culture has its ceramics traditions: forms and styles, decorative techniques, purposes. These often sculptural forms lend themselves to monochrome processing.
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When you only have one day to explore a city, being ‘small enough to be easily understood’ is a real plus point. And one day was all we had, on this occasion at least. But we really took to Helsinki, so maybe in the future we’ll come back for a more in-depth look.
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Our June heatwaves stretched into the first half of July before more normal London summer weather returned: warm but not hot, and with the odd day of rain. But whatever the weather, we found plenty of opportunities to get out and about. Although we didn’t leave London during this particular month.
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Very many people have had their say about what constitutes creativity. Most focus on a degree of rule-breaking and risk-taking. In this post I want to share some of the creative people I’ve featured previously, bringing examples of their fascinating and unusual work together into this single post.
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It has to be said that Manila is not the most appealing of cities. While the largely reconstructed old city of Intramuros has its charms, much of the rest of the city is a sprawl of modern skyscrapers, older housing, near-slums, and very congested traffic. It is the world’s fourth largest city and one of its most densely populated. However, there are gems to be found half-hidden in the sprawl.
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The Nevada ghost town of Rhyolite was once very grand, but was very short-lived. The mine got into financial difficulties in 1910, five years after opening, and closed the following year. With no work in the area the population of Rhyolite declined rapidly, to below 1,000 immediately after the mine’s closure and close to zero by 1920.
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Islamic art shuns the depiction of living figures, whether human or animal, partly to avoid any suggestion of idolatry and partly because it is believed that the creation of living forms is Allah’s prerogative. Instead the emphasis is on geometric forms as well as calligraphy and abstract floral motifs.
