I enjoy making stuff but pricing and sales are completely alien. Maybe bartering with pictures could become a trend? There are times I wish I made useful items instead, although customers would have to wait a while for their second glove or sock.
This is the fastest protest sign I’ve ever made. It’s not particularly successful. Nobody will have changed their minds after seeing it.
We went to a place where a Reform group was meeting. They’re popular here because voters feel let down by other political parties. The people were mostly friendly on arrival, some were pleased to see protesters. Others were blatantly hostile and are clearly professional narrow minded bigots.
A couple of elections ago there was a chart showing the similarities between seemingly different types of voters. Everyone wants their children to have a better education than they had. Everyone hopes to be in good health, with access to relevant medical care if they become ill. Many people are suspicious of anyone who seems different. Reform fans claim they are not racist but they don’t like incomers. This is often said by people who have retired here from elsewhere.
We might have been in the wrong place. It could really have been an evening about eating more salads and stretching the muscles more often.
I enjoyed making the background wallpaper for this window display. It’s inspired by a house move when I was about three years old. The new house’s wallpaper was all atomic design; my bedroom had pink and yellow ovals on a grey background. The kitchen was red, yellow and black. That was the first room to be redecorated with pale blues etc, but I preferred the original patterns.
My studio is whichever space is available at the moment, not particularly welcoming for any visitors. Pondering how to put a window exhibition together made me a bit nostalgic for previous studios. The lingering scent of dead pigeons in the roof; tin baths catching the raindrops falling from above. Sharing printing presses with people who left fingerprints on everything(!) There was a lot of admin to help out with in a studio building, the office area was usually warmer so it would be a haven of bustling activity.
There’s also the notion of being a local artist. That’s quite a difficult term, often used as an insult. I’ve lived here for 25 years but I’m not really local. A Radio 4 programme about blood types informed me that I’m part of the same group as some historic invaders. This area is known as ‘The Little England Beyond Wales’, even though the incomers seemed to be Flemish. I’ve never heard any Belgian people chatting around here (so far).
Anyway, these prints gathered together made me realise how many feature hands. Someone asked me if I could draw hands, so I drew a few. Then they asked “but what are linocuts used for?”, so the wallpaper design was to make that clear. What next? I might attempt to put my novel into the right order. It’s about an artist moving to Wales, even though their friends say that’s the same as being dead…
Art & Poetry won’t change anything. There again, the opportunity to look at everything from a different perspective might affect future behaviour.
Pembrokeshire Green Party is reviving slowly. West Wales has many people who are doing their best to not cause harm to their surroundings. Joining a political movement doesn’t appeal to most of us. It’s good to know there are others who would never support right wing policies. Hopefully this short exhibition will inspire someone to clean a river, stop building houses with leaky roofs, maybe remove all the obstacles to living well.
Pembrokeshire is also home to some narrow minded bigots. They will say climate change isn’t real. There can’t be any pollution here and the sun shines constantly. It does, it’s shining right now, behind some clouds. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but they are also entitled to look outside occasionally and observe the world. The planet evolves, the temperature changes. Arguing about whether humans have damaged the environment is less important than thinking about how to live without making everything worse.
I thought I’d make a quick splashy sunset picture. It took longer than intended. Some of the layers reminded me of making a lithograph.
The photos I worked from were taken while smoke blew across from a recycling fire. I didn’t notice the black clouds at the time.
Linocut on Japanese paper, 12 x 12 cm.
Full cold moon; a time when we’re naturally accelerated, energy is flowing and things will naturally come to a conclusion. Time to consider that ridiculous ten year project which we can now let go of.
Today’s full moon coincides with a general election. There was a double rainbow in the sky when I went out to vote.
Protest banners should be light enough to carry while walking along, but heavy enough to stay upright and readable. This week’s ripstop on net banner is for the Hart Must Go! event.
It has a blue deer, symbolic of the local Tory MP. A hart is a deer, lacking the ‘e’ of an organ that pumps blood. The blue deer is being chased away by some red foxes. Local MP enjoys bloodsports so that’s a relevant theme. The general election is in December so this banner looks slightly festive.
But it’s too hard to understand! I know, I know, it shouldn’t need an explanation.
Democracy – a system of government in which the sovereign power is vested in the people as a whole exercising power directly or by elected officials.
Democracy should mean power to the people, but somehow we have all chosen to give power to the wrong people. We are governed by a small group of people who are out of touch with our distant problems.
Our elected members have done very little to improve life in Pembrokeshire. They have consistently voted in line with their party policy rather than for the best interests of their constituents. Their actions have caused further cuts to our health board and they have helped to slowly eradicate any local educational opportunities.
Previously prorogued parliaments have been followed by military rule after beheading the monarch – the green party might disapprove of royalty but we’re not savages.
We need to save our environment, which is more important than any petty political shenanigans. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but Green Party policy is to look for a positive solution and for everyone to take practical action. Everyone has a skill to offer. Pembrokeshire has a great many worthy projects that are run by volunteers, when they should be properly funded.
There will be distractions such as tribal concerns or the media’s divide and rule tactics, it’s too late to bother with those. You can disagree with someone’s outlook but still achieve some level of common ground.
Do we need to be governed by impractical people that we would never seek advice from? No.
Let our elders and betters shut themselves down. Ideally parliament in its current form would never resume and we could save a vast amount of money and resources.
I saw a group of swans chasing each other on the Mill Pond near Pembroke castle. One rescued another from the violent attentions of a third swan. Third swan floated away looking reasonably dignified. Then the first two stroked their necks together and caressed in a heart shape.
From my scruffy sketches and some blurry photos I cut a lino block. I wasn’t pleased with it, put it aside and didn’t see it again for about five years.
Made some test prints, it’s not that bad really.
berry daines 