Music, Art, Nature, Wellbeing

Down Memory Lane

Memory – a word that packs a powerful punch. Nostalgic, bittersweet, or simply happy and unclouded, or painful, or dark, or everyday, or even drifting out of your grasp. Memory can desert us after all. Memory can become as fragile as a dandelion “clock” – one gust of wind and the seeds float away andContinue reading “Down Memory Lane”

Slow Looking

How long would you spend looking at a painting on an art gallery wall? Or in a book, or online? Recent research found that the average person spends just a few seconds. Is that enough? Is it more important to see as many different paintings as possible, or to dwell on one or two? There’sContinue reading “Slow Looking”

The Magic Of Music

Just one year, 1935, produced two of the most legendary musical superstars of all time. Elvis Presley was born in January 1935 and Luciano Pavarotti that October. One burst on to the music scene and shook it all up, the other brought new life to the classics. I don’t play music or sing, and IContinue reading “The Magic Of Music”

Express Yourself

What do the words “comic book” or “graphic novel” conjure up for you? Do they awaken nostalgic memories of comic strips you enjoyed as a child, or do you read them here and now? Maybe you are contributing to the recent boom in comic books and graphic novels. All the time they’re becoming more variedContinue reading “Express Yourself”

A Past That Endures

Creativity, art, music, might feel a world away from the very brutal realities of war: mud, death, rubble, bomb craters. 80 years on from VE Day, which saw many countries emerge from World War Two, this week has seen crowds gather once more to commemorate and to celebrate. Those six long years of war areContinue reading “A Past That Endures”

Release

Yes, it’s starting to look – and sound – a lot like Christmas. To me, what sums up Christmas more than anything is festive music, however early it starts. Carols and classics like Fairytales of New York are on the radio, while in the shops, as someone quipped to me the other day, “Mariah Carey’sContinue reading “Release”

Reinventing Community

This week I saw images online of a wonderful creative display in a Midlands town to mark Remembrance Day. Local crafters came together to yarn bomb the high street, crocheting poppy themed toppers for the postboxes and making a large fabric collage scene as a wall hanging. Creativity at its best – enhancing the communityContinue reading “Reinventing Community”

Growing Old Creatively

Living in the moment can be one of the arts’ best gifts, lifting us out of the everyday and out of the wider picture. Maybe this is all the more important in older age, opening up space to imagine, to enjoy, to create, to produce or just to be. Silver Sunday ( the first SundayContinue reading “Growing Old Creatively”

Sketching Nature

On the very first day of meteorological autumn, as it is now called, I saw a cranefly – or daddy long legs – bumbling along the back wall of my house, up and down and across. Always a sign that autumn is on its way, and a sighting I’ll record on a page in myContinue reading “Sketching Nature”