A cart full of ART #5

I love reading. I love books. My favourite type of shopping is looking around bookstores. I like looking at the art on the book cover, the interesting titles and what stories lay hidden in its pages, waiting to be uncovered. I have many favourite books that range from, Lord of the Rings, CS Lewis, Discworld and Little women. But there is one book that remains my favourite and perhaps it may seem like a cliche, but I genuinely love it. It is of course the bible - the no.1 best selling book in the world. Why do I love it? Beause the Word of God is like a colourful explosion. It grips you, it tugs at your heart, it convicts you, it reveals to you a remarkable story with stories within stories to convey to man who the most wondereful creator of the universe is.

Before reading the bible, I didn't understand it. I thought it was a book full of rules. I would flick through its thin wispy paper and see ink letters after ink letters thinking they were irrelevant. But then I started reading it, starting to uncover the story held in its pages. This book contains 66 books and each one with a vibrant message. There are poems, songs, lists, letters, law and stories. This is no rule book. This breathes life and shows meaning. I love it so much because every time I open its pages I find something new, a gem that I missed earlier or a story that I didn't understand before. But what is most fantastic is that each page is telling me more about Jesus. We ask who is God?

Well Open the bible and see for yourself. Sometimes we may not like what we see, sometimes it will surprise us, sometimes it will make us cry. But the bible is fantastic - get your teeth stuck into it and enjoy the feast of life giving words!

A cart full of ART #4

"If music be the food of love...play on!" I love music - all kinds of music from classical to rock. I think music is a wonderful aid to some types of worship. It is also a great expression to what we are feeling, in fact sometimes it can shape our emotions.

So, I am going to share with you some of my favorite albums, which you can find on Spotify!

Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid










There are some amazing tracks on this. Its very much chill out music, something you can sit down to and read a book or you can listen and appreciate the different sounds merging together.

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois













This album is fun, vibrant and a bit crazy! I like its upbeat tracks and fast paced songs. It is fun to listen to and the lyrics are interesting if you listen carefully!


Coldplay - Viva La Vida














This has to be the best Coldplay album. The variety on this is wonderful. The use of instruments and lyrics merge so brilliantly. I can't get enough of this album!!!

A cart full of ART #3

Recently an artist has caught my eye. He is Banksy and He is a graffiti artist, which is a bit controversial. But I like his art and they bring up a lot of topics about the culture we live in. His website is here.

Here is some of his art, which I like:

A cart full of ART #2

Right now in London there is an exhibition, which I am finding really interesting. I hope to go and see it for real when I am next in London. But you can view it online at One & Other.

What is it about? The blurb says:

This summer, sculptor Antony Gormley invites you to help create an astonishing living monument. He is asking the people of the UK to occupy the empty Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London, a space normally reserved for statues of Kings and Generals. They will become an image of themselves, and a representation of the whole of humanity.

Every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days without a break, a different person will make the Plinth their own. If you're selected, you can use your time on the plinth as you like. One & Other is open to anyone and everyone from any corner of the UK.

I find this really interesting! Some people just stand there or dance or paint or do yoga or jump up and down!! Is it art? I dunno, but I like it!

A cart full of ART #1

Poetry is wonderful. Its sometimes a great expression of joy and of pain. The bible is full of poetry - poetry that yearns, love poetry, praise poetry and anguish poetry! I enjoy poetry so much and I also enjoy writing poetry.

But Sylvia Plath is one of my favorite poets. A lot of tragedy surrounds her and her poetry isn't for some people. But I think her brilliant use of descriptive words get under your skin and paints a picture of vivid images in your imagination. Like any poetry it needs to be savored, it cannot be rushed or you will miss the meaning and the subtleties.

My favourite poem is Insomniac. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Insomniac

The night is only a sort of carbon paper,
Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of stars
Letting in the light, peephole after peephole ---
A bonewhite light, like death, behind all things.
Under the eyes of the stars and the moon's rictus
He suffers his desert pillow, sleeplessness
Stretching its fine, irritating sand in all directions.

Over and over the old, granular movie
Exposes embarrassments--the mizzling days
Of childhood and adolescence, sticky with dreams,
Parental faces on tall stalks, alternately stern and tearful,
A garden of buggy rose that made him cry.
His forehead is bumpy as a sack of rocks.
Memories jostle each other for face-room like obsolete film stars.

He is immune to pills: red, purple, blue ---
How they lit the tedium of the protracted evening!
Those sugary planets whose influence won for him
A life baptized in no-life for a while,
And the sweet, drugged waking of a forgetful baby.
Now the pills are worn-out and silly, like classical gods.
Their poppy-sleepy colors do him no good.

His head is a little interior of grey mirrors.
Each gesture flees immediately down an alley
Of diminishing perspectives, and its significance
Drains like water out the hole at the far end.
He lives without privacy in a lidless room,
The bald slots of his eyes stiffened wide-open
On the incessant heat-lightning flicker of situations.

Nightlong, in the granite yard, invisible cats
Have been howling like women, or damaged instruments.
Already he can feel daylight, his white disease,
Creeping up with her hatful of trivial repetitions.
The city is a map of cheerful twitters now,
And everywhere people, eyes mica-silver and blank,
Are riding to work in rows, as if recently brainwashed.

A cart full of ART!

Lots of talk about art is surrounding me. I am not about to explore the question of what art is. You can delve into those depths over at "I thought it was a bench..." blog.

But I am going to share with you a cart full of Art that inspires me and makes me stop to consider. This week, I will share with you my favourite poems/poets, artists - music or drawing and random exhibitions of art. Hopefully it will be an interesting adventure.