Visual Arts Open 2022

Deeply grateful for being shortlisted in the Visual Arts Open again this year. Those that go on to the final will be announced nearer the end of September and will be exhibiting in London this year. Wishing everyone well. I’m humbled for this opportunity once again. Much gratitude, thank you to the wonderful group of…

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Grace In The Face Of Adversity

In the face of adversity Meet ‘Grace’ 84cm x 59cm (840mm x 590mm) mixed media on MDF. Throughout this blog there are themes that are beginning to clearly emerge for deeper exploration within this being human journey. This painting captures one of them, facing adversity. It is representative of a heart response to such experiences.…

Privilege

I created this piece in response to arising awareness of the inequality of privilege. I named it ‘Grief’ as this awareness holds so many stories of the effects that the creation or manifestation of privilege leaves behind in its trail. This painting is called ‘Grief’ a 91cm x 71cm (910mum x 710mum) on Canvas Mixed…

VAA Exhibition Accompanying Speech

Visual Artists Association Spring Art Exhibition 2021 You are invited to attend the Spring 2021 exhibition by the Visual Artists Association (VAA) launching today. My artwork is exhibited here, you will find me in Gallery One ©️ Information below is my accompanying speech which introduces my piece above that was selected. It is called ‘Divine’:…

Plot Twist

I had grown to have a sense of what I would really enjoy doing with whatever time I had left of this life and was aiming toward it. This has deeply and profoundly shifted, quietly, slowly, in an almost unnoticeable plot twist. I have shifted. Well whatever ‘I’ is. ‘I’ have no need to discover…

Visual Arts Association

  Massive announcement!!! Tonight I was in utter surprise that my artwork was successfully selected to feature in such an international art exhibition! I’m humbled and shocked as a first timer applying to anything like this it has thrown me. I did not expect to be selected at all. The artwork selected is from ‘The…

Meaning Making

Today I was wonderfully reminded of a quote that was incorporated in an earlier post In Search of Meaning (ii), it still resonates deeply and was a delight to read once more. It is still as pertinent to this creative journey I am undertaking, so much so I wanted to share it once again. “The…

What Is It That Exists?

©️ User 326726150 · Poem - Inadvertent Incognita ©️ This poem was inspired by an interpersonal exchange this week. Inadvertent Incognita When you think, feel and know that you lived, there’s a story of what happened but nothing to prove that it did. Nothing of substance than can be touched to say for sure ‘yes’,…

Music

After five years of not connecting with music something has truly shifted. Music was always a go to, a place to feel and find voice for the inner world. Since diagnosis of MS in 2015 I had thought that this loss…

Covid-19 Experience

Pre Virus As you will know from previous posts I have been undergoing treatment with a chemotherapy tablet, this means that I have been sheilding. It has been 16 weeks now (4 whole months). I began ‘quarantining’ off my own back early in March (official lockdown began on the 23rd) The Virus Unbeknown to me…

Our Map?

There has been so much that has occurred since the end of last year that has deeply and profoundly affected my heart and being. I don’t want to get into detail for now but it has me thinking about our lives and when we are no longer here. Where is the evidence of our story?…

Taking A Step

Very recently a long time friend of mine turned up at the Community Art Studio with the above gifts. A little hand decorated box filled with some shamanic love. I have been lost for words other than thank you for some time. In this past week these have played a beautiful part in preparation for…

D-day

Finally today I begun my chemotherapy treatment. It has been a long time in the waiting, many hurdles none of my own making however the day has been and gone the first two pills taken. I have not been one for medicines as previously mentioned but I just have to believe this will make a…

Love

~ by Jeff Foster ~ Love is not a feeling. If love were a feeling, it would come and go, like in a great drama. Love is not a thought. If love were a thought, it would have an opposite. Love is too small to be contained in thought. Love is not a belief. If…

Seeds Planted

From seeds once planted So much has happened, so much experienced and processed. Life has a wonderful way of occurring regardless. I'm forever writing and rewriting this blog post and yet not publishing it. I have been in and out of heart and thought, everything keeps shifting, changing and I'm forever doing my level best…

The Heart Of It

Emotion It seems more often of late that wherever I turn I find a heart offering from the universe. It got me thinking about emotion, what is it? How does it affect us? How does one capture and express it? Dictionary definition Emotion is a strong feeling deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with…

Vulnerability 

Part of my life turning upside down was learning I have both a rare health condition called Transverse Myelitis as well as Multiple Sclerosis.  Neither condition can be cured, the Multiple Sclerosis may or may not get worse and I now need to help sustain my current health by injecting medication.  Having been someone whom…

Adversity and When Enough Is Enough

I have had to hold and work with a lot in this life, as too have so many others.  There comes a point where we say enough! When we begin to chose what is important to our hearts,  we chose to work with and through what matters most dearly at the end of the day.…

In The Still Moments

In the still moments I find I am sitting with much grief.  Grief has to be the most painful emotional experience of them all, feeling attachment to something we hold dear whilst simultaneously knowing we can not be connected to that anymore.  The swirl fleeting between feeling the yearning for and the feeling of loss,…

Entertaining Angels Unawares

On my journey I was sat next to an interesting lady of 82.  Quite a character and happy to chat.  Often she chose poetry or phrases from the bible to convey her sense of meaning which was quite endearing.  We talked about health, family, love, youth, art...  Moral code again.  The older lady , we…

Connection

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking out new landscapes but in having new eyes.” ~ Marcel Proust This first trip has two purposes, to explore the 'beingness' of humanity and also to find some space within myself to be with my own soul and take the trip I was meant to take…

Between A Rock And A Hard Place

Still on the 'time' question I was thinking about my stay at Loch Ness these past couple of days.  The loch itself was formed upon a huge fault line where two parts of land have come together and are moving into each other, the sides are as steep as the mountains that overlook it and…

Goodnight from Drumnadrochit

As the sun sets on Drumnadrochit I am grateful for my day.  I spent some time on Loch Ness (which so far is my most favourite place when I need to find space) and had a visit to Fort Augustus to sit on the banks of the water.  Not much reflection this evening just a…

In Search of Meaning (i)

It has been an arduous task trying to define most precisely what I have been aiming towards with this work. I have spent many months in a sort of hibernation, tossing and turning towards understanding my real intention here. This is it. Fundamentally I am searching to understand how each of us make meaning of…

The Journey Begins

The journey begun early and after some cinema in Glasgow I am now aboard my connecting bus to the first stop of this trip, Drumnadrochit.  I was surprised to discover I am travelling on a luxury bus! A nice flow of free refreshments, I'm feeling fortunate. Discussion so far has focused on the the natural…

Welcome

I woke up one morning to find my life upside down and scattered across the floor. I decided to explore how each of us make sense of our circumstances and experiences. My featured artwork (non journal based) and reflective blog with regard to the 'Being Human' journey, in which there is wider public exploration, can…