Autism Memory Artist, Stephen Wiltshire

Something I shared on facebook recently.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14115619

Tropical Hebden Bridge?

Since I couldn't convince my husband to drive to Grassington this weekend to see people dressed up and the village transported back to Dickensian England, we settled for meandering around Hebden Bridge. Saturday was the opening of a new art exhibit at the ATC (alternative technology centre) situated rather hidden, along the canal.



The exhibit by local artist Jason Elliot was his vision of what Hebden Bridge might look like in the year 2032 after serious climate change. So the stone buildings are still standing, amidst a tropical rain forest. I thought my son might appreciate some of this, what with the Jurassic Park type feel to it. But as it turned out , it was these regular cardboard house installations that caught his attention.

One can look through the windows and find various things happening in the house, along with messeges about how to reduce energy usage, conserve and save the environment. To look into this particular window, you needed 20p and then the lights went on and these strange little people moved about and took a bath!
The idea being to save water by sharing the bath- having the whole family in there at the same time I guess, and brushing their teeth too!



They did look a bit shocked though... and wouldn't you? --having people pay to see you having your bathtime?!!

To market, to market..

In our attempt to lower our overall outgoings, avoid big supermarket chains and rely more on local shops and produce, we went to the market today, in Hebden Bridge. Its not a big market, but has all the fruit and veg we need, plus a fabulous cheese stall where I can now get a spicy mexicana cheese. I couldn't get motivated though to carry around a pumpkin for the rest of the day.. so maybe next week.

The rest of the day involved a visit to Flying Saucers paint/pottery cafe. This was our first visit, mainly to design some Christmas presents for the grandparents. I have to say it was an expensive outing that we won't be doing again for awhile. It was fun though, and my son did a mug for his grandma and an alien for himself. I did a mug with my daughter's handprint on it. She mostly wandered around 'chatting' to everyone. And although its meant to be relaxing, I would say that with a 21 month old toddler in tow, its a little nerve-wracking with all the breakable and expensive pottery on display. We pick up our treasures next week after they have been fired in the kiln.

Art attack..

The local fairs were skipped this weekend, in favour of a more artful outing. We wanted to take our friends from Chicago to Yorkshire Sculpture Park while they were here, but instead found ourselves in more north Yorkshire. So this weekend we headed to Wakefield, south of Leeds and got some culture!


The main motivation was to see the Andy Goldsworthy exhibitions, including the summer snowballs which the kiddies really enjoyed (no kicking it -that's art!!) I like Andy's work as it is so organic and earth based. Yorkshire Sculpture Park is celebrating its 30th anniversary and is an international gallery for modern and contemporary sculpture. The walk around the fabulous 500 acre Bretton Estate with over 40 sculptures throughout was a wonderful way to spend a sunny day and with many sculptures being 'interactive' for kids (i.e. they could climb on them, in them), it meant all of us could appreciate the art.

We will need to go back again as I know we didn't see everything (that's the thing with kids... its their time schedule).. Some of the best sculptures were created by nature herself including this several hundred year old yew tree, not for climbing.

Hebden Bridge Kids Artfest

This was the last weekend of the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival and Saturday was the kids artfest. Holme street art centre was the venue for the creative expression, or chaos, however you want to put it.

It was nice to see that in this age of increasingly complicated technology, the kids could be completely enthralled by a very simple stage performance. The performance of Storm in a Teacup done with two guys, a couple of masks and a seagull puppet, combined with music, sounds and of course humour, was very entertaining.


In the centre of the big room was a pile of dirt and plants and pots for the kids to experience a bit of gardening... and there was face painting, all manner of craft making, including tile work, and a wall mural [a piece of you] that was created by everyone attending that day.


It did get a bit stuffy inside though, and thankfully a sunny spell lasted long enough to go for a walk along the canal. My daughter enjoyed seeing the canalboats and watching them manually open the slip.

Next month when my friends (Nikki and Kathie!!) from Chicago come to visit, we may actually get a ride on one of these, which would be great considering I've been here nearly three years and have yet to do it!

Artwork is back

Perhaps there will be some of you who noticed that my son's 'artwork of the week' feature disappeared from the blog a couple of months back. Well it went to my other blog about natural parenting. Unfortunately, I have decided not to continue with that blog.. I don't have the time, inspiration, motivation, whatever. Its the saggitarius in me I guess, but hey, I'm keeping on here. So I'm bringing back this little feature in the sidebar, as my son loves to contribute! So once a week, or whenever he gets to it, will be a new 'painting' done on the computer paint program that he is so fond of. This is his recent contribution 'Ant'.. by the way, I don't know where he finds his inspiration..

Quilter Artist

Rummaging through my photos/negatives box, I found another picture to post..

This card was given to me by the artist and quilter Sharon DeLa Cruz in Chicago (that's her in the photo), when I appraised her condo, eons ago. I doubt she'd remember me, but I think her work is pretty phenomenal so I decided to share. This is a picture of one of her works, "The Buddha Quilt" 95x86 inches. I searched her out and found her website www.mycreativemoments.com . If I can send any interest her way then why not? She's awesome.