the slits, and other stories.......

As part of a big clearing out here, I came upon this old badge from when I saw the Slits, way back in 1979! I think the silhouettes were taken from the 'famous' (infamous?) photoshoot with Penny Smith, then photographer on the NME music paper (back when it was an 'inky'!). The Slits played in mud in a garden, semi-naked, wearing only loin-cloths. Considering the images of women surrounding us now, the photos are quaintly chaste! But they created a furore at the time!


Good to find it again!


In the garden; the potatoes are in the ground; the peas are in; and I'm awaiting plants from....sunflower, pumpkin, sweet-peas, tomato seeds!
I'm looking out for some seeds of the WELD plant. I'd like to grow more plants that I can use for dyeing.


The fabric I dyed last Tuesday on the textiles course, is still drying. The bundles are plonked on the top of the fire. Am looking forward to seeing the results!


I've still got the packet of WOAD dye to experiment with; I got it as a Xmas present.

The summer will be a  time of experiment and change!    

Yorkshire Sculpture Park - MIRO

Off to visit the YSP last Tuesday, to see the big Miro exhibition on there. I liked some of the work in the Underground Gallery. The large black bronzes (tautology?) outside were too solid and...well, black, for me!

But there was a lovely quote from 1959, on the wall of the Underground Gallery which I thought worth repeating. Particularly as the grounds of the Sculpture Park could be regarded as a massive garden.......

  'I think of my studio as a vegetable garden. Here, there are artichokes. Over there, potatoes. The leaves have to be cut so the vegetables can grow. At a certain moment, you must prune. I work like a gardener or a wine grower.

Everything takes time. My vocabulary of forms, for example, did not come to me all at once. It formulated itself almost in spite of me. Things follow their natural course. They grow. They ripen. You have to graft. You have to water, as you do for lettuce. Things ripen in my mind. In addition, I always work on a great many things at once. And even in different areas: painting, etching, lithography, sculpture, ceramics.'

The River Dearne; birches; blackthorn in bloom; all signs of spring on the way. The land beginning to awaken, open, and push us into the coming season.

Reminding me, I too need to get my gardening gloves on, and begin the work of planting, and tending. 

And remember, 'Everything takes time.'

Home Grown

Some rather eccentrically coloured purple potatoes, that Jon grew this year. They were very small, but gorgeous to look at. Unfortunately the colour drained away once I'd cooked them. Shame.

More home grown produce. And apples, apples, apples! We have a surfeit of apples this year, both in our garden at home, and at Jon's garden. We're eating apple crumble, and Jon's wrapping them up in newspaper, for storage.