Photos - May 2024
The evening sky on the 24th was beautiful. These were taken from my back garden in Bideford
This is the view from the 8-gun fort which stands on the hill at East The Water, built by Major-General Chudleigh in 1642
From the Tarka Trail between Bideford and Great Torrington
The Torridge River runs between Bideford and East-the-Water
The Bideford Long Bridge
A view of Bideford from East-the-Water
My view over Bideford, North Devon one early May evening….
….and an early morning view on the 21st
The Preseli Hills, Pembrokeshire
March - June 2023
This and top: Across the fields towards the Preselis
Three months of the last twelve were spent in a caravan in Wales. I have never been so close to nature for so long. I maintained the gardens and guesthouses for my host and observed the changing landscape from winter to spring and then into summer from my caravan window.
I was awoken early one morning by the caravan shaking, I rubbed my eyes and looked out of the window to see a flock of sheep and their lambs knocking into my caravan while munching on the plants i had put in the ground the day before. I promptly jumped out of bed, chucked some jeans and trainers on and chased them out of the field. The sheep scarpered clumsily, while lumps of poo tumbled from their backsides, I couldnt help but chuckle. They returned several mornings in a row which I had to admire. Their bold spirit was akin to that of the museum technician in Munich recently who smuggled his own painting into the Pinakothek der Moderne and screwed it into the wall, alongside work by Cy Twombly and Francis Bacon. He was subsequently fired and banned for life from the museum. The sheep obviously don’t take any notice of banning orders!
A campfire setup amid a very weathered and wild moor
A long stone wall and hill view during one of my hikes
This 85ft ash tree was infected with dieback and so me and a local tree surgeon (mainly the tree surgeon) cut it down and split it into hundreds of pieces for fire wood. Ash burns very long and hot and so is perfect for it.
The planning and the process of actually felling the tree took at least a couple of hours. Tobias, the tree surgeon, predicted a forward fall was most likely due to the way the tree was stood but there are no guarantees with a tree that size. There was a chance that it could fall back, crushing the nearby pottery studio. Even with it toppling forwards there was likely to be some unwanted damage. It fell forwards and miraculously didn’t even harm the wire fence you can see underneath it.
Some Thoughts on NFTs
If art is meant to move or cause some feeling within you, good or bad, I admit I am yet to be bowled over by any NFT I’ve set eyes on.
A new iteration of the internet - Web 3.0 is alive and well and with it the phenomenon of NFTs:
Non-Fungible Tokens - digital files (image/audio/video) which are minted on one of several blockchains and bought, sold and collected by enthusiasts.
Above is one of 10,000 iterations of the CryptoPunks NFT, released in 2017 - image courtesy of www.cnet.com
If art is meant to move or cause some feeling within you, good or bad, I admit I am yet to be bowled over by any NFT I’ve set eyes on.
That’s not to say I don’t find the movement interesting. The passionate community, the very transient popularity of each asset and the continued anonymity of Satoshi Nakamoto (the inventor of blockchain technology). All of these pique my interest, but any curiosity I have comes from somewhere different within me than the love I have for other, more traditional art forms.
How I would describe visual art:
An individual's expression of the sum of their own experience. It represents what they have learnt, have done, have seen and have felt. Every sly comment from a bully at school decades ago and positive reaction to a kind gesture yesterday. Every physical scar or deformity they have which hinders their movement just slightly all contribute to the marks they make either directly with their body or indirectly with the use of a brush/other tool. These constituent parts and more affect A. The individual’s motivation and willingness to create and B. What they create. They are what make the end result unique and valuable.
I find NFTs, for all their utility, lack some of what I consider the necessary contributing factors for great art. Historically, even the most minute physical or neurological eccentricity that affected an artist’s method of applying marks to a support - are now irrelevant if the user is simply typing in keywords to programs like Midjourney.
The Metaverse - the name given to a new, immersive digital world enabled by Web 3.0 technology. image courtesy of www.intuji.com
The popularity of each digital asset within the mataverse comes and goes as trends do - nothing new obviously - but this volatility could be a reflection of an online world built on quick fixes and distractions. I am also guilty of being side-tracked by new, flashy things, though.
The question is; what does the metaverse and Web 3 mean for traditional creative fields? After all, these creative fields have always embraced the challenges of innovation.
I think we will see a continuing split between the physical world and Web 3. Early adopters; those who are already comfortable navigating the metaverse, will have no reason to jump ship but I think most people will resist it.
The shift the world experienced 30 years ago with the gradual adoption of the internet/Web 1 and then Web 2 in the early 2000s will be nothing compared to the changes coming with Web 3. For that reason I think the transition will take far longer.