Wednesday, November 12, 2008

antique lettering revealed during a refit at 91 lavender hill, apparently carved



a very special exhibition












an art exhibition at croydon clocktower with a specific historical text featuring some wonderful paintings by former patients of psychiatric hospitals in the area, notably richard dadd and louis wain, but with many other works that engage, delight, perplex, and even move one to tears
i include a link to bethlem hospital's short page on william kuralek and the leicester gallery's and the wikipedia article on the same

Sunday, November 09, 2008

singing or whistling ?






as a child in north wiltshire, i would stand beneath the telegraph posts besides a quiet country road and listen to the soft whistling of the wind in the wires, believing it to be the composite sound of many voices whizzing back and forth between malmesbury and tetbury, faster than the invisible jet fighters ( hawker hunters from kemble ? ) that sometimes used to break the sound barrier far above us on sunny days

domestic frivolity, clapham common north side


insomniac photography, chapter 24, volume 7, page 365


Friday, October 31, 2008

newdigate church

































the design and quality of the lettering on this little brass memorial are exemplary and i am delighted and puzzled by the contradiction in the last sentence
it says "she died" ... "& expecteth a blessed resurection", implying perhaps, that she is only sleeping patiently in her grave
i wish it had told us more about the person
if she still loiters here then i doubt that she will be feeling patient ... the victorians restored the church in 1877 and any graves and memorials that might be her contemporaries have been tidied away for ever