Between the Eyes

Rock's a Bad Fairytale

I attended art college way back in the mid 1960's, majoring in fine art and sculpting. I also did some stained glass and litho printing. I got to meet a music student training to be a teacher and on many evenings we went to the music room in his college.

There we had two baby grand pianos facing each other, and we would 'jam' for several hours at a time. Our favourites were Dave Brubeck compositions and 12-bar blues. We'd play them one way, then another, until we just got exhausted! It was a wonderful time! After these sessions I would go back home to my parents' home and either paint into the early hours, or compose music and songs. I just love the smell of oil paints!

My easel has been unused for the past two years or so but I will be taking up my paints again very soon! Most folks do not understand that when an artist paints he is 'transported' into his own world. it is most therapeutic!

Music was in my blood - my whole family were on the stage. Rock music took over my life when I finished art college and I sang in many huge clubs. One day I was invited to have an audition with the manager of a famous rock band. But, on that day the msuic died. The manager made it plain that I would be going to the studios the next day... but there was a price to pay. He was hedonistic and wanted me to compromise my moral stance. But, even then, before I became a Christian, I knew what was right and wrong. I told him where to go - and that was that. He was very fortunate I didn't hit him, because that is what I felt like doing! I walked out, guitar in hand, and went to visit my aunty in Southend-on-Sea instead! (He got his just reward - he died of something nasty a few years after).

After that my appetite for rock music waned very quickly. If I had to become immoral just to sing and play I would rather forget it. I put my energy into painting instead. The music scene is crammed to the gills with hedonists and all manner of things a person should best avoid. Do I regret it? No, I don't. God sometimes leads us along paths we do not understand at the time. For a while I wanted to return to music, but I began to sell my paintings and my attention was grabbed! Since the 1960's I have watched the music scene getting worse and worse, destroying lives and influencing youngsters into a wrong way of thinking. Oil paints don't do that!

Truth is Truth

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.~C.S Lewis

The Missing Warrior

When I was young, in the late 60's and into the 70's, I was a full-time artist, working from home and later from a studio. I was invited to exhibit paintings and sculptures, in a large Welsh Arts' Council exhibition, to be held in a series of large tents in a local park. So, I worked hard for a few weeks, framing and doing some watercolours to add to my existing oils.

I decided I could do with sculpting a large piece, but had no money. I gathered whatever I could... chicken-wire from the garden, broom handles, bits of wood, and I cannibalised my mother's bronze fire guard and a steel coal scuttle. The idea came to me - I'd make a ten foot tall 'warrior'.

I hammered the fire guard to make a shield and the scuttle made the helmet. I nailed the bits of wood to make a stand around which I would wrap the chicken-wire as a former and old sheets around the wire and wood to make the rough shape of an human body. I had to make the head separately in my bedroom, because the shoulders already reached the ceiling! My poor old mother had to work around the developing sculpture because I was making it in the kitchen!

Then, I bought boxes of 'Polyfilla', still sold today - a kind of plastic filler. Slowly, my warrior took shape as I layered filler all around the body like plaster of Paris. It took about a week! To prevent it from cracking I painted it with oil-based paints. Then, finally, I added a spear, sandals and a wrap-around cloak to make him decent. He was a magnificent warrior!

The exhibition would last a week so I needed to be there every day. I had my own large tent! But first, I needed to find a car. The idea was to take the paintings and smaller sculptures by car, go back home, and somehow carry the warrior, tie it on the roof, and get to the park safely. The poor but dignified warrior was tied on with bits of string and off we went.

Apart from getting stung by a bee, the exhibition was great fun and everybody loved the ten foot warrior! It was photographed for the papers, who boldly told readers that I had invented my own filler! Anyway, I sold many paintings. I wasn't selling the warrior, because I had become attached to him. I was sure my mother would love to let him live with her - maybe he could guard the toilet!

So, the day after the exhibition finished I went down to the park to retrieve him. But - he wasn't in sight. I went around the other artists, who told me the organisers had carried him to stand under a large tree, just a few feet away. But, after a few minutes, he had disappeared! How on earth someone managed to take him without being noticed I don't know! A ten foot tall warrior was on the loose. I never saw him again, but I often wondered who had him... they must have wanted the sculpture, so at least that was a comfort.

If you are out there and reading this, Oh Mighty Warrior, maybe you'd like to retire to Wales again? Just give me a call and we'll sort out transport - maybe one of those stretch-limo's. And I can make you a cool-dude suit.

Ancestors Got it Right

Text of cartoon seen in 'Human Events', 5th May:

The picture has a very large spoof graph, as used by Al Gore. Two miniscule people are standing in front looking at it, and one comments to the other: "Primitive man believed the sun was responsible for hemispheric climate change. Today, we know climate change is driven by insufficient use of twisty light-bulbs."

I think primitive man was far superior to our modern man. They used their brains.

One man's meat...

The car stickers have got it right - "Dogs are not just for Christmas".

You can eat dogs at any time of the year!

Impudent Gore

"Their credulity increases his impudence: and his impudence overpowers their credulity." (David Hume)

Freedom

"You should never have your best trousers on when you turn out to fight for freedom and truth." (Henrik Ibsen, 'An Enemy of the People', Act 5, 1882)

Marxism

"A spectre is haunting Europe-the spectre of Communism." (The Communist Manifesto, 1848). This is more true now than it has ever been!