Fooling Around With Poetry and What Not (by sarah)

April the 1st and the first thing that happened was Youtube suggested that they were closing down youtube as a five year competition was over to choose the best video in the world. I didn't watch very much of the video and quickly moved on.

Second thing to happen was I saw people lambasting others for pulling the 'I'm expecting/pregnant' joke on Facebook updates.

Third thing that happened was that I decided to hide until 12 when traditionally you stop the April Fool pranks otherwise they are said to back fire. Instead I have been preparing myself for more poetry madness!

NaPoWriMo 🙂

I am doing visual poetry books this time - 30 of them 🙂 And generally going to be spending 30 hrs this month on poetry (not that hard as I am going to be taking part in the Cheltenham Poetry Festival anyway!).

Anyway there will be more exercises and writing inspiration and how to on the WoPoWriMo site and here is the NaPoWriMo site for those interested.

A Style A Voice A Choice (by sarah)

Something I forgot to mention in my previous post about the Art Exhibition was that people were surprised at how much of it was mine with comments such as, 'I would never have thought those pieces were by the same artist' and 'wow that's a lot of variation in style.'

People who actually know me could pick out which ones weren't mine with the comment that there was something me about all my pictures. It was mainly the fractals that gave them a pause for thought with, 'They aren't yours are they?' No they were Alaric's - my husbands but I chose the selection and no they weren't digital renders of my 'fractal style drawings' though that mistake was understandable.

Again I am against the concept that you should choose one specific thing to be your style at least for a couple of years at a time. People expect artists to have phases what they don't seem to be able to cope with is someone who takes photos in the morning, draws in felt pen in the afternoon and knits in the evening and then does painting at the weekends or someone who thinks that mediums and styles are something to understand and learn to add to a tool box of skills.

I love mixing things up as well.

And it is not just with the visual arts or the crafting it is my writing as well. It is hard to know what to push sometimes with me writing novels, short stories, flash fiction, essays, articles, how to stuff and some for adults and some for kids and kids groups in different ages and some of it needs my art and some of it doesn't. And even within something like poetry I have several different types I write from political, to comedic to kids to sci-tech to gothic and abstract.

I love brining visuals and audio into these creations making them something multi media that I'm not sure there is a word for yet.

People who read alot of my stuff again say they can hear my voice in it all but many coming to it for the first time find it hard to connect me to such a lot of 'voices' and this makes it hard for them to recognise me.

Now people in the publishing and arts world and science for that matter have always told me I have to choice to get anything done. And I can see why but I am not like this because I haven't thought about the consequences - I made a choice and that was to be ME and me is a person who likes and is interested in a lot of stuff and who has found it all feeds off of everything else.

I get a new skill it may get a bit rusty but it is easy enough to polish it up again if I need it or want to mix it with something else I now have.

And because I do all of these things I find myself being asked to do lots of strange and lovely and exiting things. Stuff that I wouldn't have been ended up doing if I'd focused on one area.

In the last fortnight I have been described as someone who sits on the divide between art and science and who is a brilliant crafter and a teacher and I sing as well. Such glowing praise made me blush and hide behind my camera to take more photos. A poet and writer, an artist, a knitter and baker and a craft maker.

Then I had a moment when having had a lovely rejection, a not so lovely one and an acceptance with editing and one without of poems and someone I respect as poet tells me I am an Experimental Poet - and I thought YES! that's it isn't it?

My voice, my style is experimental that's my choice.

Now all I have to do is deal with the fact that not everybody is nice about achievement and some feel I am too prolific or a hack or any of a number of other things.

An Artsy Cheltenham (by sarah)

Yesterday I went into Cheltenham to meet with one of the directors of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival to sort out what I was doing for the festival. I was already doing the Slam but I'd suggested I could take some photos of the events with my new camera.

They loved the idea and I have scored my first ever press pass. Last year with the old camera I took photos of events I happened to be at and some of the artists then used the photos I had taken for their websites and profile pics and what have you so this seemed a logical step forward. I may also be performing at a couple of other events at the festival.

I am also working on a new novel project so spent the afternoon working on that resulting in only 10 pages being written - I think I am out of practice!

I then wondered around in the twilight looking for low light level type photos to take 🙂

I really like the way this one above came out 🙂 I sort of want to draw him now.

I love stone statues in strange lighting.

There is a sad manic-ness in these horses again they make me want to draw them.

Today is also the last day of the Science-Art Gallery at Centre Arts so I shall be in there from 12:30 till 5 pm so if you're kicking about do pop in. It is the arts cafe and there is tea and cake 🙂

Molecular Knits (by sarah)

As part of the Science-Art Exhibition and to celebrate National Science and Engineering Week I wrote up the pattern to my knitted Bucky Ball. I illustrated it with photographs of the process and took them into the weekly Knit and Natter group that meets at Centre Arts in Cheltenham every Wednesday.

This resulted in a triumph for Science Communication - I ended up explaining what atoms and molecules were to a lady who did not know. And on top of this I now have a pattern written up 🙂 I want to add in some Bucky Ball facts and then release it on Etsy and possibly in other places too (it is already 4 pages long! Though that is with instructions on how to knit oxygen and hydrogen atoms too).

Centre Arts is also knitting a poem for The Cheltenham Poetry Festival which I've been too busy to knit any of. I got to see the title line whilst I was there 🙂

Ammonites (by sarah)

I Am An Ammonite is a poem written by Marcus Moore as part of the Cotswold Water Park Trust. I feel very lucky that they all said yes to it being illustrated and placed in the Science-Art Exhibition at Centre Arts in Cheltenham. The poem is on canvas and I attempted to make it seem as if it was in a sea full of ammonites and also a sea turned to stone - all at the same time.

This week is National Science and Engineering Week which is why this week is the week of Science-Art being shown. If you get a chance do pop down - it is only there until Saturday.

If you wish to read the poem you can see it on here on Marcus's blog. And yes I took a wonky photo.