ood elddood

Creating

Confusing

Challenging

Above all I am experimenting!

Limbering up excercises for Experimental Art which starts on Monday and conveniently matches this week's Tic Tocc prompt to doodle.

I have experimented thus:

Pour yourself a chilled glass of Sauvignan Blanc (don't stop to see how to spell it because that wastes valuable time).

Grab a magazine and a sketch book and put on some very cool music. My choice being Classic Chilled Ibiza Mix. Have a slurp of wine and flick through glossy pages until something grabs you.

Draw it with your 'not usual' hand and sort of flow along with the tunes... sipping more wine is a good idea...

Let inspiration drift through your pen. The music was rubbing my senses, the wine soothed them and the lyrics spoke to me... so I wrote them down ...  backwards, with my left hand and back to front. I switched pens. Why make this easy? A calligraphy pen that needs to be regularly dipped in a pot of ink is clearly more of a challenge.

Then, I took what I'd learned and applied it to this half-finished sketchy doodle lady for shading and hair[?]. Can you read it?

Sharing for Sunday Sketches too.

One of my many prepared backgrounds in my sketchbook came in very handy!

The wall

Once upon a time there was a young lady trapped in a castle surrounded by an enormous wall. She lived a comfortable enough existence and had pretty much everything she wanted, but often wondered what lay beyond the encircling stonework. Was there still something missing from her life? As the years passed, the mortar holding the bricks began to age and crumble a little offering little peeks of what lay beyond. The gentle lady (note she's not young any longer!) was fascinated by what she saw - a world that previously existed only in her dreams was beckoning. It offered up such opportunity and excitement. The lady had just to knock at the cracks, play with the plaster, and surely a way would come through. She pushed back bricks and the world beyond began to open up before her. Eventually whole chunks came crashing down and she took tentative steps beyond the crumpled remains and began to taste new opportunity. It was all there beckoning her, yet still, she would return to the safety of her castle and weeks would go by when she would not even venture near the breaches in the battlements. What was stopping her?

Fear? A lacking in self-confidence? The devils of procrastination and distraction?

Finally one day (as yet another Birthday marked the passing of time) the lady stood once again by the biggest breach and really looked into the distance. "If not now, when?" she shouted. She was no longer afraid. She listened to her instincts and stepped forth...

A piece of writing inspired by Kat's Tic Tocc which taps into my subconscious thought.

In hot water

"Polly, put the kettle on" laughed Gran as if it was the first time she'd ever used that line on her. Polly flicked angrily at the switch and flounced off in the best kind of huff a 16-year-old can manage. The empty kettle growled and sizzled in protest before gasping its last. It wouldn't be making any more tea that day.

In exasperation, Polly, gasping for a hit of caffeine, unhooked the dusty copper kettle that was hanging above the cooker hood. It was supposed to be purely decorative she guessed, but needs must. Gran's friend Elsie had just turned up too and everyone knew she could drink Starbucks dry. Boiling water was called for and now. Being 16, she'd not quite formed the common sense that would stand her in good stead throughout adulthood. Heating water in a saucepan or the microwave just didn't pass conscious thought in a brain full of dreams of pop stars and overpaid footballers.

She dusted it off with a white tea towel, giving it a quick Aladdin-style polish - no genie, but quite a bit of grime on the cloth. She shoved it behind the fruit bowl, grabbing a quick grape, and headed for the sink. The spout was really narrow so she'd have to remove the lid. No easy task, it seemed rusted on. Did copper rust? Sophie wasn't sure - chemistry lessons were usually spent mooning over James Tindal. She had a real Twilight Bella and Edward in the science lab fantasy going...

Just as well sexy vampires were invading her mind as otherwise the water wouldn't have missed the now open hole in the top of the kettle and run all over her arm. Then she wouldn't have looked down and seen what was lying quietly inside the innocent kettle. A yellowed newspaper was wrapped in a parcel around something.

She pulled it out and opened up the crisp paper, noticing the date went back about 25 years. Someone had doodled across the top of the page Kaz ♥ Dan T.LA. It looked like her Mum's writing... Surely not? Since when had her Mum - Karen - been known as Kaz?

Polly turned her attention to the contents of the parcel and almost dropped it in shock. A red packet of rizlas, a couple of tired looking cigarettes and something hard and brown wrapped up in crackly cling film...

Polly smiled the kind of smile only a 16-year-old can smile when she discovers her straight-laced mother's long-forgotten drug stash...

Another prompt from Kat Wright's Ticc Tocc. A 10 minute exercise of the imagination with a copper kettle. What surprising thing might you find inside?

Why not join us and share the secrets of your subconscious. It doesn't have to be writing - anything creative goes!

The deserted beach

How would you interpret the following creative prompt in 10 minutes?

Whilst admiring the peaceful sunset vista it was hard to imagine that the beach had been shut to the public all day following the unexpected...

Hmm... I had a think (a very quick one) and this is what I cam up with...


Whilst admiring the peaceful sunset vista it was hard to imagine that the beach had been shut to the public all day following the unexpected...


...arrival of a certain Royal couple on their honeymoon. Despite, their wishes to the contrary, the newly-weds were accorded full security precautions – if nothing else to keep away the photographers and their invasive lenses. The bride had stretched out happily in the sun with her beloved and it’s believed that they relived their big day moment by moment learning anew every experience from the other’s point of view.

As the sun began its descent the couple joined hands and ran into the sea together before diving into the waves breaking close to shore. They turned and waved to their beachside entourage before, with a flick of their reformed tails they were gone – back to Atlantis to begin their life as King & Queen of that watery realm.

Well... what did you expect? Will and Kate weren’t the only Royals who got married last week you know!

My piece for Tic Tock - the weekly inspiration from Kat Wright. 10 minutes to relax and just see what you create from her prompt.

I might create something with paint for this too later... Watch this space - or more specifically the space at the top of all this text!

Dirty laundry

April watched the sheets dancing in the warm Spring breezes and smiled as she realised what pleasure such a mundane task as washing became on a day like this. In a moment she would step outside, most likely barefoot so she could feel the fresh grass under her feet and gather in the laundry that smelt like the breezes which had dried it. In a moment she would think about making love with her husband under those fragrant sheets. In a moment her whole life would be turning upside down.

For when April collected the duvet she felt something small and bundled in a corner. Reaching in to pull out the expected stray sock, she removed instead frilly underwear. It was black and delicately patterned with fleur-de-lis. Funny how you noticed such things she thought, as shock fought its way to forefront of mind pushing out aesthetic appreciation. For April did not own frilly black underwear with a fleur-de-lis pattern...

Later as they glared at each other over the dinner table - the underwear of guilt between them - she waited for an explanation.Waited for the dagger of deceit and betrayal to strike in her heart.

"Whose are they?" she asked again, her voice too made of cold steel. "Heather?" she questioned. "She never stops flirting with you... Or Isabel?" Sly sneaky Isabel who coveted everything her elder sister held dear.

The silence continued as Bradley sat forlornly head in hands. Finally he raised his eyes to hers and spoke.

"Not Heather's. Not Isabel's" he stated, humiliation written across his features...

"Mine."

***

A short story in response to a creative prompt by another writing Wright! Kat Wright's Ticc Tock - where this week we wrote about something unexpected on the washing line.