December
9
2009
The year was 2K, the month January – the matrix was pregnant with anticipation and expectancy – millennium fever was well under way! At this time I decided to put on a show of paintings (about 350 in all) in Penzance (Cornwall, UK), entitled ‘Priceless and Obscure’ and told the punters: “Take it away and pay me whatever you think it’s worth!”
Heart of North Cornwall
Can you imagine walking round an art gallery under these circumstances? You didn’t even have to pay anything when you took your painting away – just post the money on to me, even post-dated cheques if you wish – whatever you want. Oh yes – and you can take however many pieces you want – no sweat!
[It was rather like the UK TV advert where you can tell the bank exactly what you want and what conditions you wish to make – and they give you everything!]
Looking back now, I think the show was part of my bid to learn to trust in the universe, (like not locking my car). And, although I was eking my living as an artist, I’d also got problems pricing my work in galleries. But I figured people would respect my priceless and obscure arrangement – seeing as they were getting a real bargain in original art – and surely nobody would want to take unfair advantage of me – would they??!
Well how did it go? I know you must be itching to know! 150 paintings went out of the door in two weeks. I took the remainder of the show down and waited eagerly for the post. Some money had begun to trickle in before the exhibition ended, with one or two wonderful letters of appreciation from old dears who had never been able to afford ‘real’ paintings – “and here’s my five pounds dear, for the small one I took – I shall really treasure it”, etc. And then came letters with small cheques for large paintings – or maybe additional promises of more money to come in instalments. (Remember all this was in their hands; I’d left it entirely up to them.)
And finally there were the two letters I received from local prominent town businessman – a solicitor and a councillor, who had taken five paintings each – real art collectors I’d been told. Undoubtedly in cahoots together, these gents each sent me a straight £100 (approx. $150) for the five pieces that they’d each taken . . . . Surely they’d be sending more I thought??!
After six months the £1500 I’d gleaned from the show just about covered the cost of hiring the gallery space and the material costs in the 150 paintings (at a push), and my self-esteem had taken a nosedive toward Hades. The councillor and the solicitor were sitting on ten of my best pieces of work for £200 the lot, and by this time the penny had finally dropped - I knew they weren’t sending me any more dosh!
I decided to send a letter of ‘encouragement’ to everyone who’d taken pictures and not paid (enough!) or not honoured their own instalment plan – and waited again. And waited – and waited . . . But millennium fever was beginning to subside – and me – well I suppose I was getting somewhat nonplussed by it all . . .
But there were further developments – so watch this blog!
For now,
Yours,
Reminiscing Steve
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December
3
2009
Heart pictures – Women’s Mysterious Love of the Heart Shape
Heart pictures, pictures of heart-shaped objects, and heart-shaped objects themselves abound today in a profusion never before experienced on the planet. Girls especially seem to revel in them for some reason, and I can’t help wondering why.
An Internet search for ‘heart pictures’ brings up all sorts of biological pictures and medical diagrams of the human heart and its various functions. But along with these pictures also come the often whimsical, all-too-familiar heart-shaped symbols in a multiplicity of colours and settings.
Why this fascination with the heart-shape? Why not an equal interest in pictures of the kidney for example? Surely the kidney is just as interesting and as aesthetically pleasing a shape as the heart? Who knows, maybe one day the kidney might take the ascendant, but right now we are dealing with whatever we are dealing with, and that presumably must be far better suited to pictures of the heart than the kidney!
So here are a few of my thoughts concerning heart-shaped pictures etc. Firstly, and most obviously, the heart symbolises love. So anyone who has a fascination with heart-shaped pictures and objects will probably have a strong leaning towards romance, and more than likely be looking to expand love in their life generally. The colours of the pictures and objects are often pretty pinks or lavenders, and the setting can often involve fairies or furry animals. It’s all very sweet and girly, but somewhere underneath the surface lies some intrinsic psychological need for such symbols – and it’s this aspect I’d like to explore a little further.
The second thing I can’t help noticing about what has become standardised as the popular shape of the heart, is that it is made up of two equal sides that mirror each other perfectly. In this the popular heart pictures differ from their biological and medical counterparts, which are in fact far from symmetrical. So I wonder – why has the shape of the heart transmuted itself into such perfect symmetry – at least in our imagination?
I feel close to answering this question when I consider that the main function of the symbol is to represent a romantic relationship – invariably between a boy and a girl (whatever their ages!) And then I ask further – why has the heart image taken on such special importance in the lives of girls the world over – as opposed to boys? The totem symbols of boys are generally far removed from such a loving, nurturing symmetrical sense of wholeness as the heart-shape. The answer I believe lies in what became known in the 90s as Girl Power.
Let’s face it – girls have not been treated as equal to boys for as long as we can remember – and hundreds of times longer! If you doubt this comment, just remember they were once traded for camels – for God’s sake! Even as late as the 1960s in Britain girls were being sent away from home for the disgrace of bearing a child out of wedlock, with the baby often being taken away from the mother and fostered. This far-from-equal treatment of the female, having such far-reaching consequences into the lives of both mother and child, was in sharp contrast to how the boy was viewed. No thought was ever given to the boys’ responsibility in these matters – he was just acting as boys do – sowing his wild oats in the normal acceptable manner! It was, of course the girl who was at fault entirely – we all know that don’t we sweetie? Obviously she must have led him on – and after all she could have said ‘no’ and told him to stop it! etc. Girl Power came not a moment too soon – the Spice Girls and other girl bands rousting up all those downtrodden little sweethearts into claw-bearing self-defending harpies . . . but I jest. . . .
Seriously – Girl Power is, I believe, at the heart of the heart shape in its modern context. Not that the girl wants to take control of her man – oh no, not unless he is trying to control her, of course! But she does insist on being equal to him – and so she is! And she does insist on his acknowledging this as fact, and living by this newly discovered truth. Thus the beautiful equal sides of a love-heart speak of her intention toward insisting on an equal relationship with her man – one in which the one side mirrors the other perfectly. Neither side is taller or shorter, (as compared to pictures of the literal heart), the shape made with the two equal sides being so exquisite – with its single root pointing toward the earth; and the dual curving sides both fattening out individually upward before plunging down again towards each other, where they are finally joined in the upper valley between the two halves. Two souls – each individually equal – yet rooted together in a harmonious singularity. The divine mystery of identity in relationship.
What more fitting symbol of a perfectly equal relationship could we ask for than this? If we want an equal beautiful romantic relationship, we need look no farther than the symbol of the heart! And yes – thank you girls for giving us symbolic heart pictures in abundance – in a world that is finally addressing its long-standing need true quality of the sexes!
So guys — if you want to please her – give her a heart-shape of some kind this Christmas to show that you value her, understand her, respect her equality – and of course because girls just love heart pictures!
Take Care of each other’s Heart,
Steve
November
28
2009
the Heart of The Leystones -Steve Slimm
Ok – maybe Solomon really did experience something akin to one of those intimate workshops like the one I recently did with a delightfully beautiful voice coach named Lorrayn - where 15 strangers enter a room on Friday night and leave Sunday lunchtime feeling like they have known and loved each other for eternity. But regarding King Solomon – I doubt it; with all his wives and concubines, and all his royal entourage of satraps and advisers and heaven knows who else – I really doubt that he ever experienced that universal dimension of the heart I now experience on a regular basis – and perhaps you do too. So I say there is something new under the sun!
Okay yes – wise Solomon blew out of his own Jewish religion, and started to practice interfaith with his foreign wives of various other persuasions; and yes he really was inspired to write some great stuff that has been published through the centuries in the book we now know as the Bible – but I still don’t feel from him what I feel from someone say like Rumi, Walt Whitman, or Kahlil Gibran. Neither do I feel from him that same universal vibration that has now widened and deepened into the work of contemporary writers, filmmakers, musicians, artists and poets – right up to this very minute.
“What the fuck is he talking about?” you say? Well you might wonder! But maybe not – maybe you are there/here with me and know exactly what I’m talking about – because the language of the Heart transcends words and ideas – and all forms of social and cultural ideologies. The new universal language of the heart is expressed between hearts that are attuned vibrationally to the beating of the One Heart – the one heart of woman/mankind that knows no difference between gender, colour of skin, race, culture, ideology, politics, religion, creed, language, age, or any other factor that divides those who are not yet in touch with the One Heart – and do not yet feel its gentle healing pulse.
I recently heard/felt the language of the heart expressed so beautifully in a film I’d not come across before called ‘Babel’ (Brad Pitt, Kate Blanchett). The film is set between Morocco, Mexico, and Tokyo and weaves three stories skilfully together in three different languages. The reviewer in the radio Times, UK’s most respected TV review magazine, had only given it a three star rating, (a gripping film would get a five-star rating), saying the ending fell flat. I would say that reviewer does not yet speak the Language of the Heart, and was therefore unable to receive the film into himself – no disrespect. For myself and my partner – we were gripped and held from beginning to end, and did not come down from the experience for at least 24 hours; and even now I’m still heart touched a week or so later, as I write this. Unfortunately, the Language of the Heart is lost on any who are not yet open to receive its rhythmical vibration – but fortunately, the One Heartbeat is so strong and resonant, that it will find a way to be heard and felt; it will be understood.
“If the truth could be told so as to be understood, it will be believed” is a line found on the album Boss Drum by The Shamen in the 1990s. I say – now the truth is beginning to be told, understood and believed – in the new Universal Language of the Heart.
Art with Heart
Portals to the Heart – thro ART Welcome!
ART of Steve Slimm
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