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5/31/2012

Firtst attempt at carving a spoon.

Back up north for about 10 days, and happy to be here. I've lived in the north east longer than I've lived anywhere else so feel this is my home, particularly northumberland. Thats where I'll concentrate my efforts on finding a place to live.
Just dug out some stuff thats been stored and came across this, my first feeble attempts at carving. Its coming along? Think I chose the wrong wood though. This is cherry, a particularly hard wood to work with hand tools. A neighbour trimmed some branches off her tree so I decided to give it a go. Found a bag of flint I'd collected as well so that will be coming back with me in order to continue with my efforts to process the birch bracket and create a stone age firelighting kit.

Just started reading this and its fascinating. Seeing the little cord scabbard that held his flint knife just somehow really evokes the sense of the person, its so charming. Its interesting as this was written before a flint arrowhead was discovered embedded deep in his upper body, although it now seems likely the cause of death was a blow to the head. As well as the undeniable satisfaction of seeing important experts with egg all over their faces this is truly one of the great archeological finds to rank up there with the peat bodies and the caves of Peche Merle and Chauvet.

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Creswell Crags, the only stone age cave art site in the UK

5/22/2012

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Spent a great day at Creswell, a place I've been meaning to visit since I saw the first episode of A History of Ancient Britain with Neil Oliver, and saw the famous bone horse engraving. A stunning location that really evokes a sense of our ice age past. Unfortunately I couldn't get into the caves themselves as tours only run at the weekend. I'll be going back for that experience as this is a unique site in the whole of the uk, There's a great presentation in the visitor centre with a CGI animation of the crags at various stages from 120,000 years ago to 100 years ago when excavation started.
The most interesting fact I've taken away is discovering that stone age man used not just flint but other quartzite stones for cutting tools. That widens the scope in terms of my own, admittedly pretty feeble, attempts at learning these ancient arts.

Listening to: Not much, got hellish tinnitus.
Watching: Ditto

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Yoga and wheezing cardio.

5/21/2012

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Working from these books at the moment. Both great resources for fitness and health. The Prasara book in particular is a gem. I'm having difficulty locating a qualified instructor in Birmingham so I'm having to work through the book on my own. Its really not ideal as with all physical activities like this you need the guidance and support of an experienced and qualified coach. However its a start, and as I have some experience of Hatha I can approach it from that base.
A passionate and insighful, contemporary approach to yoga.

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Stone age firelighting

5/20/2012

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Iron pyrites and flint, together with birch bracket tinder. A stone age firelighting kit.

Found another birch bracket in the woods. Going to try and process it to make the tinder used by stone age peoples to make fire with flint and iron pyrites (known as the stone of protection-correspondes to the astrological sign of Leo, dont you know!)

Here's some info about prep I found on the very exciting intraweb:

To make this tinder cut open the fungus, then using a knife remove the hard
top and lower pore tubes, leaving the fluffy, chamois leather like layer. Then
boil in a wood ash solution for 4 – 8 hours (some references say up to 24
hours). Other references I’ve read say that the fungus should be boiled in urine
for several days, a method I have not tried yet. When boiled the fungus softens
allowing it to be hammered flat. Tip, doesn’t need to be hammered too hard, best
to hammer the underside of the fungus, top falls to bits more easily. When dry
the tinder’s surface can be fluffed up with a knife allowing it to catch small
sparks produced by the traditional flint and steel (its spark catching abilities
can be enhanced by charring an edge, also read rubbing in charcoal dust helps).
Tip, best to scrap off a pile of fluffed up fungus instead of trying to light
the main piece. When lit smoulders very well, easily blown to a hot bright glow,
can be difficult to put out when lit.

Watching: The Evil That Men Do-Charlie Bronson
Listening to: Wardruna

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Portfolio changes

5/19/2012

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I've recently updated my online portfolio to include some other projects I'm involved in, and the 'Writing' page has been replaced by this blog.
Advice I have received about the format and content of my website has been frankly really uninspiring, and lacking in any sense of art and creativity. It has been, if I may be candid, visually illiterate. Not a surprise.
I wanted to get away from the idea of a dreary, business oriented 'website' to a
more easily servicable 'online portfolio', a journal themed web presence that would accurately reflect the range of interests I have, and to steer clear of any
operations that reeked of marketing or dull business strategies as I just do not want that pernicious, fraudulent crap in my life.
I have an innate mistrust of people in marketing and advertising. These brain stems and their disingenuous corporate speak have in my experience turned deceit into a career. That's another reason I am determined to stick with this free website provider. Its 2 fingers up to those blackberry/i phone app power point bastards with their mans hair wax and long shoes.

Bill Hicks famously said all people in advertising and marketing should be killed. I wouldn’t go that far. Culled maybe.

LIstening to: Music from The Sopranos, and Georgian Vocal Harmonies.
Watching: TimeTeam on youtube.

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Inspiring images.

5/18/2012

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Putting finishing touches to 'The Sorcerer.' (See: Art projects)

5/18/2012

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Oh yeh!

5/18/2012

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Changes.

5/18/2012

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Had some challenging experiences the last few weeks and I'm down in Birmingham for a while. Just as one door closes
another one closes bitches!
I have no regrets though, just a feeling of relief and purpose that supports a strong sense of justification.
So, filmmaking projects are now on hold and it looks increasingly likely that I'll not be able to get access to the footage I shot on the last project. Damn shame as I feel its some of my best work and I put a lot of time and effort into it. I'd completed 11 edits by the time it came to a halt.
I'm missing the historical swordplay at Hotspur School of Defense, an endeavour that quickly became, and remains, a genuine passion for me. There is a group down here that seems to offer some form of historical fencing, but my experience leads me to believe the quality of inspired and learned coaching at Hotspur cant be found anywhere else. I enjoyed Swash in Leeds but it was clear Hotspur have one of the leading instructors.
I'm off back to Newcastle in a couple of weeks and may do the Reivers Bike Route from C2C. Then I'm off to
Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland for a couple of days to catch up with friends
and chill.
I've increased my art projects to one a night, but I am having trouble locating flint down here. In the north east you can go and pick it up off the beach.
I came across a website with some american indian wooden utensils with rock art carvings on them. I'm on the look out for some similar items to have a go.
Got my tent and a couple of new bags for the bike so I'm all set to go on the
Reivers.

LISTENING TO: Wardruna
WATCHING: The Wicker Tree

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Correspondence with Prof Stan Beckensall about Northumberland Rock Art.

5/18/2012

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Dear Mr Beckensall,
Many thanks for your reply and kind offer to provide an
accompanying article to my photography. I assume a brief introductory article
is what the editor requires. Perhaps an introduction to the history and
discovery of rock art, a brief summary of the differing types and designs, a
discussion of the various ideas surrounding its meaning, concluding with your
own ideas on its meaning, and why you came to study it.

For me the cup and rings are forever linked with the
people who created them and are never separate from them. I spend a lot of time
in the hills and forests of Northumberland and love the outdoor life. I’ve a
lifelong fascination with pre-historic hunter-gatherer culture, particularly of
stone age Britain and Europe, and the relationship these peoples had with the
land around them, so very different from the one we have where we have shaped,
moulded and reduced the natural environment to commodity and so utterly removed
ourselves from that intimate relationship found in cultures that live the
hunter-gatherer life. I find this relationship remarkable for its lack of a
sense of dualism, of ‘us’ here and the land ‘out there’. The ethno botanist and
explorer in residence at the National Geographic, Wade Davis, writes very
eloquently about this relationship and is a favourite author of mine. Where
there was once a wild untamed landscape that upper Palaeolithic peoples began
to decorate with these beautiful carvings, we now have countryside. I believe
it’s clearly evident, given the research I’ve done into modern hunter-gatherer
cultures that these marking clearly reflect a significant part of that
relationship. Its that transcendent quality evident in the places we now find
rock art, the huge vistas of sky, the beauty of the Cheviots seen from for
example Dod Law that lead me to suspect there is a definite sense of ‘worship’
taking place here, of something sacred being summoned and celebrated. I’d very
much like to read your comments on this idea. I’m loath to use the phrase
‘spiritual’ because of its tawdry ‘new age’ associations, however when I first
encountered the stunning panels of Buttony-now concealed in the depths of a
wonderfully atmospheric pine woodland-I think I can just about forgive myself
for imbuing the experience with just such a quality. I was expecting, given the
photo in your book, to exit the woodland onto an open field where I’d locate
the panel. It never occurred to me that woodland might have been planted and
grown up around it since that picture was taken. To stumble upon the panels
unawares like that was a truly wonderful experience I must say. Its in that
subjective experience that I now suspect I can at least approach a deeper
understanding of the meaning of these beautiful and mysterious symbols. Except
for examining and comparing cross-cultural similarities an objective
explanation of meaning simply eludes us doesn’t it?

With regard to the other less known panels yes I will
certainly be continuing to explore and photograph all the rock art I can find.
My intention is to continue this project nationally if I can secure funding.
Unfortunately all those miles in the summer cost me my car, with the head
gasket expiring just at the end of the summer!
I have the greatest respect for what you have achieved
and it’s a genuine thrill to be able to exchange ideas and dialogue about rock
art with so eminent an authority. I look forward to your comments. Many thanks
again for your kind offer. If you can send the article to me at your
convenience I will contact the editor at The Northumbrian and let you know when
it is due to be published.
Warmest regards
Graham Hill

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Iron pyrites and flint, together with birch bracket tinder. A stone age firelighting kit.

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