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I was recently asked to share some graphics I’ve created for a community group in Northenden in Manchester – St Nics.

It focuses on the idea that ‘all are welcome’; inclusivity, with no exceptions.

Martin Luther King said “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

There’s an Islamic proverb that says something like “A lot of different flowers make a bouquet.”

I also created similar for a roller banner for a church in Oldham. Affirm Community, see left.

If you need help with similar just let me know, I can design and supply graphics, or design and deliver finished large format roller banners, vinyl banners, posters, flyers etc. Contact me here: #julesprichards

You can see a selection of work I’ve produced here:
A selection of design work

The inclusivity design above, aligns with a ‘Safe Space for Everyone’ project I created.
“Diverse, Inclusive, Accepting, Welcoming, A Safe Space, For Everyone”
The design below is available on Mugs, Bags, Coasters, Stickers, T-Shirts, Prints…

This and the other designs are available on a range of products from my Redbubble Shop here.

As mentioned, if you need similar I can design and supply graphics, or arrange for production and delivery of finished products; roller banners, vinyl banners, posters, flyers etc. Contact me here: #julesprichards

You can see a selection of work I’ve produced here:
A selection of design work

A good few years back, I created a poster ‘Reading, when is it safe to approach?‘.

I thought it was time for a revamp and so here we are…

Approaching a reader… when is it safe?

Children who read for pleasure are likely to do better in maths and English, research suggests. The study, indicated reading for pleasure was more important to a child’s development than how educated their parents were. See more here: Institute of Education, London University

This poster above is available as a free download, but if you use it please credit me and do drop me a line – ta! contact Jules.

I have written here before about the benefits of reading:

• Reduce stress:  Get lost in a good novel and take time out of your hectic lifestyle to unwind.
• Help you sleep:  Turn off the TV, get into bed, pick up a book and snuggle down.
• Keep the brain in shape: What better way to work out your brain than reading?
• Improve knowledge: Even a fictional novel can teach and inspire you.
• Health and well-being:  Regular reading is associated with a significant reduction in the risk of dementia.
• Feeling:  Reading boosts empathy. Fiction can simulate real-world problems and therefore has real consequences for the reader.
• Boosts Vocabulary:  What better way to discover new words?
• Achieve: Reading for pleasure helps to improve skills at the same time as increasing enjoyment, self-confidence, motivation and a sense of achievement.

The big question is, what shall we read next?

…a powerful, unyielding conviction.

I’ve used some of my photography recently on a small project for a faith community in Nottingham…

Rivergreen Methodist Hub in Clifton Nottingham are committed to praying for local people, places and situations. They will provide cards for individuals to suggest prayer requests.

It’s perhaps a simple idea and effective idea that might offer a grounding and potential comfort or peace, in what can be a busy and conflicting world.

The bible says ‘Do not be anxious about anything but, in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests…’

The Japanese Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda says ‘Prayer is not a feeble consolation; it is a powerful, unyielding conviction. And prayer must become manifest in action. To put it another way, if our prayers are in earnest, they will definitely give rise to action.’

The photos I have used on these Prayer Request Cards have all come from my spontaneous snaps that I share frequently on Instagram © @julesprichards

If you might like similar and if I can help you – just get in touch.

The sepals stretch, the pistils punch through… boom! Wow! Speachess…

The garden is abundant with life, creatures, and colour… life is busy; butterflies, dragonflies, birds, nature is at a peak of activity… a grand efflorescence… energy sparks, people are full of potential…

When the position and configuration is right we have potential to be. Life is possible, we may become, things can be achieved. 

• 

The Saturday morning footballers are churning with potential, they need to ‘do’. They need to run and kick and engage a primal urge to be active… it’s a wonderful thing.

The summer club children burst with excitement and a final game of parachute and… and… ice-creams all round. Yeaaaa!

Johan is able to walk to a shift of work with his mind on his daughter’s birthday.

Maria returns from a busy morning, she needs a cuppa and some time-out.

Two sparrows wash in the birdbath, and an apple falls from the tree.

Babies are born, on average four every second worldwide. Memories are created. Seven billion people are alive… the potential is great. On average we know a few hundred people each.

Ceilings smash, and rivers burst their banks. We store for a rainy day, or a drought.

The nature of the mind is limitless as far as we dare to imagine.

Memories fade, but don’t die.

I return again to the phrase from Wallace Stevens that has travelled with me since my university daze… 

“The interaction between things is what makes them…” …flourish!

To flourish: to grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, to release potential…

What might come from our interaction, our integration, our commune-ity, is often unknown.

The sharing of words… pazazz, palaver, paradise…

The sharing of minds… erhebung, dance…

The sharing of bread… com-panion-ship…

As T S Elliot pondered… a perpetual possibility… quick now, here, now, always… complete simplicity

Our world is abundant with life. Busy, human nature… energy sparks, we are full of perpetual possible potential.

“We all care about you, we will keep caring until and beyond, [when] you are strong enough to care for and about yourself…”

kind words…

I like to make a note of stuff that sparks my synapses, and here is where I occasionally share my rough thoughts.

I was cycling home the other day and found myself listening to ‘All in the Mind’ on BBC Radio Four. Among other things, it featured an emotional story about a girl who nominated her head of year at sixth form college for an award after she helped the teenager through a severe depression, and in her words ‘saved her life’. It perhaps highlights the importance of a kind word of support and genuine relation, cooperation, honest contribution. Worth a listen.

I guess it brings me back again to my favourite quote from my degree studies…

‘the interaction between things is what makes them…’

Wallace Stevens; ‘Realism’ by Damian Grant

Interaction with things (or others) requires space and time. It requires primarily acceptance or awareness, not blind engagement, interaction starts with an honest response to stimulus. 

Personally, I find ‘music‘ to be a vibrant source of abstract stimuli.

And so to another radio program that I have discovered recently… In contrast to BBC TV’s recent gutterances, @BBCSounds really can be a treasure trove of delights. 

Scanning BBC Sounds, alongside ‘Mindful Mix’  or ‘Ambient Focus’ or ‘The Morning After Mix’  or ‘Piano Flow‘…  I came across ‘Happy Harmonies’ with @laufeylin. Happy Harmonies is ‘a weekly series of mood-boosting songs and inspiring vocal harmonies from classical to pop’. I am loving the stuff above – really good output! #recommended!

With thoughts about interaction I listened twice when Laufey commented recently “There’s nothing like leaning on each other for support, and that’s what vocal harmony is all about”

Vocal harmony – Harmony; agreement, accord, a pleasing relation or combination…

I am reminded of the 10 years I spent singing with the choir ‘Global Harmony’ from Melton Mowbray. Singing with other people is a privilege. As I have said before, it’s not all about the performance, it’s about the act of singing, together. The whole thing’s bigger than the sum of its parts.

I miss singing together greatly!

Harmony is about being in the mix, with things (or others). It requires space and time. It requires awareness and an honest response to where we find ourselves. It requires us to care, and perhaps it requires kind words.

These recent thoughts may have been coloured by my recent reading of three books by Mike Gayle. I find recommending of books an odd thing because I feel we require different things at different times but if your library angel agrees take a look at the kind words of  Mike Gayle’s: 

• All The Lonely People.
• Half a world away. 
• The Man I Think I Know.

“Una’s death struck Samuel like a silent earthquake. He said no brave and reassuring words, he simply sat alone and rocked himself. He felt that it was his neglect had done it. And now his tissue, which had fought joyously against time, gave up a little. His young skin turned old, his clear eyes dulled, and a little stoop came to his great shoulders”

From ‘East Of Eden’ by John Steinbeck

From the moment we wake up*, daily, we are presented with characters and situations that we try to understand and engage with. Images breed Assumptions that in turn create Motives. IAM

From what we perceive, we translate our world in our minds. We reinforce images in our minds, ‘reading‘ the suggested significations… It can all become so real!

_{*Some may experience this in our sleep also?}

I’ve never been a great reader, but over the years I have enjoyed reading more and more. What is it that the act of reading does? It can be enchanting, intoxicating, addictive and compulsive!

When reading, we are presented with characters and situations that we identify and engage with. We actually imagine new worlds in our minds. We create images in our minds from the suggested words on the pages… It can all become so real!

I have written here before about the benefits of reading:
Reading helps reduce stress: Get lost in a good novel and take time out of your hectic lifestyle to unwind.
Reading boosts empathy: Fiction can simulate real-world problems and therefore has real consequences for the reader.
Reading boosts vocabulary: What better way to discover new words?
Reading for pleasure… helps to improve skills at the same time as increasing enjoyment, self-confidence, motivation and a sense of achievement.

Of course, as a visual artist I am continually playing with visual signification, I can’t help myself.

Despite what we may think we know and subscribe to, ‘the surface’ is often all there is. The surface is ripe for images, assumptions and motives. We can be here today and gone tomorrow. Unless we strengthen our understanding, reinforce it, empower it, make it engaging, memorable, true and honest, ‘the surface’ is often all there is. Even God said “I am who I am” to Moses (Exodus 3:14)

A picture is worth a thousand words… it’s an old chestnut of a phrase, but it’s very true! An image can be worth a thousand words, for good or ill!

That’s why, ideally, we’ll regularly reimagine images, reread our assumptions and review our motives.

Artwork and design for print and screen. Image making for business and pleasure. It’s what I do…