Tag: Art

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Still singing…

I’ve said before, it’s not all about the performance…

It’s about the act of singing, together.

However, at the end of each term, ”Global Harmony,” the choir I sing with, compiles a concert, and it’s always a very enjoyable event. We’ve got two coming up in June!

20th June South Croxton, 26th June Melton Mowbray

But, 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. Singing with these fine folk is a privilege.

Global Harmony choir sings a dynamic variety of world music in a fun, friendly, informal environment; songs that celebrate diverse cultures and the joy of singing. Exciting rhythms of Africa, stirring Eastern European harmonies, songs from around the world.

I started singing with Global Harmony in 2008! They are an a cappella community choir that aims to sing truly from the heart, and as such, they don’t use sheet music in practice or performance. See Natural Voice Network for more info – as they say, “celebrating the voice you were born with, rather than trying to train it to an ideal of perfection”.

The act of singing releases endorphins, the brain’s ‘feel-good’ chemicals. Singing in front of and essentially with others can be even more rewarding.

Singing is arguably a primal action, to express oneself in song – pre-language.  It could be said that habitual structured language might even inhibit essential expression, feeling, thought, and being.

Singing requires deeper breathing. Singing can have some of the same effects as exercise. It’s an aerobic activity: more oxygen into the blood, better circulation, and helps with a “good” mood.

Many studies have found that after people take part in singing, over time, there are significant decreases in both anxiety and depression levels, and that habitual singers find that singing plays a central role in their psychological health. Singing requires attention; it’s hard to worry about work or money or family problems when you’re actively engaged in singing.

The pre-language primal song, of course, was a group social activity – the war chant, the rain dance, singing down the mine, cries from the plantation, the pub singalong, traditional church singing, celebrations, “happy birthday to you” – realisation that you are one of a group, identification, belonging, sharing…

Anyway, I’ve started to waffle!

Perhaps you might come along and join us on one Monday night? You’d be very welcome!

Or come along and experience a performance – as I say, there are two performances in June!

Check the website for more details: globalharmony.org.uk

20th June at South Croxton, 26th June at Melton Mowbray.

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Milpreve – Stones

Some people commented on the adder stones that we collected on our recent trip to Kent. So, I thought I’d leave a little info here.

My naturally holed stones found in Kent, UK (Adder Stones)

People have traditionally used the term “adder stone” to describe any stone with a naturally occurring hole through it. Often made of flint, they have also been called hag stones, fairy stones, and snake’s eggs. In Cornwall, where I am from, they were called milpreve.

Adder stone julesprichards 2025
Adder stone julesprichards 2025
Adder stone julesprichards 2025
Adder stone julesprichards 2025
Adder stone julesprichards 2025
Adder stone julesprichards 2025
Adder stone julesprichards 2025

There’s a lot of folklore (people-knowledge) surrounding adder stones, which, of course, is another story. But what does remain is a curiosity in the discovery of such items.

I guess it’s the form that creates intrigue.

As a creative artist, especially when I studied visual arts as a student, Barbara Hepworth was one artist who piqued my interest. Of course, in her created sculptures, she often featured ‘holes’.

1932, Barbara Hepworth, Pierced Form

I recall studying: ‘the hole’ as a way back as well as a way forward. Conjuring notions of time, past, future, and a space for potential possibilities…

I recall playing with T.S. Eliot’s Burnt Norton
Time present and time past
are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility…

2016 Night and day

Anywho… I digress.

I guess it’s the ‘noticing’ of forms that is the essence of this. Projecting meaning onto them is what we all then do. Hence, the development of our language and cultures. We see the form of a sunset and it conjures feelings or thoughts, perhaps an overwhelming awe, or a speechless moment, a void… to be filled with meaning.

So back to the holed stones. Whether it’s the mystery of days gone by, or the beauty of sculptural ‘gaps or connections’. Holes exist in our world; space, void, potential… make of them what you will.

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Be proud.

Contrary to the above, and unlike me, I recently saw a tree:

Like a tree in June
Full to bursting with pride
I see you
Be proud

The tree is not seeking merit, but just fulfilling, being healthy and alive…

At work this week a scholar finished a discussion with me by saying “Have a great day sir”…  

Walking in the school recently I allowed myself a scintilla of optimism; ‘Be proud’!

The people I work with do an admirable job, I am often in awe of their commitment and drive. They should indeed be allowed a small glow of pride!.

A dose of healthy pride is a good thing. A feeling of satisfaction and self-respect derived from one’s endeavours, abilities, or character. Pride can be a motivating emotion that can encourage continued effort. An authentic genuine feeling of worth and dignity that can energize a quiet implicit realistic humble confidence.

I was recently nominated for recognition of my contribution towards our school’s ‘Community’; “Building a sense of belonging in a reflective and stimulating environment. Celebrating care, kindness and difference, allowing positive relationships to flourish and ensuring communication is excellent.”

I guess what I do helps to reinforce something of the above. Of course, we all daily add to our sense of community and belonging in the many small things we do.

graphic repro

GraphicRepro.

I believe that providing a graphic repro service to staff and students helps to visualise and reinforce a culture of teamship and belonging.

Part of my Design & Reprographics role is to create and maintain a strong visual identity that relays the tones and qualities of our community, while promoting our cultural ambitions and expectations. We create and maintain a consistent design identity and style, echoing graphic devices across all materials, and adding value to material created. As well as bulk reproduction, we create department-specific graphics and resources; signage, certificates, posters, cards, worksheets, passes, stickers, etc.

Graphic Repro and ‘belonging’: identity, community and culture.  

Identity: uniformity in design across materials maintains a professionalism.

Community: consistent, appealing, memorable design fosters trust and credibility.

Culture: visual familiarity can generate a deeper connection and improve teamship.

Like a tree in June
Full to bursting with pride
I see you
Be proud

*‘Pride comes before a fall’, it’s one of those tenets that tends to colour my worldview. It tends to produce an underestimating fear, a paralysing worry, a hindering reluctance, and perhaps many missed opportunities. I try to be proud, but I’m aware that an autumnal fall is part of the cycle.

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Perhaps it’s about feeling?

Along with thousands of others, over the isolation period, we took a weekly dose of Grayson Perry’s Art Club on Channel 4.  Thanks, Grayson and Philipa, it’s been a very welcome tonic. It was a little bit silly, it was a little bit odd… It was the last episode this week.

Art is about mixing it up!

Punctuating the episodes Grayson highlights some of the reasons why creating Art can be so important and relevant to people.

Mixing it up…

  • To find some truths about who we really are…
  • We have to be prepared to become vulnerable…
  • Art involves a relationship between the artist and the subject…
  • Art in whatever form you can snatch it… is a wonderful thing…
  • A place to find comfort, refuge and control…
  • You look with only your eyes… looking out through yourself…
  • Everyone has their own way of looking at the world…
  • Stop and notice the beautiful things… 

It’s about feeling. It’s about projecting our thoughts/feelings onto or into an object or image. Making an image or form via our thoughts and feelings. 

As a student, I recall reading Don McCullin ‘If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.’

As a student, when stuck creatively, we were taught to “Scamper” 

But as mentioned before; ‘theory, formula, and process might help move things along, but nothing will replace the passion and drive, the wanting, the desire, the searching, the angst, the belief, the love…’ of a person.

Perhaps, despite what we are told by realist deconstructivists et al, perhaps it’s about feeling after all! 

Listen to the noisy silence.

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Image creation… it’s what I do.

 

I create images, products, sounds, movements, actions that might enhance our world, your product, a service or indeed an individual’s outlook.

If you need Artwork for print or screen, or Image creation or manipulation – I might be able to help!

ManinaliftLR

 

Image creation… #photoshop #illustrator #print #publicity #retouch #optimisation #artwork

clones999

The Lane – reworking of Lane

 

If you need Artwork for print or screen, or Image creation or manipulation – I might be able to help!

   My Flickr stream.      Small creative video projects also undertaken.

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Still outside, it’s been some time…

Sometime around 1997, I wrote the piece below.  

‘We’re going outside and we may be some time’

I reflected back on it eight years ago. I wrote about trying to understand the idea of seeking pilgrimage, finding something significant, central to or ‘at the heart of’ a person’s worldview. A seeking to discover, understand, or be healed? A ‘quest’ for counsel or understanding.

But as I say in the writing, for all the ghosts, memories alone do not hold what I’m looking for. What am I looking for? I said to a Cornish friend recently “I miss the sea”, but do I? Yes, the sea can be a tonic “Coasts are liminal places – the edge of the known, opportunity… routes to somewhere…”  But what really are we all seeking? As we know, everything you ever want, everything you ever need is right in front of you. The greatest show is right here right now.

 

Taking me back to my Cornish roots again… I recently watched the much-acclaimed film ‘Bait’, created and directed by Cornishman Mark Jenkin. I was apprehensive as it’s had a lot of film-world applause. It’s not mainstream. It’s arguably art more than entertainment. But personally, I loved it. Not just the film itself, but the form and nature of the creation is resonant and leaves a lot of energy in the air. All good. 

Mark Jenkin said in an interview with Mark Kermode “…they’d become Cornish by being away {outside?}…” 

The film triggered ghosts and memories to come alive, but what to do with ghosts and memories?

I don’t know. Any ideas?

 

‘We’re going outside and we may be some time’
Twenty-five years I grew, nurtured on Cornwall and the Cornish manner, the Cornishness that is now part of me. I still day-dream, of a ‘T’ shirt that announces “I’m Cornish and proud of it…” …is that all I have to cling to? (I haven’t even got this day-dream of mine).
I spent a childhood full of Cornwall’s riches: pebbles a sand, fIzzypop in cans, wind and rain, tunnels, holes, alleys & bunkers, vast sun-scorched gorse torched views, I could see both coasts from our bathroom window.
Spirits of the sea always whisper to me, the loudest whispers I’ve ever heard. I’ve heard it in Leicestershire, Crewe and Nice, I saw a little red boat barely afloat.
I cried at the beauty surrounding me as the holidayers screamed and sizzled and I laughed. I sat alone at the end of the phone, I ran with the gang, at low tide, across St Ives Bay, on new years day. We drank and we sang and played in the band. Gran bought saffron buns at Sunday-school treat, and pasties and pasties and pasties. Slept in the snow on the rocks on Carn Brea, laughed at what nan a grandad would say (that’s not the grandad that died in the fishing boat accident). Ate winkles with pins and vinegar picked from Porthleven harbour, got filthy. Held on tight as the storm wind rips so hard it bites. Sat in a haystack in the sun and got covered in mites. I’ve lay for hours and been soaked up by the whole of Mounts Bay, on the clearest ever, hottest ever, hottest ever day. Walked home at midnight from to Camborne from Hayle, met a girl in Redruth and another in St Just, got drunk in Crantock, earnt a wage in St Ives ‘ saw a dream in St Austell, learnt some verbs in Fowey… grew towards man from boy in Cornwall…  …only, they’re all memories.
I return and see the most rugged of faces smile and share the day like children returning to play, waves so worn from years of scorn, skies so blue they seem brand new. A scarred town refuses to frown, yet sings and raises its glasses, everywhere I look I see me and I see pasty smiles, rugby miles, unique Cornwall style saying this is us but we do say we.
I’ve moved away now, don’t know why, but I know I can’t go back. Jane’s not there, Craig’s gone, David’s moved off, So has Jon. Matthew’s in Manchester, Lisa’s in Suffolk, Richard’s in Cardiff, Kay’s in Bath, Lee is in Luton and Mark is in Crewe, and I’m in Leicester for something to do. Cornwall, in essence, has everything, God and the Devil are surely within. but it hasn’t got what I’m looking for. . . . what am I looking for?
I’m going outside and I may be some time…

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Summer?

Summer2My wife’s computer tells her, that a year ago today, we had a water fight in the back garden with the kids to keep cool!  Ah… summer!

It may not be hot and sticky and Aldi may not be piling up the Pimms alternatives – we may not be waxing the surfboard or de-crusting the barbecue grill – but it is still summer.

Yes, I do love an Andalusian summer, I love a Greek garlicky feta cheese grilled to perfection, and I love the bluest of blue skies; I was brought up with them in Mount’s Bay. But, I am a firm believer that; although our worldview has been enchanted with greener grass in the summer, and the lure of a better life when it’s sunny or sodden with supposed doom of a damp grey sky; life is still good.

Even if clouds obscure the scorching sun from view and a cold breeze is all we feel – we are alive, life can be good, and peace is but a breath away… #perspective #hopes #expectations. Yes, also there is the crap in life – it’s not fair – it truly is hard to understand – disease, injustice and ignorance is real, and there are nasty attitudes out there where people seemingly don’t give a fig for anyone but themselves.

Summer3I left an upbringing in Cornwall in the late 1992 and have always searched for a replacement for the Cornish ‘contentment’, the peace of a flat sea, the endless horizon of Mount’s bay, an alternative to the bluest blue sky that St. Ives nestles under. I have always sought a comforting alternative to the rugged Cornish summer, with hot granite, and fertile bracken, fish, ice-cream, sand, sea, and essential energy…
Since then, I have found similar in places like Cyprus, Nice, Thassos, La Rochelle, Andalucia, and even Tunisia and Lanzarote. But, I have also found this ‘peace’ in Crewe, Wales, Bradford and Leicester.

It’s not easy when so much of our culture points to what we must have, find or master next, to gain satisfaction. It really is not easy, when we have been con-scripted as consumers to at least take part in the game to survive.

Be it summer or not, the energies of life, and the glimpses of peace that we may have been fortunate to feel on our faces should be valued and carried with us. Everywhere you go, take a little weather with you – if you can.

On a different, but not entirely unrelated tack –  I have composed three artworks, fueled by my recent reflections of the ‘natural’, to put forward for a local summer display:

Have a great summer!

Summer1

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Abundant Life

I was grateful, to be asked in April, to think about the potential for an artwork to contribute to wall-space in a local church’s community space.

In Leicestershire, Birstall village’s Methodist Church buildings are used by many different groups, making them a valuable community space that sees all ages and a variety of activities. A foundation to the many activities and different lives that pass through the space, is an idea of Christian faith. The Christian faith can be multifaceted, the understandings within it can be diverse, but certain ideas are perhaps universal if we look past specific doctrines, ritual, and habits.

LifeInAllItsFullnessVisual

  • the value of community
  • the wonder of growth
  • the potential of interactions
  • the nurture of seeds
  • the beauty of all differing ages
  • the blooming of fruit
  • the essence of water
  • the strength of the cedar
  • the core value of parent and child,
  • the strength of light and dark
  • the power of colour and sensation

I worked on this artwork throughout May. Over that time it grew out of initial ideas, it changed, it needed reconsideration and significant reworking until the current final form was reached.

I came to Leicestershire in 1996. I initially found myself living in Birstall and indeed socialised on the fringe of the Birstall Methodist Church community. Over 20 years I moved in to Leicester and back out to Syston. I still recognise and I’m grateful for the part that Birstall and Birstall people have played in my life.

I find the sense of ‘the natural’ is strong in Birstall. Although Birstall sits on the edge of Leicester’s urban creep, it has its roots in the countryside surrounding it. The Grand Union Canal runs along the edge of the village with Watermead Country Park and lakes. The symbol of Birstall is a Cedar tree – a remarkable 350-year-old cedar tree, standing 100ft tall, can be found in Roman Road which was originally in the grounds of the now demolished Birstall Hall. Incidentally, the Cedar of Lebanon was an important foundational building and lifestyle material in many ancient communities. I notice that the central streets in Birstall are named Beechfiled, Firfield, Oakfield, Elmfield. We also have Poplar, Walnut, and Orchard.  These names, and various cultures in Birstall as well as many other English villages and towns, help to remind us of our essential natural roots in this world.

notebookMy artwork started with the idea that we are called to share in the ‘abundant life’ available to us. The piece attempts to celebrate the natural ‘way’ in and around us, as well as reflect on the idea of interaction within the world around us. Many people are seeking their place and a way forward amidst life’s confusions. The wisdom of age and the potential of youth, and all the stages in between are essential to making life work. Life comes alive when we commune in community with others. The natural growth from darkness to light is empowering. The journey from our past through hope to a fruitful future and recognition of the gift of ‘abundant life’, is what I hope we wish and pray for all.

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The artwork is complete, and I hope for it to be delivered at some point in July.

‘Abundant Life’ Jules Richards, May 2016
Mixed digital composition.
Print reproduction, 906 x 1189mm, (2.9 x 3.9feet)

LifeInAllItsFullnessFLATequalised600

 

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Night and Day.

NightMarch2016
Night.

And then, in the night, starts an underlying bass note,
not cello, nor violin, not instruments of any kind…
a sub-earthy roar in the air, distant yet looming.
Voices, animal, primal? No, bigger than that,
an otherworldly drone, multi-tonal yet singularly monstrous,
distant yet personally present, calling your names like it knows your fear.
Then the darkness cries and the drone is broken
by screaming tears of falling fingers.
Streams and running watery sounds hiss
and wash away the roar into a thousand fragments.
Whispers remain, a distant threat retreats into hollows unseen
and space remains in the emptiness.
Dark colourless sound almost silent
but the farthest hum can be felt
if you hold your breath, swallow, and listen…

.

DayMarch2016
Day.

A dawning… A cleansing breath
of the lightest strings and piano notes
lift a mist to reveal another breath, another breath,
and… another… the absence of noise, the presence of rhythm.
A hint of light seeps through, enlightening hope…
Direction, ambition, fresh hope and unity…
Knowledge, inspiration, spirit. Wide, wide possibility,
horizon, touch and sensation… chorus…
Glassy eyes widen and know acceptance.
Blended inclusion. Minutiae blossoms.
The joy of process, the chance of encounter,
and tastes of the treasured.
Percolating outward steps, towards the reception of sustained community.
Breeze, more than sound, graceful movement,
like the sound of the sea… breaths…