Picture it…. Nick Card’s Pre-dig Talk !!! - Plus....Appreciating Illustration….
by Bernie Bell - 09:11 on 22 July 2023
Picture it….
5 a.m. Fast asleep. BEEP!!! One of the, now mandatory, alarms. Battery must be low. Damn. Gets up. Tries to locate the beeping menace.
‘It’s that one’. Gets a chair to stand on - takes it down. Trying to work out how to open it - but that’s impossible. A sealed unit. We can’t be trusted to manage our own safety measures. Thoughts of prizing the back off – but – could set off the full alarm ‘Whee whee whee whee etc.
While puzzling what to do – Beep! Hell – it’s a different one. Puts the first one back. Tries to locate where the sound came from. Takes another one down – can open the back – but no access to battery. While holding that one - BEEP!!!! Hell’s Bells! Puts that one back.
Finally locates the offending article. Takes it down. Can’t open it. It’s beeping away, intermittently. What to do? Opens door and flings it down the garden. No neighbours near enough to be disturbed by it. Back to bed. BEEP!!!
It’s like an Eric Sykes comedy sketch!
For young persons – Eric Sykes…..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Sykes
Later in the morning - goes out to find the alarm – still beeping - surrounded by a circle of worshiping beetles.
Well – maybe not the last bit.
Then….we put it in a bucket of water and dowsed it from a fast-flowing hose-pipe – what did the alarm have to say about that? Beep!!!
Seriously - it’s bobbing about in a bucket of water in the garage - going Beep!!! We’ll leave it a bit and if it doesn’t stop we’ll take a lump hammer to it.
Credit where credit is due – it’s well made!
https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/04/01/yay-the-smoke-alarms-arrived/
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Nick Card’s Pre-dig Talk !!!......
https://orkneyarchaeologysociety.org.uk/nick-card-2023-talk-on-the-ness-of-brodgar/
Professionally filmed by Fionn McArthur of StartPointMedia as the first video in the OAS Legacy Project series.
Nick gives his time free and his talk is also free, but if you feel like making a donation it would be very much appreciated ... this page here is all set up in the hope that you might like to! Mrs. Doyle says….Go on go on go on go on go on go on go onnnnn - you know you want to…..
It all helps to support this….
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/2023-day-14/
Stones & Pots & Pins - Oh my! – ‘Wizard of Oz' reference.
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Plus…
At Swandro too – different eras – useful items don’t change that much….
https://www.swandro.co.uk/post/star-finds-we-got-em
….see ‘Hair pins’…..
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=15909
I’m thinking of Must Farm Bronze Age site, where many of the domestic items found were easily recognizable….
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Appreciating Illustration…
Jackie Morris…..
https://www.jackiemorris.co.uk/
….often writes of her anger/distress about how ‘illustrators’ are disregarded. I use inverted commas because I think a more truly descriptive word is needed anyway. These people often don’t just illustrate the text - I’d go for ‘illuminate’.
One that comes to mind is Edward Ardizzone…
https://www.edwardardizzone.org.uk/
Some, such as Jackie herself, not only illustrate for others but also are writers in their own right.
JRR Tolkien made a good job of illustrating his own works – can you imagine anyone else doing it as well as he did? He knew what he wanted to present – and had the ability to do so. Not everyone has both abilities, and so they need a truly sympathetic …illustrator.
I recently had an email exchange with someone I know about the relative attention paid to the authors of books, and the illustrators.
I said…
“Maybe nit-picking …but…..images are what catch the eye first - and you can connect with an image when you can’t manage to take on board the meaning of words – I speak from experience.
Both matter equally – but images hit the eye more immediately.
Often, the writer of a book is the name that’s mentioned not the illustrator – but - look at how much the images have added to books.
She replied….
“Indeed, both matter equally and it is the space between them that makes them sing.”
I was thinking how much ‘Leaving the Loch’ by Lotte Globb is a good example of words and images weaving together – and singing…..
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16239
We recently came across a series of books called ‘The Illustrators’, published by Thames & Hudson…
https://thamesandhudson.com/books/filter-group/the-illustrators
They focus on…illustrators. Pic. shows our copy of the one about Tove Jansson who wrote and illustrated for herself, and others…..
So – for any other illustrators who feel that what they do isn’t valued enough - there is appreciation out there.
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Here’s one I made earlier…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2019/04/29/sam-gamgee/
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