A Telling Tale…...A Timely Reminder….
by Bernie Bell - 08:06 on 11 August 2024
A Telling Tale….
Patricia Robinson (aka Patty Boonstra) kindly agreed to let me copy this from her Facebook page…..
“Here is a personal experience of mine of seemingly random, but remarkable, connection. It is longer than my usual posts, but it was enough to prick up my ears and fill me with wonder...
Tuesday 7th August '18, 09.45 hrs.
I am driving to Stromness in order to open the Northlight Gallery, where I am exhibiting my artwork for one week. Radio 4 is on in the car and I am suddenly hearing a single piano playing "Farewell to Stromness", composed by Peter Maxwell Davies, who of course lived in Orkney for many years before his death. I live in Orkney and am on my way to Stromness.
It turns out that this beautiful, melancholy piece of music is broadcast as an introduction to this week's 'Book of the Week' programme. The book being read this week is titled "The Cut Out Girl", by Dutchman Bart van Es. I am Dutch and my next artwork concerns the last (or new) taboo regarding nudity, which will involve a 'cut-out girl' that can be dressed up or down with tabbed paper clothes (remember those 2D paper dolls?).
On the radio the reader continues the story, that he had obviously started on Monday. The author of the book travels to Amsterdam to meet the woman who was fostered by his grandparents during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands in the 2nd World War.
I was born in Amsterdam, where I lived until 10 years old.
The author subsequently travels to Dordrecht, the town where the woman of the book had to flee to into hiding. In 1966 I, with my parents and sister, left Amsterdam to live in Dordrecht, where I finished first primary and then secondary school. Some of my family still live there.
I arrive in Stromness and know that I will see one of my linocuts depicting the Three Wise Monkeys in human form, with the Japanese characters meaning "see not, hear not, speak not" lightly printed over them. When I pulled the first print of this linocut, the visual effect on me was that it immediately reminded me of the tattooed arms of concentration camp victims. I had titled this print: "Lest we forget, keep eyes open".
With the ultra-right wing and neo-naziism currently on the rise, we should, I think, NOT close our eyes, NOT close our ears and SPEAK about it.
I will need to get the book.”
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A Timely Reminder….
In the garden - the first of the yummy-looking fungi appeared…..I’ll quote Terry Pratchett again…
‘All Fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once.’
https://frontiersmagazine.org/fungi-the-good-the-bad-and.../
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