Uzupis

In April 2007, my two sisters Dinah and Cynthia and I took a trip to Lithuania to look into tracing the Pikarsky family line. This was only made possible due to huge support from my Bear.

Three easily distracted creative types, trying to fit as much as we could into three days, we all got slightly sidetracked.

Wandering off through the backstreets of Vilnius (as is my usual way in new places) we found ourselves veering off over the river into the weird commune of Uzupis. Photo opportunities? ...oh yes...

Declared an independent republic in 1998, Uzupis is a picturesque suburb of Vilnius, where locals have their own president, national anthem, a flag for each season and the Dalai Lama as an honorary citizen.

On April 1 each year, mock border guards stamp visitors' passports, but the most absurd thing about this place is its constitution, which has 41 points of varying madness, including giving inhabitants the right to cry and the right to be idle.
The Lithuanian authorities take a fairly relaxed attitude towards Uzupis. Hitler or Stalin may not have been quite so liberal.

www.vilnius-life.com/vilnius/uzupio

Toying with Textiles

There's a very warm, close cuddle between collage and textiles.

If you cannot resist paper - tickets, photos, any printed ephemera really, then it's only one small, flip-flop step across the yellow brick road to fantasy fabric world.

You may be tempted by both with their irresistible textures, colours, weights, patterns, - their lush surfaces luring you to stroke and caress... Be still my beating heart...

The collage continues

It's that theme again that keeps coming back. Inks, wax, string, bark, leaves, hand-made papers. Basically from a huge collection of natural, man-made and printed ephemera.

Growing up in Spain, absorbing the power of red and gold , - blood and candlelight.

Holy Week processions: white doves, crowds, bells, candles, incense, trumpets, wailing, swaying, death, resurrection, hope.

The iconic, Catholic, occasionally OTT kitsch imagery has been an inspiration for over 40 years. Ingrained.

Californian eco-hippy, or simply a great living idea?

We may never get to build our own dream straw-bale, eco-dwelling with large studio in a field, but we do have a clay oven in the garden, made lovingly by Clare and Nige, ready for some summer cooking.....

http://www.clarethepotter.co.uk

Blue East and ongoing personal geographies

A collage from a summer or two ago now. Norfolk morning colours. Some ink with a twist of pink.

Maps have always been irresistible to me and appear in much of my work. They tickle the imagination. Where are we? Let's go on a journey, - anywhere!

Check out "You Are Here" by Katharine Harmon. A wonderful book of inventive maps, real and imaginary. Full of adventures that go beyond the boundaries of geography or convention.

Killing creativity

That inspirational Ken Robinson. He's a clever boy.

Proud Pikarsky

The family name Pikarsky came from my paternal grandparents, who packed their bags and escaped as a young couple from an unstable Lithuania to East London.

There they had four children, David- my father, Rose, Ruth and Lionel, who decided in the late 30's to change this name to Pickard. Sensible move maybe, due to global circumstances at the time.

Now that it is safe to use it again without fear, I have very proudly resumed use of the original family name.

(PS: I did NOT vote for the BNP today....)