"Houston, we have motion!'

image courtesy of NASA

Couldn't resist posting this gorgeous photograph I found on the web,. It combines everything I love: space, motion but with a genuine space-suit thrown in. Unintentional art. How good is that!

It's actually a photograph of an astronaut testing the motion capability of a new spacesuit. I found it in this NASA  treasure-trove  of space images, - a resource so rich and vast, you could seriously get lost in it!

Hmm, might use that for the title of my next post. "Lost in Space". :)

Taking a Line for a Ride

Notes from a sketchbook                               R.Allen-Sherwood 2015

Last year I became re-interested in another subject I studied during my art school days at university. I am talking about the concept of motion or movement. The drawing above is one of the very first studies I made whilst riding on a bus.

Yorkshire Train Ride                                  R Allen-Sherwood 2015

I never really developed the idea until much later. This second drawing above was done ten years after the first one! Using sumi ink and brush, I completed the drawing whilst travelling on a train this time.

This personal investigation into movement continued in fits and spurts in the background whilst I carried on with other things in life. But it was always there, like some distant memory of a song in the back of your mind. A song you can't remember the name of but can't stop humming the melody........ I continued making motion works but always found the results unsatisfactory,

Sands of Time                                                      R Allen-SHerwood 2015

Then I tried using a camera. It works better, but I still feel there still a ways to go before the idea, inspiration and execution can marry into one happy union that goes skipping off into the sunset..

Am I fussy? Yeah. Motion matters to me because it's an important component in my never-ending search into the meaning of space.

Motion defines space. I will dedicate more time this year towards this because I honestly feel that Motion & Space are flip sides of the same spinning coin. 

3 x 3 Inches Square

My idea of what a Zen garden should or shouldn't be has changed dramatically. Maybe it's a natural progression, given the seven years I've spent,dedicated to this subject matter in one way or another.

Now, the Zen-garden-in-my-mind expands and shrinks at the same time..It has become internalised. On the one hand, Zen-garden fills this world, yet also sits quietly inside a compact little 3 x 3 inch square box covering half the space of my upturned hand.

The above photo was my first realisation that things have changed.

Change. Something we can always rely on....

Happy New Year.

A Textmas Card 4 U

                                                                                  Photo by R Allen-Sherwood 201

Hello everyone, I'm back. It's been quiet due to a few unforeseen circumstances that needed my full and undivided attention. Thank you for your continuing patience and faith in this blog. (And for your kind messages)

I'll be back in January, to pick up where I left off - on my favourite topic of space and things related,.

In the meantime, have yourselves the Merriest Christmas & a joyous New Year 2015!  

Skies can't keep secrets / Spencer Finch

"The Skies Can't Keep Their Secret " Spencer Finch             (photo R, Allen-Sherwood)

Went to the Turner Contemporary in Margate recently and was enchanted by the light & space themed work, of artist Spencer Finch.  (My picture doesn't really do it justice.)

Using the wide open airy spaces of the building as his point of departure, he weaves together the simplest of materials to create an installation which exudes a delicate and ethereal sense of "being". As the setting sun streams light rays into the room the tones and shadows in the work subtly shift and change....... 

Perhaps a time-lapse video of the final 'Grey Out' might have helped those of us who don't have time to stay and watch the changes happen in real time? Just a thought.

The artist speaks about the thoughts behind the work here.

Rilke's Space-motion

Dancing Trees                                                 photo: R. Allen-Sherwood 2014

"These trees are magnificent, but even more magnificent is the sublime and moving space between them, as though with their growth it too increased.”  Rilke

Blank paper. Empty mind

Chinese rice paper

The recent talk I gave about the art and practice of Shodo (at Mirfield monastery), has inspired me to return to the origin of my own work. Back to blank paper, fude ink brush, empty mind and the word.

My training word is "Ku", the Japanese character for emptiness or the void. To see more images, click  here.