Magpie Days
Magpie Days
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
100 days 2001 Q1: (posts 001-025)
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
001. Gridlock And so, day 1. Having started part way through I have been working backwards until I came to day 1. The conjunction of images I picked, and images I made was purely a serendipitous accident on the day I stumbled across the project; but it has grown from that into something more structured as time went by; an image, or occasionally words of inspiration, an new image made in my digital workshop, some notes about the day, or the inspiration, or the process, and the finally the writing. But today, only one image... at least until the end ;)
me
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
01. Gridlock Since 100 = 10x10; I will have a grid of pictures created for this project at the end. I love grids. This image is my bedroom wall, but all the walls in my flat have small square pictures at eye level. The frames (from IKEA) are very cheap, and I can chop and change the images as/if the mood takes me, shuffle them about on my walls. I'd love to have a 10x10 grid on a blank wall, but I'd have to bend down to see some of the pictures then...
Saturday, May 21st 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
002. Reverse I always wanted to go to Iceland, as I mention further on in this blog (since I am working backwards from day 11); and one of the reasons was to see a black sand beach, despite my Dad telling me I could do that in the North East of England when the coal dust washes up onto the shore. Catherine Singer has perfectly captured this in "The Heart is Mine", and started a new longing, for frozen sea...
Catherine Singer
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
002. Reverse Back to Black - Amy Winehouse You went back to what you knew, so far removed, from all that we went through. And I tread a troubled track, my odds are stacked, I go back to black ..
Sunday, May 22nd 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
003. Spring Valerie's wistful "Digging in the dirt" was today's inspiration, thinking on the seasons. I associate dandelion clocks with long summers, feet burning on the warm tarmac of the path next to the bank beside the garden... My brother and I, we blow the seeds away and tease each other about wetting the bed. So Valerie's image seems early, and mine is late, taken on OSU campus in Spring, it is a hangover from the previous autumn, and a haiku below.
Valerie Hamilton
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
003. Spring at the beginning and end I am threadbare, no wonder you move on
Monday, May 23rd 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
004. Fate Another catch-up post, harking back to my first glimpse of the delightfully surreal Fran Forman, which I now realise was from last years’ 100 days... so much to catch up with still... I combined this with Nicolette Wong's Day 11 image entitled Revelation, and sought my future in the Tarot cards. It seems the news was not so good, so I teamed my haiku (mugged 1) together with the warning, and the memory of warnings ignored...
Fran Forman Nicolette Wong
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
004. Fate The second card, placed above the significator, represents Air. It describes your spirit, process of thought, and the influence of reason. The Fool, when reversed: Apathy, negligence, and dangerous carelessness. Unquenchable wanderlust. Obsession with someone or something. Losing all sense of proportion. Foolhardy adventuring and lack of interest in critical matters. Immature or unrealistic ideals. Strange impulses and desires coming from unexpected sources. Vanity, delirium, folly, and oblivion.
Tuesday, May 24th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
005. Surface More time to catch up, over a long weekend, with the dizzying display of work that I stumbled across when I was first introduced to the project (on day 11), one of the pieces that caught my eye then, and I have searched for since, was "A clean (enough) slate" by Sina Bo Bina. I loved the idea of the broken surface, and had just returned from Israel, where my image of the surface of the Dead Sea comes from, and also building on my practicemakesperfect post with the piece below.
Sina Evans
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
005. Surface surface splits, dividing and fractal finger under the surface. pulled epidermis the skin of the earth pushes the natal fluid, flows to the edge gasps and dries. crusted coral polyps too stubby to function, cracked chasms and dessicated corruption, my new face
Wednesday, May 25th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
006. Faded Glories Inspired by Steve Veilleux's day 2 post "Porch Sitters"; taking me back to New Orleans on a hot Labour Day weekend. I had many photographs of deliberately faded walls, doors, flaking paint and windowsills; but in the end I went with an photo composite/composition from a piece I wrote while in NoLa titled The City, The River, The Wasteland.
Steve Veilleux
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
006. Faded Glories The Wasteland Of course I can't tell you these things in real life. You left the dam in place but the river flowing and of course, of course there came a time when I burst my banks. I flooded you out of me. The salt crusted over my life, settled down on the surface as a reminder. I am in the wasted Lower 9th now and telling you about the city and the river would be a senseless vandalism of my hastily rebuilt levees. You will never know how it felt to be there.
Thursday, May 26th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
007. Trees Barbara Laucius is celebrating natural beauty in her 100 days project bearbonesart.blogspot.com/ which brought me to contemplate her picture of birches in an Alaskan spring-not-yet-summer. My mind making connections to the blog carnival >language>place (which I will host around 4 weeks from today) from the first carnival I heard of, a tree carnival. Making connections through the carnival and also through this project. Also in my head the following refrain from a Nirvana song. And the poem I wrote for the lightning struck tree I pass on my way to work. My girl, my girl, don't lie to me Tell me where did you sleep last night In the pines, in the pines Where the sun don't ever shine I would shiver the whole night through
Barbara Laucius
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
007. Trees blasted blasted but beautiful still in its way, most days I drive right by but I stopped this morning, I wanted to see if it still lived with its heart splintered so
Friday, May 27th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
008. Windows YB Poetry has a "windows thing" edition coming out soon - there is a preview picture by Dorothee Lang. I was reminded of this when browsing through some of the intriguing blogs in the 100 days 2011 group page, and finding the image below from Janelle Stone; and my own photo to help inspire something for the YB magazine.
Dorothee Lang Janelle Stone YB Poetry
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
008. Windows what are the windows that look onto those windows? sometimes, I see movement a flicker across the space someone at home by/with themselves as I gaze outwards sometimes I wave at my reflection there could be an army of watchers behind the bland mirror. Mostly I cross the space quickly, shrink from the outside in
Saturday, May 28th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
009. Iceland Catherine Singer's theme for 100 days is Iceland. How could I resist? Her image, possibly Þingvellir, is winterbound, stark and eerily beautiful. I visited in the summer, when Iceland was a land of light, and the image I chose is of Sólfar (The Sun Voyager, by Jón Gunnar Árnason). The colours echo (foreshadow, if I was not working backwards) the coffee and cream glacier in day 10. From the Orkneyinga saga (written by an unknown Icelander in the early 13th century) - secondly inspired by Marcus Speh's use of mediaeval images & characters in 100 days and nights
Catherine Singer Marcus Speh
Julia Davies © 2011
Magpie Days
009. Iceland Next morning when it was light they went to look for runagate men among the isles if any had got away; and each was slain on the spot as he stood. Then earl Einar took to saying these words: “I know not what I see in Rinansey, sometimes it lifts itself up, but sometimes it lays itself down, that is either a bird or a man, and we will go to it.” There they found Halfdan long-leg, and Einar made them carve an eagle on his back with a sword, and cut the ribs all from the backbone, and draw the lungs there out, and gave him to Odin for the victory he had won then Einar sung this: “Man broad-bearded oft is outlawed, Many a one, for stealing sheep; But in isles here I for felling Mighty Harold’s youthful son: Risk hangs o’er me, say the freemen, From the king so courage-full, Harold’s shield I’ve hewn a hole in, None can call that dint in doubt.”
Sunday, May 29th 2011 Julia Davies © 2011
Magpie Days
010. Volcanic Coffee Silvana Mondo's pieces (Fildzana) on Bosnian coffee, the sugar & cream crusts almost volcanic to look at, provided the inspiration for this catch up post.
Silvana Mondo
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
010. Volcanic Coffee cold crusts mask the magma warmth stir here to break apart release through an anti-peristaltic throat.
Monday, May 30th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
011. Patio today's post (& indeed my p art ici patio n in the 100days2011 project) is inspired by Dorothee Lang's "To Look" now to read more at onehundreddays.net and fill in the gaps ;)
Dorothee Lang
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
011. Patio today, blog browsing late to the party the patio of p art ici patio n new burden of expectation 100 days and a backlog burning double ended candle today it rains battering fuchsias I reach outside of myself
Tuesday, May 31st 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
012. Calendar As the mechanical church bells begin their twice-daily more-on-Sundays clanging, I remember to turn over the calendar to the month of June. Unconscious thoughts about passing time aside, I rarely remember to do this on the 1st of the month, something I can only put down to my own inertia since I am usually in possession of a calendar with plenty of beautiful pictures to make changing them a joy. This years calendar is an exclusive, digital prints from Sandra Davies, and as I say goodbye to May's picture I am reminded of the diverse reactions this got as the T10 Canvas challenge (Sandra's favourite piece, by Coraline J Thompson is here). June's picture is a blurred balcony in New Orleans, at night, with Reddy Brek oaty glowing light from the window behind it. My picture today is from Ireland, from the hull of a rusting boat in Connemara, and below, the 6S piece I wrote for it. T10 (thinkingten.com) and more particularly for me 6S (sixsentences.ning.com) have been important playgrounds for practising writing, and I am looking forward to meeting the online voices again this year.
Sandra Davies 6S, T10, HoW
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
012. Calendar Epithelia It is like looking at skin, if the skin was magnified and viewed through brick tinted glasses. It is a boatskin, made of rust and flaky paint; terracotta and pannacotta paint in clotted cream splodges, thick layers on top of each other and the rust crystallising through them. Water gets under the paint and oxygen works its magic, transmuting the steel into ruddy puff pastry. Epidermal rust, skin deep and all of the skin, cellular rust, a ferrous bark. The boat, once an erythrocyte caught in the tidal flow, but now moored up, scabbed and crusted. Dead but resisting disintegration.
Wednesday, June 1st 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
013. Sitting More browsing, more to see, read, mull over. Today I chose a piece from Billie Williams over at billielovesdogs2011.blogspot.com. Confession time? I am a cat person, I guess if I had seen the title of the blog I might not have clicked it, and then I would have missed out on some gorgeous black and white photography. I wanted to start with her shot of encinitas beach; but Tuesday's shot of two chairs caught my eye, reminding me (again) of last years’ visit to New Orleans and making a nice contrast with the silty warm colour of two chairs snapped on Southern Decadence weekend, and a haiku pair below.
Billiew Williams HoW
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
013. Sitting Double Measures sunned whisky and silt muted days, writers bake thoughts into dialogue breezes thread cool gaps through heated conversations, bourbon mellows us
Thursday, June 2nd 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
014. Pooled Light Mindy Bray inspired today's piece with her picture erasure (for kate) below left. The lamp posts in Venice always had an otherwordly quality about them, pink, no, rose coloured glass, as if the surroundings needed to be further prettified. Also, Amrita Mishra's day 10 piece inspired me to comment about men who visit... and that got developed further into the poem below.
Amrita Mishra Mindy Bray
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
014. Pooled Light You walked with me to my door, afterwards. I glowed with pink prosecco, feeling mysterious in the fog, and daring too. Thrilled to have seized the day, to have lived in those moments with you. Your breath tickled against my ear, kissing my cheek goodnight. I did not understand, not then, that you were one of those men who came only to visit, never to stay.
Friday, June 3rd 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
015. Roiling This wonderful piece from Claudine Metrick caught my eye, speaking to me of dark and distant horizons, roiling atmosphere, somehow a journey. My picture, an variation/extract from "Gone Surfing"
Claudine Mettrick
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
015. Roiling I did not need even a raft on this journey. The sea was as flat as the beach, as flat as the horizon, you could walk on it for miles. Leave it. Not warm, but the chill of the water was invigorating, not for me a somnambulist suicide. Walk briskly to the distant islands poking up like bubbles. So wet already, what can a mere storm do to me now? Embrace it. Take me up into the clouds and smear me across new horizons.
Saturday, June 4th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
016. Celebrating Forgive me, for the rushed post (no poem, purple prose today), just two images. I am having a long weekend in Berlin with family & friends, and am sunburned and walked out but loving it so much. Today's inspiring image comes from Carol Mack (Day 14, Fiber of Urban Life), and my juxtaposition is of graffiti from Tacheles, Berlin; which reminded me of fabric. TschuĂ&#x;!
Carol Mack
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
016. Celebrating Hot days, cold wine, warm friendships, wonderful parents; all take the edge off the big fouroh...
Sunday, June 5th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
017. Blocks Janelle Stone again provided an image which chimed exactly with the things I was seeing around me in Berlin, her "construction" below left with its subtle shadows and grey tones was in my head when I saw the "Denkmal fĂźr die ermordeten Juden Europas" on a scorching hot Saturday. A controversial monument, its scale is the immediately impressive thing about it, but being able to walk into the middle of the field of blocks, see the undulating ground beneath and feel each block has been placed just so, that creeps up on you and makes you contemplate...
Janelle Stone
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
017. Blocks you pile
things on me
think my corners should where
be smoothed is
my space? Postscript: At 21:44, 6th June, I "murdered" my cat Seville after a sudden illness
Monday, June 6th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
018. I want a fluffy kitten tree Brendan Ford's day 14 piece is the one that speaks to me, an extract from his "Blackouts" below.
Brendan Ford
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
018. I want a fluffy kitten tree for some, life does stop i wish i could have planted him grown another one maybe it would take the edge off being the one who said yes, kill him or, to sound nicer put him to sleep
Tuesday, June 7th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
019. Space The space of absence surrounds me. Last night I cleared out the toys, baskets, cushions he used; emptied the litter tray (and who would have ever thought it would be possible to get emotional about yellowed silicate with the odd dried out turd in it?) I am so glad I had found this project far enough ahead of Monday for me to have something to focus on, to subtly finger into my mind and hold off the imagined flickers of moving orange at the corner of my perception. Even if the absence spills over here, as in the picture I chose today from Billie Williams again - Sunset Beach; positioned opposite a Rothko-esque expanse of wet sand and wet sky on the north-east coast of England. You might not recognise it as the same beach as Gone Surfing from day 015 - the wonders of photoshop (to reflect Dorothee Lang's musings in Day 19)
Billie Williams Dorothee Lang
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
019. Space
N O T (t)here
Wednesday, June 8th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
020. Folie à Deux The talented Nicolette Wong has long been a must-read writer for me, particularly her blog "Meditations in an Emergency", and she is also participating in the 100 days project with "Le bleu de ciel" I am always in awe of her words, and the way they send my thoughts spinning, skittering... Today’s effort is inspired by her day 16 post "Folly".
Nicolette Wong
Julia Davies © 2011
Magpie Days
020. Folie à Deux I love you You love me? Yes I don’t feel it... [Silence] How can I tell? Can’t you tell? I want to love you. But you don’t? I don’t know...
Thursday, June 9th 2011 Julia Davies © 2011
Magpie Days
021. Fire Today, Sina Bo Bina of 100daysofsun.blogspot.com provided the inspiration with a fluid, spilling fiery piece called Fire in Mind. She shows us two pictures, steps in the creative process, and I love the first version, for me it has more energy than the later one. My piece alongside comes from a 2x 6 haiku set called Robbed & Mugged written in 2010. The haiku for the piece is also strangely apt today; relationships never seem to tie off neatly.
Sina Evans
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
021. Fire Repeated goodbyes touched to fiery sparks, puddled blisters left to heal.
Friday, June 10th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
022. Flowers With Valerie Brodie's unfurling unfolding rose in my minds eye, I bought flowers in the market this morning. The cobblestones and pavements are at last beginning to be replaced after the market square has been half dug up for what seems like months. Fine grit gets into my open toed sandals. Orange lilies for Seville. Which led me back to Katie Bentley's Rose Cathedral. Growth and death; beauty and religion. My thoughts are too convoluted for straight words today.
Katie Bentley Valerie Hamilton
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
022. Flowers Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these [...] Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. This bible quote seems a fine exhortation of passivity, and is followed up with the suggestive phrase "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," with its hints that thinking about tomorrow today allows evil to spill over into the future. For God's sake little children, do not think about the future or you will ruin it. To be blunt, it's not pleasant to think that Seville is a corpse, that we will all be corpses in the future; but not thinking about it seems to be a case of wilful self-delusion. Blind faith if you will.
Saturday, June 11th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
023. Here Be Dragons I was inspired today (again) by Catherine Singer's Icelandic pictures (I have to ration myself or half of my posts would be on Iceland too); and also Barbara Laucius's beach pictures, of broken down driftwood, entitled Beach Worn. Taking Staffa (day 21) into the mix also, along with the eye-shaped curves in Carianne Garside's days 20-22, and admiring the word "basalt", the heaviness and solidity of it, the shiny wet blackness...
Barbara Laucius Carianne Garside Catherine Singer
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
023. Here Be Dragons Breaking the surface, basalt scales drip, dully sheened; sun warming anthracite back. Flex wing muscles, expecting a geological grinding, but silent. Earthbound in the step-off point between sea and layered airs, leap to regain fluidity. Somersaults of pewter, tumbling your buildings.
Sunday, June 12th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
024. Cinderella Marcus Speh's collaboration with his daughter has led to some deft myth-making in the retelling of fairy stories, and I picked his Day 13 post as today's inspiration; cheating slightly again by drawing on a Fairy Tale collection I did in 2010. Perhaps that is part of being a magpie, getting the shiny things out of the cupboard and looking at them again, maybe in a new light, maybe displaying them for new friends to see
Marcus Speh
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
024. Cinderella In the old days, they wanted me to make then look rich and pretty so they could catch the eye of someone rich, naive and influential. Simpler times, blonde ambition reached no further than catching their prince and having their dream day in the whitest frilliest of dresses with the envious crowds looking on. It's easier for them now of course, the thirst for fame is as strong, if not stronger than the hunger for a fairytale wedding. Easier for me too, even those that still believe in me I send away from my door. I am getting too old to be moved by all of those bright eager faces, and besides the fad these days is for self-belief, not belief in magic. If they don't have that in spades the reality shows will grind them up anyway, just as surely as the days of domestic boredom drove the Cinderellas to become manipulative politicking courtiers. Now, where's an old woman to get a nice cup of tea from? I call out to Charlotte, still as ugly as ever, to bring me refreshments and hand me the remote control. Britain's Got Talent is just starting...
Monday, June 13th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
025. U/S Bahn Rifling through other peoples blogs, sticky fingered, I happened on the image below from Bruce Spear, and stuck, happy to be reminded of the recent weekend in Berlin. Although wandering round like a tourist, with my camera dangling from my wrist (as I was a tourist) for some reason I did not take a picture of the ubiquitous patterned glass in the U-Bahn trains, although I wanted to. Thinking of the U-Bahns going over ground and the S-Bahns going underground, and trying not to think of Wombles. Think of journeys, fictions. The vanishing point of a railway platform.
Bruce Spear
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
025. U/S Bahn Kicking at the floor with the thickened rubber at your toes. You would pace if you thought you could get away with it. I look at my feet too, between my knees, the metal grille chair pushing puckers into the backs of my thighs. Your train will come first, the signs say, in 6min, a plastic yellow glow against the black background. 9min for me. Dazed. I would have thought we should have something to say to each other. But then I thought what we did should have felt more, more of something. Intimate, yeah, that's the word. My head hangs and you don't lift it. The air pushes ahead of the train and we fumble for each others hands. Warm still, your fingers. You stand at the doorway as it slides past you shut. Make a "Call You" sign and then you slide away. If my train had come first you would have made me get on it. You are curving smaller, out of reach, into the dark. You are on the circle line. How long will I have to wait for you to come around again?
Tuesday, June 14th 2011 Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
100 days 2011 Q1: Acknowledgements 6S Amrita Mishra Barbara Laucius Billie Williams Brendan Ford Bruce Spear Carianne Garside Carol Mack Catherine Singer Claudine Mettrick Dorothee Lang Fran Forman HoW Janelle Stone Katie Bentley Marcus Speh Mindy Bray Nicolette Wong Sandra Davies Silvana Mondo Sina Evans Steve Veilleus T10 Valerie Hamilton YB Poetry
http://sixsentences.ning.com/ http://tattelleteller.wordpress.com/ http://bearbonesart.blogspot.com/ http://billielovesdogs2011.blogspot.com/ http://fordworks.wordpress.com/ http://bruiser100.tumblr.com/ http://cariannemackgarside.wordpress.com/ http://mackdailyfiber.wordpress.com/ http://catherinesinger.wordpress.com/ http://claudine100days.blogspot.com/ http://100parts.wordpress.com/ http://franforman.blogspot.com/ http://issuu.com/pompetous/docs/hows_of_the_rising_sun http://100snapsots2011.blogspot.com/ http://snowbirdbentley.blogspot.com/ http://100daysandnights.tumblr.com/ http://tenweeks.typepad.com/100days/ http://lebleuduciel100.blogspot.com/ http://sandra-linesofcommunication.blogspot.com/ http://stofildzana100days2011.blogspot.com/ http://100daysofsun.blogspot.com/ http://100days2011.blogspot.com/ http://www.thinkingten.com/ http://valeriehamiltonbrodie.com/ http://ybpoetry.wordpress.com/
Julia Davies Š 2011
Magpie Days
Julia Davies Š 2011