advent preview pics...

taken by barnaby aldrick

for images of the some of the other work in the show and the preview itself, try the exhibition blog.

lows, highs

friday was a huge day.

up early and on the train down to london and the swedish church for bodge's funeral.

it was heartbreaking. beautifully led by the vicar there, but devastatingly sad and absolutely tragic.
it's a swedish custom for the congregation to pay their respects at the end of the service by each laying a flower on the coffin at the front.
it's an incredibly powerful and painful thing to do, but in the face of such a terrible loss, i'm glad we were there to do it.
afterwards we shared a table and swedish cakes & chocolates with aila and leiva. there's so much of bodge there in their personalities, so much mischief and warmth. they're beautiful kids.


then a quick dash back to kings cross for the return journey up to leeds for the advent private view.

the opening evening of the exhibition was everything we'd hoped it might be, and then some. despite a last-minute wobble when i'd convinced meself that no-one would come, we had about 200 folk through the show during the evening and the feedback was incredibly positive. gav, lloydy cat and nic had got left bank looking amazing, and the artists had all really stepped up to the mark with their work. it was just great.

[...pictures to follow as soon as i can get hold of some...]

no words

we've had some well-meaning friends trying to offer us some words of consolation over bodge's death, and i love them for the intention.
but don't tell me that we can be happy that he's in a better place now. don't tell me that he wouldn't want us to be sad for too long. don't tell me that there's some higher purpose in his passing. just don't.

today i went down to see towe. and on the way i thought long and hard about what i wanted to say to her.
there were some heartfelt, honest, truthful things that i worked out, but when i got there, and in the shadow of that huge loss, those things that i tried to say were pitiful and small and insignificant. still true and utterly from the heart, but useless and dwarfed by the absolute desolation he's left behind.
when it comes down to it, like job's friends in the old testament story, there's only silence and weeping for times like this. no words.

bitter perfume

my piece for the advent exhibition.
not sure if i'm happy with it or not - i probably need some distance from it, but won't have time for that now [we start to hang the work on sunday...]
it's informed by the verse from 'we three kings' - "myrrh is mine/it's bitter perfume/ breathes a life of gathering gloom/ sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying/ sealed in the stone cold tomb"

not the jolliest of christmas sentiments, but there you go...

remembering bodge blog...

...here.
a place to post your memories, tributes and photos...
[email me if you have something that you like to put up there on the site and i'll sign you in as an author. or you can just leave a message in the comments on any post we make]

bodge in 1998

pic of bodge from sue's 30th in 1998.

still can't believe he's gone.

bodge

bodge hollows died suddenly yesterday afternoon. we're still in a state of disbelief. he was only five years older than me. 48 is no age to go.
not sure what else to write except that we were tremendously fortunate to have known him. i don't have the words to express this.

[pic is of something joe made in blu-tac on his bed headboard last night]

more bbc stuff...

...our exhibition gets a nice plug here!

a good thing...

george lamb's off... lauren laverne's in.
and i can start listening to 6music in the mornings again... :-)

stuff i've been working on...

this one above was going to have an air ambulance in it - i even got sent some awesome reference by the heroic ianbee - but i couldn't get the composition to work and sadly ended up drawing a police 'copter instead... [sorry ian!]










[...the pencil roughs are always more satisfying to look at than the finished artwork...]