Inspiration shared

When looking at the work of Turner Prize shortlisted artist Lubaina Hamid (first seen this year in Eirene's blog) I saw much that attracts me.  And I see that we are both lovers of Picasso's glorious frontcloth (below), designed for the Ballets Russes.

(image above from this article)
Since I first saw it I have always been drawn to this great painting, not only for its immediate expression of friendship and exuberance, but also for the ambiguity of emotion it also seems to contain - the more I look, the more I see.

Lubaina Hamid: Freedom and Change (images from here)

As Eirene's photos show, Hamid's appropriation of the figures adds the delightful hounds, and the perhaps not so delightful onlooking men.  My own appropriation for a quilt made in 2007 crops the original to the upper body of the left hand woman, and I took her off the beach and put her in the sea.  I wish that I had the space to have this piece hanging because it pleases me still, even after all these years.

A big splash 2007 145x107cm

It is always a pleasure to see that someone else - whose work I admire greatly - has also been inspired by a piece which inspired my own creative juices to flow.

There are Guardian newspaper articles about Lubaina Himid here, and here, and here, and here.

Explanation or excuse?

Several years ago, when my nephews were young they used to spend every summer with my parents, and I would take them all on outings.  One such was to a nearby bird world.  Weather-wise it was a rather drizzly day, so many of the birds - especially those from warm climes - looked miserable.
There were not many photo opportunities, but I was struck by the sculptural form of the northern bald ibis on a boat.

I found this photo the other day, and was struck again by the attractiveness of the bird's form as well as by its apparent look of total misery.  Of course I am probably anthropomorphising its mood, as other photos I have seen do not show it looking much different.  But even so, when I think about what we humans are doing to so many environments in the name of progress, but really perhaps it turns out only for the comfort of a few - in which I count myself - I wonder how we would start to account for our actions.

Nature of course is well known for being raw in tooth and claw - it's just that we humans get the prize for having pursued this beyond any wildest dreams.  While I was thinking over how one could begin to explain ourselves to our fellow inhabitants of the planet, I came up with an image using the ibis.