The Dry Stone Walls of Cape Wrath, Scotland

…of the stones. Other words come to mind. Resilience. Permanence. Balance. Complexity. This is beautiful stuff on a major scale. I find a little bonus to looking closely at these walls. Over hundreds of years each plays host to its own ecosystem of lichen, moss, grass, bracken, spiders, mice and beetles. However, it is more than the the skill required to build these dry stone walls, their beauty and their place in nature that I dwell on. It is als… Continue reading

The knives of Blackbird Valley

…nd see it slicing through the skin of a ripe tomato. The knives of Blackbird Valley raise the whole question of aesthetics and function and the aesthetics of function. These are beautifully crafted objects without doubt; but the perception of beauty comes from picking them up, turning them in one’s hand and imagining their use. They become beautiful objects when looked at in terms of their potential function. The Blackbird Valley forge is worth a… Continue reading

“Wandering the Immeasurable” by Gayle Hermick

…ontinues “I was enthralled with the beautiful but impenetrable equations accompanying every article I researched.” She tells me that whilst the inspiration for “Wandering the Immeasurable” was sparked by her 2005 visit to CERN, the visual concept came from the multicultural nature of CERN as an institution, its scientific goals, its educational goals and, by her own admission, her ignorance and confusion about contemporary physicists and theories…. Continue reading