Thursday 17 August 2017

Wolf spirit haunts Bath street


Between showers and between being wet and being dry, the road outside is trying to convince me it is made of lizard, shark or dinosaur skin.

It has been quite a few years since I have made any figurative sculpture, but now I remember how you start to see everything in sculptural terms when trying to come up with solutions to 3D representational problems. Currently, it is pheasant's legs. Have you ever looked closely at the skin on the legs of a pheasant? The link between dinosaurs and birds becomes much clearer when you do.

When I was carving life-sized classical figures, I would find myself staring intently at the curve of a woman's arm at a party or wherever. When I was carving women's backsides, I was amazed at how much information I could effortlessly draw on which I had gathered over the years for other reasons.

Sometimes I overtake a woman in the street and recognise her from behind as someone I saw a few days ago, purely from the shape of her arse. I am good at retaining some information and very bad at others. I routinely correctly guess the nationality of women by the shape of their arses. The Spanish have the most distinct and easy to identify backsides.

I cannot remember the name of the autistic kid who was spotted by a famous British architect for having a truly photographic memory for architecture. He liked buildings.

His parents first noticed his prodigious skill after taking him out one day when he saw a large building which impressed him. When he got home he decided to draw it. It was correct in every minute detail.

The architect made a TV documentary with the boy, and in it he takes him to a few large London buildings. The boy looked at them - rather casually - for a matter of seconds, then went back to the office to reproduce them in pencil on paper. Every crocket, every pinnacle, every window and every detail was remembered and put down, the exact number of windows and precise juxtapositions in perfect scale to each other.

Ok, I know a woman's backside isn't quite as complex as Kings Cross Station, but there is more going on than just a couple of buns stuck next to each other.

Now here's a strange thing. Yesterday I heard the sound of a child howling like a wolf, and I looked out to see a young Arab boy with his lips pursed, howling into the sky as his parents made a phone call.

Just now I heard the same noise and I looked out expecting to see the same lad, but there was a young girl of the same age, making the same noise in the same place as she walked with her parents.

I might go down and see if I am affected by some sort wolf presence on that spot, but I think you probably have to be a child.

30 comments:

  1. The boy was, and still is, Stephen Wiltshire.

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    1. Stephen Wiltshire, yes. Not a boy anymore though.

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    2. I agree about pheasant's legs and have always marvelled at what you describe when in the process of plucking and dressing one.

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    3. I think the architect was Hugh Casson.

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  2. It would be interesting to see the pheasant legs skin as fractals.
    Greetings Maria x

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    1. Fractals are geometric patterns that repeat themselves at smaller scales within the same pattern over and over again. Some examples in nature of this is the snow flake, fern leaves, nautilus shell.
      X

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  3. Looks like a microscope stain. Love the kids howling. I had to go up to a horse once and explain to its owner why I was looking between its back legs.

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    1. Because you needed to know the time and you could see the village church clock between its legs?

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    2. No, I was doing a life-sized sculpture of a yearling and needed to see the curves.

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  4. Best line of the year

    Ok, I know a woman's backside isn't quite as complex as Kings Cross Station, but there is more going on than just a couple of buns stuck next to each

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  5. Ha! Now you can add something else to your blog heading. Not only are you a "Purveyor of Bollocks to the Crowned Heads of Europ" but you are also 'Pretty good with buns'.

    Please do investigate that howling thing. I'd be interested to know the outcome.

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  6. Howlin' Wolves of the animal type were recently re-introduced into The Pyrenees at huge cost. The farmers shot them all; I fear for your howlin' children.

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  7. Seeing the pavement and what ypu said reminds me as a child I used to see a different story in my bedroom curtains of leaf patterns everynight.

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  8. I would love to see a post with some of your work.

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  9. As an American woman I am relieved that you did not say how distinctive our butts are, because I'm sure their girth is a dead give-away. (BTW, I might be American but I have a French ass.)

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    1. The U.S. does not have the monopoly on arse-girth. Everywhere else in Europe now can match.

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  10. Can you overtake a man in the street and recognise him from behind in the same way or is it just women ? I have a feeling that you are an aficiinonado when it comes to women's backsides !!! XXXX

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  11. I have an old calendar of French rugby players on our kitchen wall. It's open at a photo of several delicious butts.

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    1. Oh yessss! It's usually covered by the current year calendar of Bondi Beach. But that is occasionally removed to add appointments etc. Sometimes I want to lick them. But Mr G moves me away. He's such a spoilsport.

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  12. My reply button has broken so I cannot react directly to comments this morning. Maybe later.

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