Elmbridge Commendation
My story ‘The Devil’s Dance’ was commended in the 2023 Elmbridge Literary Competition! It will be published on the RC Sherriff website in April.
My story ‘The Devil’s Dance’ was commended in the 2023 Elmbridge Literary Competition! It will be published on the RC Sherriff website in April.
I didn’t know much about Donatello before this, but it seems he is notable in several ways. A pioneer of free-standing bronze sculpture, responsible for some of the first since classical antiquity. An influential creator whose designs and methods were widely copied. And the master of rilievo schiacciato, flattened relief, in which a 3-d image is carved within a few millimetres of depth (the difference in the levels in some of these works must be fractions of a millimetre).
Donatello’s most famous work, his sinuous nude David, is represented here only by a copy. But we have the completely puzzling Attis-Amorino, an ecstatic cherub-like figure who wears droopy leggings off a big belt. He is trampling serpents, and has both wings and a small satyr’s tail as well as wearing poppies. He represents something, but exactly what is unclear…
Here is a look at writing competitions I might enter during the coming month (so no poetry or competitions that are not open to UK writers, for example).
If you enter any of these and win (or get anywhere), do let me know!
When we had fitted wardrobes done, we got a square sample of the wood used. It seemed a shame to throw it away, so I’ve added a mirror. The ‘floral’ swags on the corners are cut out of old cans and painted – they sort of pick up a motif from the curtains (or anyway that was the intention). I wasn’t sure acrylic paint would stick, but it seems fine.
There has been a bit of a fashion lately for shows where an artist’s works are projected at huge size on the walls and floors. The Hockney one at Lightroom (‘Bigger and Closer, not smaller and further away’) is the first I know of where the artist is alive and actively involved in the show. Hockney, of course, has always been up for using technology, whether cameras or more recently iPads.
This show amounts to a guide or commentary to all the different periods of his career, narrated by the man himself. I thought a few things worked particularly well – watching the construction of some paintings, joining in his ‘Wagner Ride’ and animations of his set designs (he has apparently suggested the Lightroom set up could be used to stage a short opera).
It’s lucky that Hockney is good at explaining his views on perspective, say, or the representation of time. He tells us how much he liked it being always warm and sunny in L.A., but he also says there is no bad weather. (‘If it’s raining, I’ll paint the rain: if it’s snowing, I’ll paint the snow. All of the world is beautiful, really, but people don’t look at it.)
I’ve fallen a bit behind with my reviews, but I have to say a belated word about ‘Famous Puppet Death Scenes’ by the Old Trout Puppet Workshop from Canada. It is indeed essentially a puppet show with a series of death scenes showing off a range of jokes and ingenious stunts. You could call the style Gothic Absurd, perhaps: supposedly the sponsor, a puppet himself, has put together for our edification these celebrated death scenes, culminating in his own. The series is loosely bound together by some repeated motifs, especially a number of extracts from that seminal work The Feverish Heart by Nordo Frot.
The pieces are funny and ingenious (sometimes you may suspect a bit has found its way into the show because it’s such an amusing idea, rather than because it fits the theme brilliantly, but hey, what’s wrong with that?) and actually have some genuine shock value. You won’t expect deep philosophy, but things are rounded out with a little moral reflection, delivered as snappily as the rest. If this show or this group ever come your way, give it a try.
Sutton Writers has renamed its annual competition after Ann Pattison, a stalwart of the group who passed away recently. This year there had to be a link with St Mary’s church in Beddington, and they introduced separate categories for poetry and prose. I won the poetry (but not the overall trophy)! Maybe I should give poetry more of a try…
Here is a look at writing competitions I might enter which have deadlines in the coming month (so no poetry or flash, for example).
All the rest have a deadline of 31 March.
Good luck if you enter any of these; if you get anywhere, please do let me know.
At Sutton Central Library where Sutton Writers launched not one, but two anthologies: House of Stories (fiction) and Without Boundaries (poems). Among many excellent readings, I did the beginning of my story ‘Stairway to Heaven’, which is in the former.