quidnovis61

Foedus sed meus est......It's ugly but it's mine....(Huh??)

So, tell me...
Is it just me....or are there more folks out there that feel the same way?

A long time ago a good friend of mine told me when we were talking various 
things,"If its ugly, its true" and I must say, I have been pondering about that 
ever since... and the more I ponder the more sense it makes these days. 
Now, I am not talking about modernism or Dadaism or Surrealsim or even 
post modernism....this is some kind of waaaay-beyond-
post-modernism...

 

 


      


 
The art scene of the twentieth century IS ugly...there is no doubt there. 
What I am thinking of is not really the fact that it is ugly or that a mere 
4 year old could have done it better etc. What I am trying to get at is to 
reflect on why art turned to this raw cynical cruel meaningless macabre 
horrendous form of expression. From private art to public art, in 
mass media and fashion, in illustrations for childrens books...art 
seems to strive for a base and trivial concept leaving a rather bad taste 
in the mouth afterward.








 

 




Somewhere around the mid and end of the 1800s the world of Art 
started to change - slowly. I have often wondered why. Could it be 
that Man's thought process underwent a radical change, there was
 an advent of pessimistic philosophies revolutions of the 
technological/industrial kind that made people feel a sense of 
non-humanity and that was reflected in art? Beauty and sensual realsim 
that was so much the hallmark of art, seemed to have vanished. 
Instead it was replaced by a non escapist stark reality almost to the 
point of being brutal. Is art then a sign of the times - a Zeitgeist in 
the world of art? A "quest for truth" as one feels it is? In that case I 
must use the words decaying, horrifying, turbulent, depressing and 
pessimistic to describe art. 
 

Duchamp in the early 1900s quite shocked the world by his art (specially 
the Fountain - a urinal) and things have not gotten any better. 

In short - ugly. Once more..... 

Wherever one goes, what one reads or sees - it is amazing to see 
mans preoccupation with the ugly. And somewhere in the depths of my 
being I shudder to think that the truth really is in the changing face of our 
world... it is going from beauty to ugly and the trend in all the spheres of 
our lives is gravitating towards the pessimistic. And we must await a 

Renaissance - of Mind, Body and Soul to turn this around. It is like turning 
the Titanic at a drop of a hat and just as improbable. 



 
But we will wait. 



 
Wait in the sidelines. 
On grassy spots on the edge of the road. 
On the pavements of our lives. 

Wait for The Renaissance.
The impressionists. The sensuous, pastoral, passionate realists....... 
Natural Art like Dürer's Large Turf  (1504...see below) - like photography - 
but with brush strokes rather than with the  shutter.


   

 

 


Lifting our senses. Filling life with beauty. Giving art another dimension 
and meaning. Bombarding our lives with peaceful
brush and pen strokes once again. 


 
Yes, we will wait. 
-
-
-
(Do we have a choice?)
 

Prickles has been "OUR" hedgehog for a number of years now. He comes every summer from Somewhere and every autumn he goes Somewhere. On warm evenings in late May we sit in our glassed in Sun Lounge drinking tea. The Scandinavian sun sets late at night and we are able to enjoy the sights and smells and sounds of our garden, very late in the night.  Suddenly one hears the distinctive shuffle-shuffle and snuffle-snuffle. And then we know...Summer is here to stay - Prickles is back! just like all the rest of our bird and animal friends. Mr and Mrs Singh our blackbird couple, Mr and Mrs Wagtail who nest on our roof, Gregory Peck our woodPECKer giving himself quite a migraine sometimes by mistaking the street lamp post for a birch tree and making such a noise! And Bob-Robin who spends his time on our garden bench sunning himself under the apple tree. Dear Lucy and all her deer friends who dare to come in the early mornings to forage for fresh juicy grass and other deer-snacks. And of course Harry the Hare and his friends...

This summer I have taken quite a few pictures of Prickles. He has been rather bold and brave and did not scuttle away into the undergrowth at the sight of my Olympus - but instead stayed put and almost seemed to smile at my camera and twinkle with his intelligent black eyes.

     
(Prickles under the apple tree)



   

In Sweden, hedgehogs are actually protected by law. You are not allowed to catch or (naturally) hurt them. If we find hurt or underweight hedgehogs out during winter then we may take care of them of course until they can be returned to Nature. I read in the newspaper of a couple who were driving south towards Gothenburg and found a few young hedgehog by the roadside, their mother unfortunately killed in traffic, The couple picked up the young ones and drove nearly 20 kms out of their way to a pet clinic to leave the hedgehogs in protection and care before driving back again towards Gothenburg. I was happy and touched to read that in the newspaper - it certainly gave a much-needed balance in the otherwise violent-war-torn world we live in.

I have read that hedgehogs have changed very little over 13 million years. It is mindboggling. They are nocturnal and live on various insects and are by far the most eco-friendly insecticide one can think of.  Etymologically, the name 'hedgehog' is derived from Middle English and came into use about 1450. As the name aptly suggests it is from Middle English "hegge" which is hedge; and "hogge" which is hog - as it has a snout rather like a pig.

All hedgehogs are nocturnal but some, like Prickles, who is a European species, can come out in the late evening or at sundown and keep close to bushes, hedges, dead leaves and one hears the sudden rustle in the foliage and then you know...! In the harsh winters of Northern Europe they hibernate all winter - P.O is rather jealous of Prickles. He would like nothing better than to duck under the quilt and not have to surface until the pale warmth of spring....

This winter we are certainly blessed!!

A few weeks ago I was autumn-cleaning our open garage (a car port) and found a plastic shopping bag lying under the shelves where we have a few garden and car knick knacks, winter tyres, flower pots and so on. So I pulled it out and the bag got sort of stuck under the shelves and so I tugged it a bit harder to see what was in the bag and to my utter amazement, when I lifted it up and looked inside I found....PRICKLES - all curled up into a tight ball of quills and snuffling rather disapprovingly at me for spoiling his diurnal snooze! He had apparently found a dark cozy place under the shelves and a warm home in the bag...although one does question his intelligence at his choice of home being a plastic bag... but I soundly believe in the democratic right to choose our living quarters...so I left the bag open on the ground hoping that I had not hurt him - and that he would crawl out and find a better place to rest all winter.

After a couple of hours I went to check again and the second surprise of the day lay in store for me. The plastic bag was gone! Amazed yet again I went to the shelf and looked underneath...lo and behold! There was the bag! Prickles had crawled right back again taking his plastic home with him - and there he is till today.

I am sure he is out at night in the dark, foraging for food and just like in a fairy tale, at day break he is back again in his plastic home sleeping in the dark corner of our car port. Yes, we know he is there...there are tiny droppings in front of the car. It will all be part of the spring cleaning of our car port in April 2009.

Yes, I feel so blessed.....