The Woodshed

Dad, i miss you.

Perhaps the first in a series where I share some of the fine art I created whilst in my younger years. I am always aware of balance or lack of it. The yin and the yang. Good and evil. Light and dark. Male and female. I wanted to create a piece that left the viewer feeling moved - perhaps even uncomfortable – and chose to portray an image of the horned god (who, in common Wiccan belief, is associated with nature, wilderness, sexuality, hunting and the life cycle) in a tender embrace with the goddess. So those less informed may feel uneasy but cannot ignore the sense of devotion, love and tenderness. Im happy with the way it turned out. Hands and feet are a real challenge and I think I could have done better with the detail (her feet are off camera for this very reason ... hehe). It's pastel on card. 1987. Rhodes University, free study. I've dedicated it to @mandybryce on our 10 Anniversary 12 May 2011.

It's been over four years since I started blogging. Can you believe it. I chose to call my blog 'The Woodshed' for a very simple reason: everyone deserves one. The reason I gave over four years ago still stands today. And that's what I love about intuition. If you listen to it you wont have to change your mind down the line. + Wednesday, January 18, 2006 Why "The Woodshed"? Because everybody deserves one. Let me explain. The notion of The Woodshed was first introduced to me in John Kao's 1997 book Jamming where he discusses the art and discipline of business creativity. Something that's very close to my heart. In Chapter 5 he discusses the need for clearing a space for creativity and introduces the reader to Charlie Parker's woodshed. Or, more specifically, whenever the great sax player needed to work out new musical concepts, he would withdraw from the usual people, places and things and "go to the woodshed". This may seem an odd phrase,

My Mom and Mauritz bought me 'Hitchhiker' for my birthday on the 1 February. It's the biography of Douglas Adams: Genius. Legend. Notorious misser of deadlines. I was fortunate enough to meet him in London at a book signing many, many years ago. Told him I was a hitchhiker. My bum was shaking. He was a gentle, tall, solid man with a broad friendly welcoming grin. He asked me whereabouts I had hiked from ... I said "Cape Town". He said, "you're a far way from home". He signed my 3 copies of Mostly Harmless . I told him that I had my towel and my peanuts. He laughed and shook my hand. It was magnificent. Almost 10 years later (he died, tragically, on 11 May 2001), I am deep into his life story, thanks to the book. One of the gems so far include his time at Brentwood. A boarding college he attended that afforded him the opportunity to write. A professor at the time awarded him 10/10 for a literary piece he delivered ... commenting that it was "tech