At 5am this morning I was wide awake, lying listening to the rain and instead of cursing the jet lag I was quietly pleased to be awake to hear it. It was such a gentle, soothing sound, familiar and yet new for a new day, simple pleasures. Last night before I went to bed I caught a copy of this picture. Isn't it stunning? Not being able to see things as much as we would like only heightens the anticipation and I hope to see these again soon. Yesterday I read a wonderful quote on art by a Guardian critic, "The making of art happens not in a temple but in the mess of real flesh-and-blood lives and loves." What he was essentially saying was that art is not there to be worshiped but appreciated, blood, sweat, tears and all as part of the human condition. These Kelpies are awesome concepts but they are also a testimony to Scottish industry and represent much more than the view they have created. Kelpies were working horses along the Scottish canals, and those canals represented industry, steel and coal and engineering and a pre-Thatcher world when Scotland made things in an industrial age. My own father worked as a miner and the world was a different place then. The place I grew up in now hosts the Scottish Mining Museum instead of the pits the men worked in. Of course, it 's easy to be nostalgic, my Dad doesn't miss it, the noise, the grime, the back breaking work but the closures had a huge impact on the community - and still does. Sometimes we have to view art in the temples dedicated to display, like the Tate or the Metropolitan and spending time in the Metropolitan (for example) tends to mean a whizz around because its such a rare opportunity to even get to New York. I am trying to address this problem for myself by taking things in in small measures and I hope to be able to see the Byrne exhibition in Edinburgh soon. But its a conscious battle against the rigours of life and we have to remember the life that helped produce it. And that is what I was thinking as I sipped early grey tea and composed this morning's ten minute post - and the moon is a blind eye:
