Seduction by Stacey Clarke

 

I haven't updated this blog in a little while as I am writing another blog about my travels around cornwall at http://www.cornishblog.com but I thought I would just add a recent painting I have done which I am entering into a competition from Artists and Illustrators magazine.  1st prize in the competition is represention by a top London gallery, 2nd place is to have your work shown in Dulwich gallery, either prize would be fantastic therefore I went to extra effort to paint the still life painting above. 
I'm very pleased with the final piece as it made me realise that I am actually quite good at painting when I take my time and put my mind to what I am doing.  I usually spend 10 hours on a painting, but this one took 2 days as I tried very hard to follow the artistic rules of composition when I set the scene and took extra care and attention on the initial drawing before I started to paint.
Fingers crossed that it's a winner.

There's a place, keeps on calling me...

My blog has moved here for the next 6months as I am currently travelling around Cornwall in a motorhome in the hope that my new businesses will take off and I will find my dream home.
Here's wishing.
Click on the picture below to be taken straight there, no messing

Daily Blog - Day 4 - There are no problems, only solutions yet to be found

So I realise that it's incredibly empty to be angry about something and moan about something if you have no solution to it, so here's my ideas on a solution to this rubbish problem.

At the end of the day people need to be taught, it's all well and good picking up after people all of the time and I have a lot of respect for people who do that, but that doesn't solve anything, that just covers up the problem.
In all honesty it's the birds, animals and fish, who have to live on the planet with us that I am concerned for.  They have no voice and they don't know they are swimming in polluted water and how it will affect them, they don't know that it would be a good idea to move and you can't tell them because Dr Dolittle doesn't exist.  Birds, animals and fish have no choice in what goes on.
Humans on the other hand, do, we understand what pollution does to the planet and everything that lives on the planet, but we ignore it, we choose not to listen and do nothing about it.


The canadian geese (which are supposed to be protected!) are currently sat on their eggs.

 When these cute little fellas emerge

shortly followed by these cute little fellas

they will have to swim in this...

I wonder what the death rate will be and if any of them will survive, not only do they have to try to survive against predators, but they also have to try to survive against us and our ignorance and laziness.  I don't rate their chances.

I strongly believe education is the key and I don't mean someone from the Waterways, RSPB or Keep Britain Tidy visiting schools once a year, or once every few years, I mean getting people doing stuff.

Little kids, turn into big kids, who turn into adults and they don't seem to be taught at home, therefore we start with little kids and teach them.  

You could explain it to them, but people don't listen much when you explain things, I know I don't, so it needs to be an active thing.  I say get kids at primary school picking up litter for 30mins everyday in the playground.  

Little kids will be picking up little kids litter, so we don't need to worry about dirty needles, used condoms, broken glass or other vile things like that, it will be perfectly safe.  The teacher or dinner ladies could always go around 1st and get rid of anything that will harm.  I imagine the kids will mostly be picking up empty plastic bottle, sweet wrappers and things like that, I may be naive, but I don't see why there would be any different type of litter in a little kids playground.

Obviously kids aren't going to want to do that, UNLESS, they have their own special decorated protective gloves and aprons to wear.  If they spend a lesson playing with glue and decorating their gloves and aprons with sparkly things and drawing all over them in bright colours then they will want to put their gloves and aprons on and they will want to go outside and pick things up.  If picking up litter isn't seen as a punishment and it is seen as fun and something that you get to do if you are 'special' then kids will want to do it, what kid doesn't want to be special?

It will have to be said, strictly, that they can't pick up litter unless they are wearing their special apron and gloves, which should always be accessible, otherwise they will be picking up things in the streets and that's dangerous.

Picking up litter is currently seen as a punishment in schools, which no doubt adds to the problem of people putting things in bins.  That needs to stop.  We need to change peoples mindset about picking up litter.  It's a good and positive thing that brilliant people get to do, it's not a punishment for naughty bad people.

Then there is secondary school, the 30mins a day picking up litter should continue there.  If big kids have already been taught to pick up litter when they were a little kid, then it's should just continue, that's not a problem.  

If this is a new thing that will be bought in to schools then it will have to be done differently for 5 years, until the little kids become the big kids.  

Big kids at secondary school need to feel cool and trendy, so I doubt the glittery aprons and gloves will work there, so we need to be wiser.  Teachers need to find out who the 'cool' kids are and get them interested in picking up litter.  The 'cool' kids are rarely the 'clever' kids, but the majority of kids will always follow the cool kids.  As these kids are older, they will probably need a better incentive than being able to wear their special apron and gloves, like being able to text and talk on their phones whilst they pick up the litter.  That will only be for 5years, so texting and talking on the phones can be phased out when the little kids who have already been taught to pick up litter get to secondary school.

I am basically talking about manipulating and conditioning children to pick up litter, but that's ok isn't it?

I am going to completely contradict myself now and talk about the prison service and community service, I assume they already do litter pick ups?  If not, why not?  

If we do actually get the little kids picking up litter and then the big kids picking up litter and make it seem like a fantastic thing for incredibly special people to do, then when people are doing community service and picking up litter they wont feel so bad (i'm not really a punishment person) and they may actually 'want' to do it, they may choose to do it.  Also, taking into consideration that the people who are doing community service are the little kids who turned into big kids, they will already be conditioned into picking up litter, so there shouldn't really be much litter around, therefore they could be getting on with other community service things, like helping the waterways.

So that's my idea, how do we get it done?

I assume we need people to join forces, individuals, RSPB, British Waterways, Keep Britain Tidy  and other people, then we need to contact the government to get that put into place. 

Women run for breast cancer, so what about a sponsored litter pick up for a cancer charity?
What about a sponsored litter pick up for Children in Need?
What about a sponsored litter pick up for Red Nose Day?

Basically we need to make a fuss, a HUGE fuss.  Sounds ridiculous, but I could always write to Jamie Oliver, he likes kids and schools and stuff like that.  Who else can I write to?  Who can I get on board with this?

Anyone got any other ideas, thoughts or opinions on how we can get that done?

Pessimistic negativity is not helpful and not welcome.

Daily Blog - Day 3 - Honking mad, this is RUBBISH!

 
I was trying to keep my blogs lighthearted and insignificant, they were supposed to be about nothing in particular, but this has annoyed me, it's just disgusting and there isn't any excuse for it. 
I could sit here and rant about the British Waterways for not dealing with this, but I doubt the British Waterways threw all this crap in the canal, I doubt that very much.  It is there responsibility to pick up the crap, but it is our responsibility to put our crap in the bin and not throw it in the canal int he first place! 
I am pretty sure the British Waterways have much better things to do with their time than pick up the crap we throw in canals.  We aren't 2 years old and they aren't our parents, so why should they pick things up after us?

You know those big rectangle or cylinder things you see all over the place with an opening on all sides and ashtray on the top?  Well, they are called bins.  These bins have an opening on each and every side because some people are so thick that they can't even work out that if there isn't an opening on the bin on the side they are standing they have to move around the bin and go to the other side to put their rubbish inside. 
We have no excuse not to use bins.  Everyone knows thats where rubbish belongs, nobody sees these things in the street and walks up to them as if they are some strange kind of alien spacecraft that we have never seen before.  We ALL know what they are. 
It's not hard to throw things in a bin, it's not even slightly hard.  It's easy, it is beyond easy.  It takes exactly the same amount of thought to throw rubbish in canals as it does to throw it in a bin. 

Caveman one "ugg I don't need this, what shall I do with it?"
Caveman two "ugg throw it away."

Caveman one throws the rubbish on the floor because cavemen didn't have bins!  But we aren't cavemen are we, this is 2011 and we should be able to do something as simple as thinking "ugg, I don't need this, ugg, what shall I do with it? ugg, throw it in a bin."
So why is this happening? 
Why is there litter everywhere?
People are lazy and don't give a flying f*ck about the planet, the future of the planet or anything that lives on the planet.  People are selfish, only care about themselves and the current second their brian is in.
The British Waterways need to sort this out due to our sheer laziness, they need to spend time and money sorting this out because we are too lazy to find a bin, money which they could be spending on other things. 
It's not like rubbish is even heavy, it doesn't break our backs to hold onto it until  we come across a bin, even a disabled person in a wheelchair could put it on their laps until they find a bin.   It's not hard, but if we can't even teach our children this one simple thing - put rubbish in bins - how on earth can we teach them anything else.
And to all of you d1cks out there that say "if I didn't throw it on the floor then bin men wouldn't have a job" you really need to get a grip and take your head out of your arse. 
If people didn't steal the police wouldn't have a job; if people weren't put in prison for rape then the prison wardens wouldn't have a job; if people didn't abuse children then the people at the sexual register wouldn't have a job, but does that make it right? 
If it does then I am well within my rights to go out and steal peoples children, rape them and dump their bodies in a canal, just to keep people in jobs. 
That's how it works, isn't it?
I was angry with the British Waterways yesterday, but today I am angry with everyone on the planet who can't be arsed to care for it.
If you see nothing wrong with the pictures below then you don't deserve to be on the planet and you should be shot into space, which no doubt is what is going to happen to all of our rubbish in the future if we don't sort ourselves out.  We are polluting and destroying our own planet by turning into a gallactic rubbish dump, which will turn into a toxic cesspit when global warming kicks in, and then we will go about polluting the entire universe with our stagnant rubbish! 
Well done us, we were given a wonderful planet to live on where we could flourish as a species, grow wonderful things and admire the beauty of nature, but instead of doing that we are turning the planet into a steaming stellar cesspit, the perfect breeding ground for flies, maggots and disease, well done us! 
Everyone should give themselves a good pat on the back.

This is NOT post apocalyptic england, this is right now, just outside your window.

 

One for sorrow

Would you drink that water?

 

Why should they have to drink that water?

 

Would you swim in that?

Why should he have to swim in that?

I could go on, but I am too annoyed, I hope everyone is suitably ashamed of themselves.

Daily Blog - Day 2 - Films 2cry2

I had a very quiet day yesterday, Steve was out all day, he was supposed to be home by 10pm, but he came home early at 9pm, just in time to watch a film I wanted him to watch.  

That was just a coincedence, he didn't know it was on.

I don't usually cry in films, but just thinking about this film makes tears come to my eyes.  It's such a nice film.  If you ever feel like a good ole cry, here it is whilst you wait for it to come get a bottle of wine, a big box of chocolates, some kingsize tissues, put on your cosy clothes, cuddle up and cry your eyes out.  I think I cried from the beginning, but I had seen it before so I knew what was going to happen.

By sheer coincedence, she played a piece of music in the film that I was looking for a while ago, but I didn't know the name of it.  I've not seen Schindlers List, but I reckon this tune should be in it.

When I was in my early to mid 20's I used to be really into zombie films, but then I watched this scene from this film, and the flood gates opened up.  I even very nearly cried in the film Marley and Me, and I can't stand Jennifer Anniston, but it had a sad ending, I wasn't expecting a sad ending as it was a disney film, but there it was.

Daily Blog - Day 1 - Wicked Wicked Woman

My first day of writing a daily blog and something interesting happened, go figure.  I am a wicked wicked woman, but it's ok, i'm not incredibly bothered.  

My boyfriends divorce came through yesterday!  Yes he was married when I met him and there aren't really any buts or excuses for what happened, I am the other woman, a home wrecker, that's me.  I have no shame, no-one is without flaw.  There were no kids involved if that makes it any better.  Admittidly a week or so after I met him I moved 400 miles away so all we did was talk really, but neither the fact that he was married or the fact that I was so far away stopped the relationship growing, it simply gave us the chance to get to know each other better for 6 month.
So, 2years after meeting, his divorce came through.  It was more meaningful to me than him as he said the relationship was over anyway and getting a piece of paper to prove it didn't really mean much.  Even though I was the home wrecking other woman, I still thought it was a bit crap that a relationship can die after 18years.  They are both happy now, so it's all good, everything came out in the wash.

If you've never been divorced, a divorce is just a crap piece of unimpressive paper that symbolises nothing.  I expected a drum roll, fireworks or something significant to happen when I read it, but it was just a few words written on a piece of headed paper.  It may as well have just said their names and been stamped "done and dusted".  It was such a pathetic symbol of the end of an 18 year relationship.

We decided to go out to celebrate.  

Below: Interesting wall art in the pub...

and a silver buddha sat on a mirror tiled piano.

I have no idea what possessed someone to do this

We actually managed to go out and get all the way home before an alcohol fuelled argument broke out.  We had way too much champagne and cocktails really, and when I drunkenly made my love some stodgy chicken and pesto mayonaise lingunini he wasn't incredibly impressed, I believe he called it 'slop'.

With hindsight the slop was the best decision I made that night as I spent the rest of the night in the bathroom hugging the toilet and throwing my guts up whilst making anagrams out of the words Armitage Shanks.  That should have been a bad experience, but it was fine as everything tasted like pesto and I really like pesto!  It was probably the best 'being sick' experience i've ever had.  

I decided to drink some apple and mango juice after I had been sick, to wash my mouth clean, and I was surprised to see how well it went together with the pesto puke when it came back up later, the orange juice pesto puke mix wasn't that bad either, I wont go so far as to say it was great, but it was much better than what happened even later when I decided to drink some milk and threw up some pesto flavoured curdled milk out my nose, not good.  It's very unusual for me to throw up when I have been drinking, it was the vodka in the cocktails, I should have known better, vodka always makes me sick.

Everything is now sorted out, I don't feel sick, the divorce is through, the argument is sorted, my boyfriend finishes work tomorrow, we are packing over the weekend and off on our travels early next week...

A daily blog...perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

Since realising nobody reads my blog on blogger it's opened up a whole new world of open honesty for me, so I thought I may do a daily blog.  That may all go out the window when my boyfriend finishes work next week, but until then it's definately an option.  I think i've been trying too hard, in a lazy kind of way.

A new sense of freedom...

This is brilliant, I looked at my blog demographics (how boring) and nobody reads this, so that means I can write anything I like!  How incredibly cool is that.  A blog on blogger is like an unknown flea on an incredibly hairy Great Dane, there is an ocean of people expressing themselves with the written word and absolutely nobody reading it!  It's complete freedom of speech!

I was posting my blogs on blogger in the hope that someone may read it and go "Wow!  That's the most interesting and incredible thing I have ever read, lets give her a big bag of cash and publish all of her books, she's amazing!" so I was trying to be interesting, which takes effort, but now I know nobody reads this I don't need to make any effort whatsoever.  That works for me as I am incredibly lazy.  It's like buying a lottery ticket.  You buy a lottery ticket hoping that you can spend £1 and get a £1,000,000 in return with absolutely no effort or hard work, the lottery is the epitome of being lazy.

It's 9.10am and I am sat here in my dressing gown thinking I should have had a shower by now, but instead all I have done is feed my goose and ducks and now i'm watching the news out of the corner of my eye with a cuppa.  There's nothing going on in the world today except the Royal Wedding and a remake of Arthur.  I probably would have watched the royal wedding, but i'm going to a little folk festival instead and the likelihood of me watching the new Arthur film is incredibly low so none of it is news to me.

I should also be packing, probably, but I know I can do it all in a day so i'm not fretting.  I'm moving all my stuff into storage next week and going off in a motorhome around cornwall with my boyfriend.  I think I may spend the day thinking about packing rather than actually packing, as i'm lazy, and I will do something else instead.

I've started writing a new novel, but i've just thought of something amazing and new to put in it, it's a make believe hippo who likes wearing stripey jumpers.  He's called Henry and he's going to pop up all during the novel, there may also be a turtle.  I'm going to write it as we go around Cornwall, it's summer so I can sit outside.

I'm going to put my paint brushes down for 6 months whilst I work on my new business www.easelchallenge.co.uk so that should be interesting.  The website isn't finished yet, but it wont take too long if I pull my finger out, i've only got to do one page.

I dont' play the lottery so i'm not going to win, I suppose I will just have to work very hard, which is a daunting prospect for a lazy person.

Whats good for the goose…(clever inventor required)

isn’t always good for the gander especially where british waterways are concerned…

At night when you try to go to sleep things that have happened during the day come to the front of your mind, which is why dreams are so weird at times, they are just fragments of your day, single words and whole images, cut into pieces, put in a bag, shook up and arranged by your subconscious to make some kind of bizarre story. It’s usually best to write things down so you can sleep, otherwise you may dream of them or they can keep you up all night, so here is my animal magic midnight rant.

It’s strange what people get used to.

When I was little I used to count the dead hedgehogs along the main road on the way to school, there was always 4 or 5 of them. Then as I got older I started to notice dead animals out of the car window as my parents drove down the motorway. I’ve noticed more recently. It’s mainly the remains of dead foxes on the roads down south, but as you go higher up the country the animals change.

In the north wales and manchester area you don’t really see mangled foxes with their entrails pounded into the road, it’s mostly flattened badgers, like minty humbugs mashed into tarmac; and squidged pheasants, I can’t get over the amount of pheasants, they are such stupid birds, but they don’t deserve to be plastered all over the road. Then as you get higher up the country, in the Lake District area, there are hundreds of rabbits throwing themselves in the road and getting splattered by rich peoples 4×4′s.

I think it’s quite strange for people to get used to seeing dead animals everywhere, but we do. In the lake district it’s not unknown for people to pick the dead animals off of the road and to cook them up in a road kill stirfry.

I had never heard of that before I went to the Lake District so I was a little shocked when someone saw a dead flattened decaying badger at the side of the road and suggested picking it up to put in a stew.

They were really happy with themselves, “Waste not want not” they said, to which I subtly replied “i’m not eating f’cking road kill!” then they muttered something about me being a southern snob, but it’s better to be southern snob than inbred northerner. I’m not being rude, they really were inbred and they really were northern. Anyway I digress…

In some places they have special animal walkways built under the road for frogs, badgers and rabbits, so the animals can cross the roads safely, which is brilliant, but I reckon they should be everywhere really. If we can do it then we should do it. That’s one of the things I shall be doing when I get my £205,000,000, that’s two hundred and five million pounds. The donkey sanctuary are getting a cool million as they do lots of great work and I love donkeys http://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/ and i’m going to buy all of the tigers and the land they live on to save them from extinction http://www.wwf-adopt-a-animal.co.uk/charities/wwf-animal-adoptions/adopt-a-tiger/

I would probably have to buy loads of horses too as loads are being neglected and killed because of the resecession and people can’t afford to look after them, which is completely disgraceful. And I would get the Grand National banned too. Two horses died at this years Grand National and any race where horses can die really shouldn’t be run, I don’t care how nice people’s hats are.

I could save the children and house the homeless, but i’m going to save the animals first. It’s the year 2011, humans really should have learnt by now, we are an intelligent race, but people still choose to shoot each other, invade other people’s countries, do nasty things to children, pollute the planet, and we are so very wasteful that I can’t really be arsed to save humans and most of the time I think the planet would get along a lot better without us. Anyway, I digress…again

So we get used to things, but even though I am used to seeing dead animals all of the time on the roads I was really shocked to see a dead goose floating belly up past my bedroom window. Especially as I had been feeding her and her gander everyday for the last 6 months. I wanted to get her out of the water, but the british waterways had to do it.

My geese woke me up every morning shouting, honking, calling, or whatever you call the racket they make, as they wanted to be fed, so as I am soft I would go and get them some bread. You can see them in the video below loitering outside my window waiting for food

http://youtu.be/cRqv21EU8YI

Geese mate for life and the gander never left her side, even when she had died. The british waterways took two days to take her dead body away and he swam next to her the whole time calling for her, it was heartbreaking. What was more heartbreaking was she had just laid 3 eggs so they were cold and dead in their nest and they had to be thrown into the canal so the gander would stop protecting them and go and find a new mate. The poor gander had lost his whole family in one day.

I was ready to go on a rampage around manchester as I thought the w*nkers, who live around here and think it’s fun to shoot a pellet gun into the canal, had killed her. I wanted to find them and shove their pellet gun up their arse and pull the trigger a few times. I also thought she may have died from the pollution in the canal and the w*nkers who walk by and throw their used needles and empty beer cans in the canal had posioned her, which made me want to buy my own pellet gun so I could shoot them as they walked past. But the waterways said she got egg bound and died of natural causes, which made me feel slightly better and not want to maime everyone.

Here is my gander, he’s ok now, He’s stopped protecting his nest and calling for her at night. Beautiful isn’t he.

My lovely gander

Today I decided to go down and feed him to see if he recognised me from my window, he came over when he saw me and he doesn’t usually do that to people, but he was probably more interested in the bread than me. I have no idea, I don’t know how clever geese are or how far they can see.

I also decided to go and feed the other geese along the canal as it was sunny and guess what I found…ANOTHER dead goose decaying and floating belly up down the canal. That’s two dead geese in two weeks along a stretch of canal thats only about 300yrds long, if that. That’s not a coincedence, that’s a bloody problem. There were only 8 geese living along that stretch of canal and 2 of them have died in 2 weeks, 25% of the geese have died. That’s atrocious!

As I am sure you can imagine I came home and put all my anger and upset in an email to the british waterways, both the local waterways and the head office. I expect to see dead animals on the road, that’s a sad part of life we get used to, but I don’t expect to see two dead geese, in as many weeks, floating outside my window. I included a photo of the decaying dead goose floating belly up down the canal in the email so they have to carry the image in their heads too. They need to sort the canals out, the geese may be dying of natural causes, but natural causes happen a lot more regularly when the canals are full of rubbish, pollution and decaying dead animals and that needs to be sorted out.

There must be some way to clean canal water without hurting the fish and wildlife and if there is, which I strongly suspect to be true, they need to do it way more often. The canals were built in victorian times, so the people who built them were clever enough to put something in place to keep the water moving so it doesn’t become stagnant, but that just means pollution goes up and down the canal until it’s cleaned.

Someone, somewhere, needs to invent something that can be used on a regular basis to get rid of the rubbish and pollution in the canals. Canals aren’t naturally occuring, we built the canals, therefore it’s our responsiblity to look after them and make sure they are safe for the wildlife who live there.

I probably sound like a vegetarian, but i’m not. I like steak and I like it bloody. I don’t eat duck, rabbit or goose and I went off of meat all together for 6 months when I saw a cow being shot in the head, but I eat it now. You’ve got to support the farmers, britain was built by farmers.

Now I have got that off of my chest, maybe I can get to sleep

Self. Don McLean - Vincent (time-lapse painting)

You loved this last time...

This lovely planet is over 4.5billion years old, which is very old. I am unsure if this means that this is the age of the universe too or if the earth is quite young compared to the rest of the universe, but it doesn’t really matter. What I want you to think about is the age of the universe. For arguments sake let’s say that the universe is 10billion years old.

So, what was around 10billion years and 1 millisecond ago?

Nothing?

Ignoring the fact that time is a man-made concept and no other creature on the planet feels the need to wear a watch, except humans, I believe that the concept of time doesn’t exist in space and the only place the idea of time exists is earth, so anything that happens outside the earth and away from humans (who constantly clock watch and count every precious minute of every precious day) can’t be counted in time; seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades etc.

As far as we know everything that exists does so within the universe, we also know that the universe is forever expanding and one day it will collapse on itself and then once again begin to expand, like a never-ending loop. That’s what we know. With this in mind, I would say that as soon as the universe ended it immediately began again as time cannot be counted between its ending and beginning, as there is no concept of time in space – time can only be counted between its beginning and end.

So that’s what we know.

Therefore, if we return to the question “If the universe is 10billion years old, what was around 10billion years and 1 millisecond ago?” the answer should be “the universe.”

The reason this should be the answer is because there is no time between the universe ending and the universe beginning again.

So the universe is continuous, it’s only everything that is within the universe which starts and ends; planets, animals, vegetation etc.

Stay with me…

So the universe is continuous; it continuously expands and then collapses in on itself time and time again. The universe starts from a big bang of nothing, therefore nothing can possibly affect the big bang, as there is nothing there to affect it, so it must be the exact same big bang each and every time the universe starts again.

Now bear in mind the ripple effect, this is the thought that each and every action you do has a reaction e.g. if you smile at a stranger in the street they will feel happier and they may go on to be nice to someone, who in turn is nice to someone, who in turn is nice to someone etc – this also works on the negative too. All of our actions affect each other and the people we affect go on to affect others, who go on to affect others and so on.

So, if the big bang is always exactly the same as it has no outside influences as nothing yet exists to influence it, then the ripple effect comes into play where everything effects everything else, action and reaction, on and on and on. Well, if that happens, then I would say that we have all done this before 10 billion years ago and 10 billion years before that and 10 billion years before that. I would say that because the initial reaction which caused the big bang must have been exactly the same each time it happened, therefore all the reactions which happened after that would also be exactly the same.

So, even though life often seems chaotic and sometimes it doesn’t seem to make sense, I would say that everything is as it should be and we have done everything exactly the same in this lifetime as we have in many lifetimes before, as many times as the universe has had lifetimes. The universe may be a billion lifetimes old, 10billion lifetimes old or just 10 lifetimes old, or as there is no time in space the universe could just ‘be’. No matter what it is, it means you sat exactly where you are sat right now and wore exactly what you are wearing now and you have read this before, many many times, and you loved it just as much as you did last time you read it and it will affect your life as much as it did – or didn’t – last time.

***

Now, 6million scientists disagree with me, like they always have, but they all agree with me in the end, like they always do, it just takes them a little time to catch up.

There is no way to prove or disprove what I think, as there is no way to do two exact experiments to test my belief as there will always be differing outside influences which will affect the test, except where the big bang is concerned as there is no outside influences which will effect it as the universe is everything and there is nothing outside of it, so really I can think what I like.

Anyway, see you in 10billion years when you ‘like’ my paintings all over again.

Time-lapse paintings

It's very difficult to get noticed in the art world and really get someones attention with a painting as people only really look at a painting between a few seconds to a minute, so I decided to put some time-lapse videos together to really 'show' people my artwork in the hope of keeping my viewers attention for longer.

My first time-lapse painting is of crows flying over Glastonbury Tor. Crows are very intelligent birds and the rhyme "one for sorrow, two for joy..." was originally about crows, therefore I decided that I would include two crows in the painting. Glastonbury Tor is a very spiritual place, linked with the King of Fairies, Avalon, King Arthur and the Holy Grail. If you ever have chance to visit it and look over the surrounding countryside I would strongly suggest that you do and take some time to sit at the top and breathe in the fresh air.

In mythology crows are linked to reincarnation and the souls passing, therefore due to Glastonbury Tors spirtual links I thought it would a great place for them to fly over. The white ribbon symbolises our delicate soul.

Crows over Glasonbury Tor

Music by Dj Food - The Crow: I believe the music goes really well with the video and I am very pleased with the outcome.

After my first time-lapse video I wished to paint something much bigger to really show what I was capable of. I felt the song was very important to the paiting and shouldn't simply be background music, therefore I chose an emotional song which moved me and really meant something to me.

Running up that Hill is about men and women wishing to change places so they understand each other better in their relationship, but I didn't think that wish would stop at simply men and women in relationships. I strongly believe that everyone yearns to be understood and lots of people wish to understand each other better, so I included many different people running up the hill. In the front of the picture there is a woman and a man talking to an angel. The man is ready to run up the hill, but the woman is more reluctant as she doesn't know if a complete understanding of each other is always a good thing and maybe some things should be left unknown.

Running up that Hill

Music by Placebo

With my next time-lapse painting I searched through 100's of songs to find the right piece. I was torn between using music that was significant to me and chosing music that I thought people would like. After some thought I decided not to try to please people with my music selection and I also decided not to use a piece of music that was significant to me in in some way. I have already painted my feelings of the past, so I decided that I wanted to create something new and I came across this piece of music and completely fell in love with it.

The painting came from listening to the music.

The Barn

Music by Yann Tiersen - Comptine d'un autree ete

I was incredibly flattered by the responce and support I recieved from people who watched these videos and I will no doubt make another in the future, but there are so many thoughts and images in my mind that I could paint, which would work with music, that it is hard to pin-point where to start.

Time-lapse video

Have you guessed what it is yet?

Crows flying over Glastonbury Tor.

What do you think it symbolises?
What does it mean?

My Inspiration - part 1

Here's a FREE novel for you all, you don't need any fancy devices to read it, you can read it on Google; for all of you who bought the paperback version of this novel I must just tell you that it is now out of print and I will not be printing anymore, so the copies you have are the only copies on the planet, when I die they will be worth a fortune so look after them x

One for Sorrow is the first story in this series of stories, this novel is where it all started, it is where my writing turned into something that I could publish. My other stories were personal; I used make believe characters to tell twisted rambling stories about my personal thoughts and feelings to work through issues I had with my life, but this novel is different. This is the first novel I wrote for someone else.

The inspiration behind this novel was a little girl who was scared of death. The little girl had spent her life living with her mother and watching her father leave her to go to foreign countries and fight wars, he was a soldier. Then one day her father was in an explosion, but he didn't die. The stress of watching his friends die in front of his eyes was too much for him so he was discharged from the army. A few months after her father returned to England her mother was killed in a car crash. Even though she hoped her father would be safe as he fought in our wars, she was always ready for the news that he had died and she was elated every time she saw him as she knew it could be the last time, she never expected her mother to die. Her mother was everything to her, she was always there for her with loving open arms, ready to wipe away her tears and make her feel safe and secure, but all of a sudden she as gone. The little girls world changed in the blink of an eye and where she once felt the warmth of her mothers hugs she was now left with a traumatised soldier who was just back from Iraq and under psychiatric supervision. The little girl learnt at a very young age that in a matter of minutes your whole world can be turned upsidedown and at the innocent age of 12 her biggest fear was death.

It deeply upset me that the little girl was scared of death at such a young age and I realised that other people must be scared of death too, so I thought I would write a story to put everyones mind at ease, in the hope that it may help the living that the dead leave behind. It is a story of fiction written to help people, it is not beliefs, it's simply a nice idea.

As a lot of you know, I grew up with lots of animals, which obviously all died at some point, everything dies, that's just nature. When our animals died we burried them in the garden, so I never questioned where they had gone. I knew where they were, they were in the garden. I may have been told a story of heaven when I was a child, but I can't remember being told about that, and I never really listened as child, so in my brain the dead were burried in the garden, full stop. Due to the fact that we had so many animals and they died all of the time i've never feared death as I saw it as part of life, everything dies, so it was a huge deal to me to hear that a little girl was scared of death.

Fearing death seems strange to me, fearing death is like fearing breathing. We breath, it's a fact, we die, that's a fact too, so why waste your life worrying about it? Worrying about things is like praying for bad things to happen.

I feel incredibly lucky as religion was never discussed in my family, there were no arguments for or against religion. It wasn't a dodgy subject, it just wasn't ever bought up as I knew where things went when they died, they went in the garden, so as a child my brain was completely free from other peoples religious views. It was taught at primary school, but I wasn't listening, I was just looking forward to blowing eggs for Easter or making colourful stained glass windows out of crate paper and glittery cards and decorations at christmas. At secondary school I always made sure my violin lesson was during Religious Education lessons, if I timed it right I could leave 5mintues after everyone was settled in class and return 5 minutes before the bell went. When I was older I took some time to read about many different religions, regular religions, spiritual religions, witchcraft type religions, etc, but there was nothing which agreed with what I thought about God, so I never took one on. With that in mind, I was able to make up anything I liked about what happens after death to appease the young girl, my mind was free to roam, so it did.

***

One for Sorrow

Edward had carried the engagement ring in his pocket for over a week as he tried to pluck up the courage to ask Nicole to marry him. Had he known that he would die before the question would leave his mouth he would have asked her sooner. Edward refuses to cross over to his new life on his path to enlightenment until the deed is done, even if he has to return to earth as a ghost and risk his very soul.

Edwards actions are driven by Love, but what is it that drives Tim's? What is it that drives him to treat Marie the way he does, and what is it that makes her stay?

Find out here...it's FREE!

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=m7JdB6lIL-AC&lpg=PP1&ots=XrxIm-Hhzn&dq=one+for+sorrow+stacey+clarke&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false

***

We Come in Peace is the sequel to One for Sorrow and written for my boyfriend as he wanted to know what happened next.

My inspiration - part 2

The reason I started writing this novel was due to a comedian who was moaning about police brutality. Basically someone filmed the police beating up a man - a little, i've done worse! - and then the press went mad and made everyone unhappy with the police yet again.

In my brain the point of the police is to make people feel safe, safe in their homes and safe when they walk down the street, that's the point in the police. And when the press continually attack them it not only makes the police look bad, but it also makes people feel unsafe and that's no good to anyone.

How can the police be seen as a figure of authority if they are constantly 'told off' like little kids for their actions. They're either in control or they aren't, if they are supposed to be a figure of authority then let them get on with their job and do it.

I say bring back the 60's/70's cops that set people up and beat the crap out of people just to get a confession. At least then they could get things done, these days they are strung up by red tape and can't lift a finger to help, then they get told off for not being able to do anything. That's got to be frustrating.

If it wasn't for all this red tape then maybe the police would be able to get to places quicker, hopefully before someone is beaten to death. The whole situation is ridiculous. Society has made the police accountable for their every little action, so it is society that is stopping the police from doing their job and getting to places on time, and it is the very same society who is complaining about the situation that has caused the situation by complaining.

Personally if I had a job where I had committed myself to serve and protect people, then I got harrassed by people as I walked down the street and made out to be worse than the devil by the press, then I would say 'f&ck you' to the people I was protecting and I just wouldn't bother or I would wait until such a time that I could beat the crap out of the people I was trying to protect and then let loose when I thought nobody was watching.

You can't expect someone to show you any respect if you don't show them any.

At the end of the day the police are human beings and if they are faced with 1000 angry people screaming in their faces, ready to trample them to the ground, then they are well within their right to attack and fight back. The police are human beings and just because they are wearing a uniform doesn't mean that they don't get scared. I have nothing against a fellow human being defending themselves or even attacking someone when faced with a mob. I have nothing against that at all.

Fair enough hold them accountable for their actions, as you would with anyone else, but don't make a song and dance about it. All that does is promote fear and make people stop respecting someone who is supposed to be in authority.

You can't have it both ways, either stop complaining and let the police get on with their job, or keep complaining and stop the police from doing their job.

I've been wrongly arrested and treated incredibly badly in a cell, but I refuse to tar every police officer with the same brush just because I was faced with a Nazi police officer who was obviously bullied at school and hated women. You can't judge everyone on the actions of a few.

This is not a third world country, we should be able to trust the police, we should also be able to trust doctors, but the press wont let us trust either of them and instead they use their voices to poison our minds with disturbing stories. We should loosen the leash we have put around the police's neck and see if society has trained them well enough to behave properly, because if we make this leash any tighter we are going to strangle them and then they will be no use to us at all.

Rant rant rant

Anyway.

So, thinking about the relevance of being informed about police brutality made me wonder "is ignorance really bliss?" Do we really need to know every single little thing that happens?

I knew if I wrote the above piece of writing on my former blog then it would cause a blog riot about the police and people would entirely miss the question, so I decided to change the question and ask "if a bloody big comet was about to hit the planet and we were all going to die, would you want to know?"

I explored this question in the novel. The whole novel is a metaphor. In fact it's not a metaphor, it's a simile as the police are not mentioned in the novel at all and in order to be a metaphor they would have to be.

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/We-Come-in-Peace/dp/B004LROOIM

America: http://www.amazon.com/We-Come-in-Peace-ebook/dp/B004LROOIM

I think I just don't understand why we are being told about something that we can't change, tell me news that I can do something about, tell me about the tigers and how to save them, tell me about the childrens hospital that needs people to raise money to buy new equipment to save little babies lives, tell me how to stop racism, tell me how to house the homeless and feed the hungry, tell me things that I can help with, that I can change, but don't waste my time by telling me that men are fighting, because that's human nature, men fight, I can't change that, nobody can change that.