This week’s spiral is a little wonky as I wrote it on the train down to London. It was inspired by a beautiful light show I saw projected onto York Minster on a cold, dark Wednesday evening.
As we came around the corner, people were huddled together in the narrow street that leads to the South Piazza, all gazing up at the fractals of coloured light. We loved the angels’ wings sprouting from the carved stone columns and these hands descending in blessing.
The next day, in London, I saw David Hockney’s brilliant new show Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) at the immersive Lightroom.
My quickly snapped pictures don't even begin to do the show justice. It’s a celebration of colour, narrated by the artist himself, and full of his wry humour and thoughts on life and art, including a very thought-provoking ‘lesson on perspective’.
I’ve always found Hockney inspiring - both his work and his joie de vivre. A native of West Yorkshire, where I grew up – I love his paintings of Yorkshire landscapes and trees – he’s still making art at the ripe old age of 85, often on his iPad (or sometimes 12 iPads at the same time).
Here’s one of my favourite quotes from the exhibition:
Colour is a joyful thing.
I want my art to be joyful, actually…
- David Hockney
This seems like a very worthwhile goal: to make joyful art and perhaps, along the way, to be able to share that joy with others.
Here's something else that Hockney says in his narration of the show:
'The world is very, very beautiful when you look at it. But most people don’t look.'
Friends, I'm wishing you time this week to slow down and look at the world.
How could you invite colour into your journaling or writing practice?
How can you make time to really look at the beauty of the world?
