The Wild Stare

An old image revisited.
 The image was created within an inspired moment during a winter walk. The forests had been logged and a tree toppled its roots exposed. The setting sun bouncing off the Scots pine cast a beautifull red light that was so earthly it had to be used. So despite the cold weather i stripped off and allowed the passion and anger i felt towards my home being logged shine through...at least i hope it did.
 "The Wild Stare"

Untitled - A collaboration with Sam Matta

I was very fortunate recently to have the wonderful artist, Sam Matta, collaborate on editing this image by Richard Walker.

 The original image was taken spur of the moment upon a visit to a remote stone circle in South West Scotland. I noticed the lean of a Hawthorn tree and handed Richard the camera (a very abled and promising new photographer), got nude and climbed into the spiky tree.

 I was immersed in the location around me, immersed in deep and personal thoughts but at the same time lost to the sensations of my surroundings.

 I was intrigued to see that this is the image Sam came up with as without mention he put in the sea, the wind and the darkness that was in my mind at the moment the shot was taken. He read from the pose that I portreyed and altered the image to compliment it.

 How interesting that from my pose he was able to deduce the places that my mind went to, surely an individual of incredible artistic talent and intuition.

 I have dabbled in photoshop myself ut could never hope to create a peice of work like this and certainly not in the short time frame that Sam did, I am indebted to him and grateful.

 I sincerely hope that the emotions I was feeling at the time come across, I hope people see an honesty in this image and not just another nude, I hope someone at least sees my intentions in this image.

 I sincerely look forward to collaborating with Sam in the future on location shoots as with his intuition of the mind I am sure we could create some important, meaningfull, deep and truly beautiful art together.

 I am intrigued to know what people read into this image, what story they come up with of their own accord and for that reason this peice has no title.

 Check out Sams work here www.modelmayhem.com/digitalpsam

Working with Woodsmoke

I was very fortunate recently to have been given the opportunity to work with Woodsmoke on one of their courses, the Junior Woodlander, and it was a worthy expreience and one i hope to have again soon.
 It did not take me long before i was seriously impressed with Woodsmoke, the location is stunning and feels wilder than in many bushcraft schools, the staff were friendly and most definately kindred spirits but most of all what struck me was the honesty of the place, company and business.
 I pride myself on being honest, what you see is what you get, I feel its the only fair way to be and i loathe any form of manipulation particularly selfish bullshit.
 The passion the people at Woodsmoke for the land parralells my own and reminds me of how i used to be and how i long to be again and their knowledge runs deep, i was humbled and inspired to learn more and work hard.
 So that is what i did, i worked hard (I was embaressed at how unfit i was) and i opened my eyes and ears to learn what i could from everyone around me, from the students, from the staff and from the land. I did learn, i learnt a lot specifics about various fungi, teaching techniques, knots and so on but also about myself, about how little i know and how passionate i am, what i must do and what i allready have done. The negatives and the positives.
 I know i would dearly love to work with kindred spirits like woodsmoke and that they are a true rarity, if anyone would like to go to a bushcraft school or learn a course i can not recomend them highly enough.

http://www.woodsmoke.uk.com/

 This is not some ploy in the hope that this will be read and that i can persuade them to take me on, i am not like that. I was honest and the staff heard me talk about my passion for the land, they may not know how deep that runs but it does not matter.
 I want to learn, i love the land and i wish to learn as much as i can, then i wish to teach others what i have learnt so that they may create a bond with the land, with things lost to us...there is too much i wish to say and just now i can not find the words

If it isn't raining it aint training!