Be the best you can be in your world

Towards the end of a short video I saw on the BBC site entitled The art of boxing, I was struck by this quote by the boxer and artist Thaddine Swift Eagle Johnson. An inspiring short video, it looks at her life as a champion boxer and the challenges she faces but also touches on her philosophy and how to look at things when life seems bleak.

She says, "Be the best you can be in your world, or…someone else's world. Be that champion in someone else's world. Smile to someone on the street. You don't know what their day was like. That would make their day."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16880075 

Kuniyoshi exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts

Kuniyoshi

From the Arthur R. Miller Collection

21 March—7 June 2009

The Royal Academy of Arts presents an exhibition on one of the greatest Japanese print artists, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861). Featuring over 150 works, the exhibition presents Kuniyoshi as a master of imaginative design. It reveals the graphic power and beauty of his prints across an unprecedented range of subjects highlighting his ingenious use of the triptych format.

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/kuniyoshi/

The art of war

A hectic night out with the lads in Bristol was followed by a sedate Sunday morning nursing hangovers. I managed to slip away from the group and mooch around and, as is often the case, I gravitated to the local museum and art gallery and found a couple of smashing pieces of art portraying fighting arts.

The following is a roof tile portraying Guan Yu, a popular 3rd Century Chinese general who is still revered today.

This solid looking chap was worked by Gaudier-Brzeska at the turn of the 20th Century. I was struck by his quiet power and t'ai chi hands. Although this sculpture looks still and unmoving (because of the nature of the subject), Gaudier-Brzeska famously worked on dynamic movement in his work.

Music and focus

I studied art to A level and loved it! It helped that our sixth form teacher was a passionate artist, well known locally, and his lessons never failed to inject us with enthusiasm.

One day I heard that while we were all sketching outside (as we'd been told to) Big Sharpey had been admonished by Big Bob Watson for wearing his Walkman. Remember those?- Yup the things that used to play cassettes? I know it seems unreal but there you are. That was the 1980s. Mr Watson wanted Sharpey to feel the atmosphere, hear all the sounds which really add up to the illustrative experience. Feel it and it'll come out in the art.

Anyway we were all on Sharpey's side of course. Well he was our chum. And he was big! We didn't really get what Big Bob (er, I mean Mr) Watson really meant by this seemingly killjoy attitude.

But I do now. I own an ipod and I love music (don't get me started!) but if not carefully listened to music becomes part of the background, numbing the senses (not only the hearing!) so that neither the music is really enjoyed, nor the activity being partaken of. I still need music but there are moments when an appreciation of stillness is needed. That's why I don't listen to music while practicing martial arts. So I can hear and feel everything and be completely lost in the moment of my experience. That's true training. Full commitment to the task in hand.

So Bob Watson didn't realise he was a martial artist. Maybe he didn't realise he had a warrior spirit but he certainly had an appreciation of the moment.

Thanks Bob.