Julia Bacha - TED

A wonderful talk from Julia Bacha at the TED conference. Wouldn't you just love to see the mainstream media cover stories like her's instead of having to search them out and dig them out. What a huge impact for good it would have around the world. Julia Bacha says everything I would like to be able to articulate, but with so much more grace and compassion.

A short update on painting.

As of June 2011, I now have very little time to paint, I am focusing on drawing at the moment, mostly portraits, still life and life drawing, something I had been neglecting. I believe that my neglect of drawing, in particular life drawing, which I believe is key to any progress you make as an Artist, even if your work is abstract, was responsible for the creative block I experienced recently. The block has now been removed thanks to a wonderful healer who worked with me, but what I envisage for my work is very different to what it was, a bit like stepping into the unknown...again! But the journey will start with regular drawing and I am sure that as long as I can keep my mind/ego out of the way, it will develop and evolve just fine. I will continue to post my work from time to time, but not as regularly as I did before April 2011.

Much love

Hani

Women on Fire

I had a wonderful time at the Women on Fire event in London yesterday listening to so many incredibly inspiring speakers who spoke eloquently and passionately about their work. Their amazing stories of great difficulties and hardships, met with courage and determination, generosity and compassion was very moving. If only our Politicians shared these womens commitment to create a better, kinder world for everyone, what a massive difference it would make.


It was a privilege to be in the company of people like Camila Batmanghelidjh Founder of children charities - The Place 2 Be and Kids Company, Elisabet Sahtouris PhD - Evolutionary Biologist, Futurist, Polly Higgins - International Environmental Lawyer, Scilla Elworthy - Peace Campaigner, Arundhathi Subramaniam - Poet, Jay Griffiths - writer, Zoe Young - Writer, researcher, educator and film maker, Hafsat Abiola-Costello - Human and Civil Rights Campaigner, Angela Saini - Science Journalist/Broadcaster, Fran Moscow - Executive Coach, Supporter of Women on Boards, Madelaine Westwood - Filmaker, Clare Dakin - Founder/CEO of Tree Sisters, Louise Burfitt-Dons - Humanitarian, Hot Women Campaign, Kirsty Schneeberger - Campaigner, Director at Think2050, Rose Flint - Poet, Azul-Valerie Thome - Food from the Sky, Rachel Morrison - Singer, Pauline Crawford - Facilitator,Sarah Rozenthuler - Facilitator and Judith Seelig, Shaman and Changemaker.

The Art exhibition looked fab too. I have included a few photos, are those orbs or reflected lights in the picture of women dancing?

Happy Easter.

Cosmic Butterflies

This painting evolved from a previous painting I did for the Women on Fire art exhibition later this month. I have used the butterfly image as a symbolic metaphor for the shift in consciousness that many people feel is happening now, one that will help us emerge from the present chaotic world into a peaceful and harmonic one. I believe the indigenous people of the world had it right all along, they never lost their connection to the natural world.

Women On Fire

Here is some up to date information regarding the Women on Fire event in April, which promises to be a very inspiring day! I have included a detail from one of the paintings I will be exhibiting. Please join us if you can.


23rd April 2011 WOMEN ON FIRE at CENTRAL HALL, WESTMINSTER, LONDON SW1

The world today can seem grim. We are drowning in stories and images which testify to the arrogance and greed of politicians and corporations, the brutality of war and destruction of communities.

As International Women’s Day celebrates its centenary, hope for a better future comes from bold, clear sighted women taking the lead. This remarkable event on Easter Saturday brings many of them together, and will give all the opportunity to ignite their own optimism and power.

Women on Fire is not a conference, symposium nor a talking shop. It’s a one day community. A day for all, regardless of age or background, to learn new skills, gain fresh insights, share experiences, and take away more wisdom and serenity than they came with.

INSPIRING SPEAKERS
Some are famous, others virtually unknown. All are wise and feisty women. They include

CAMILA BATMANGHELIDJH is the remarkable founder and director of two charities, The Place 2 Be (now national) and Kids Company, which transforms the lives of some of the most traumatized children in London. Camila and her team have raised over £60 million for Kids Company. She has received numerous awards as businesswoman and social entrepreneur.

Fellow of both the World Wisdom Council and World Business Academy, ELISABET SAHTOURIS is an evolutionary biologist and futurist who informs governments and large organizations. She shows how we’re at the adolescent stage of aggressive competition before maturing into the cooperative diversity that’s found, for example, in a mature rainforest.

Environmental lawyer POLLY HIGGINS was voted by the Ecologist as one of the “Worlds Top 10 Visionary Thinkers” for advancing the Universal Declaration of Planetary Rights and nominated “The Planet’s Lawyer” by the 2010 Performance Awards. She is currently campaigning to make ecocide a crime in international law.

SCILLA ELWORTHY founded the Oxford Research Group to develop dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers and their critics, and Peace Direct to work with peace-builders in conflict areas. Three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, she advised Peter Gabriel, Desmond Tutu and Richard Branson in setting up “The Elders”.

UNEARTHING THE UNEXPECTED
Far from a listening event, Women on Fire is fully interactive, including discussions with speakers and a shared firing up of creative energy led by Women on Fire founder Judith Seelig. The purpose is to inspire “Me too, I can” - a more daring, playful approach to life.

“Women as decision makers are our one underused resource in addressing all the crises of our time: ecological, economic, social and spiritual. Women on Fire encourages women to develop self-confidence without feeling challenged by patriarchal certainties. We want to offer instinctual wisdom as a partner to reason, wise women to accompany wise men.” Judith Seelig

HIGHLIGHTS
• One minute silence for all the women in the world who have no voice, no choice in how they live

• Everyone gets a free copy of the book Be The Change by Trenna Cormack (normally £12.99), a collection of interviews with inspirational women and men

• Event includes exhibition of contemporary women artists, all work for sale as originals, prints or postcards

• Women on Fire knickers hand made by couture lingerie designer Emma Kidd from up-cycled t-shirts (new life for unloved clothes) for sale, or sew your own from a hand-tailored kit (£12 per kit plus p&p)
• Influential women are invited to sponsor a seat or elect a representative. Ticket price, £55, goes to Kids Company.

• Light the fire Firing up creativity by ”plugging in” to the fire at the earth’s core (no fire at the earth’s core, no life on earth, for together with the rotation of the planet it creates the atmosphere that deflects out into space most of the ferocious solar heat)

WHEN
23rd April 2011 is when Easter Saturday coincides with St George’s Day, a rare event. The springtime celebration of renewed vitality in the earth (easter time) occurs on the day when England commemorates its patrons saint St George, who famously killed the dragon that in many cultures symbolizes the very same life force in the earth.

Ticket prices max £55 (concessions £35).

Women on Fire is a not for profit organisation promoting and developing confidence in female intelligence, instinct and leadership without the loss of tenderness.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Judith Seelig judith@womenonfire.co.uk
020 8450 2723 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              020 8450 2723      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              020 8450 2723      end_of_the_skype_highlighting / 07583 426 693
or
Diana Eder admin@womenonfire.co.uk
07770 267 626

Speakers are available for interview, some before the event

Keeffe and the Bees

My son and his bandmates 'Keeffe and the bees' have just recorded their first CD and it is just great! What a talented group of individuals and such a beautiful voice Bonnie!

http://www.youtube.com/user/KeeffeandtheBees

David Shepherd - Wildlife Artist of the Year 2011

Wildlife Artist of the year competition 2011

With a fabulous top prize of £10,000 and all short-listed entries exhibited at the prestigious Mall Galleries in London the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation's Wildlife Artist of the Year competition is now firmly established in the art calendar.

Open to all professional and amateur artists aged 17 and over entry for 2011 is now open by post and on-line.

closing date for entries – 31st Jan 2011.

The five categories are:

Endangered Wildlife - any wild animal or plant that is threatened or
endangered nationally or internationally
Wild Places - any scene or landscape showing the natural environment at
its most beautiful or dramatic
Wildlife in Action - any wild animal jumping, fighting, flying or any other
interesting behaviour
Wildlife in 3D - sculpture in any medium
Open - let your imagination go wild!

Judging will take place in three stages (dates to be confirmed). Prize
giving and exhibition at The Mall Galleries London, 6-11 June 2011.

Please visit http://www.davidshepherd.org if you would like to enter the competition and for terms and conditions.

SAATCHI GALLERY TALK: IS THERE SUCH A THING AS BRITISH ART?

Above painting is by Barry Reigate.

SAATCHI GALLERY

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS BRITISH ART?

Louisa Buck, Hew Locke and Barry Reigate in conversation
7.30pm, 29 November 2010
Tickets: £10 / £6 students - Book now

With the opening of Newspeak: British Art Now at the Saatchi Gallery, and the British Art Show 7 at Nottingham Contemporary, the question of British Art is once again in the spotlight. Both exhibitions include a host of radically divergent artists connected by 'Britishness'. Does this tag reveal anything more than shared geography?

Artists Hew Locke and Barry Reigate, and journalist Louisa Buck, discuss the problematic concept of British Art as a coherent context for artistic production. Is there a particular British sensibility, style or technique discernable in contemporary art produced in the UK today? Or, have we reached a point at which the idea of a national artistic identity has broken down leaving a multiplicity of artistic forms and languages?

Speakers:

Louisa Buck is a writer and broadcaster on contemporary art. She is a columnist for The Art Newspaper and a regular reviewer on BBC radio and TV. Her books include Moving Targets 2: A User's Guide to British Art Now (2007), Market Matters: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Art Market (2009) and Owning Art: The Contemporary Art Collector's Handbook (2006, with Judith Greer). Buck was a judge for the Turner Prize in 2005.

Hew Locke lives and works in London. Locke moved from Edinburgh to Guyana where he spent his formative years. Back in the UK he completed an MA in sculpture at the Royal College. Locke has exhibited extensively around the UK, including Tate Britain, The V&A Museum, The New Art Gallery Walsall, Rivington Place, The Bluecoat Gallery and The British Museum. In the US he has shown at The Luckman Gallery LA, The New York Museum of Art and Design, Atlanta Contemporary Arts and at The Brooklyn Museum. Locke has recently been shortlisted for the 4th Plinth Commission, and will be exhibiting as part of the Folkestone Triennial in 2011. He is represented by Hales Gallery in London.

Barry Reigate lives and works in London. He completed an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University and has since gone on to exhibit internationally. His work has been included in major national shows such as Rude Britannia: British Comic Art at Tate Britain and Newspeak: British Art Now at the Saatchi Gallery, and in exhibitions at Trolley Gallery, Baibakov Art Projects, Moscow, Chapman Fine Arts, The Agency Gallery and Stephen Friedman Gallery. He is represented by Paradise Row Gallery in London.


Is there such a thing as British Art?
7.30 pm, Monday, 29 November 2010
Saatchi Gallery
Duke of York's HQ
King's Road
London SW3 4SQ
www.saatchigallery.com/talk
Tickets: £10 / £6 students - Book now

Partnered by Broadword Group

SAATCHI GALLERY,
Duke of York's HQ,
King's Road,
London,
SW3 4SQ

www.saatchigallery.com