Taking August off from the website to concentrate on some things in print. In the meantime, a big thanks for your K I N D N E S S in supporting Black Dog – see you back in September.
“Life is mostly froth and bubble. Two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble – courage in your own.” Barbara Dinham’s Father. She writes … “The mature conscience of the postwar generation globally dropped do-gooding in favour of analysis and insight into social and political structures that maintain inequality and general injustice. Kindness did not fit into analysis. Being kind was for animals, children, the elderly, yourself even, and maybe the environment. Kindness was too banal for the big social issues. Kindness was for private, personal actions. Yet one of the major social movements of the second half of the 20th century fought fiercely for recognition that the personal is political. So is it time for a new kind of kindness?”
Barbara Dinham, Director, Pesticide Action Network, UK. Pic and story from book ‘A Revolution In Kindness’ edited by Anita Roddick (Body Shop) – my bible. Another post about kindness.
28 Sept 2011: just added this Clunk & Jam note for you if you want to print this post.
Click image to view all the BOys and their impossible things - print off and stick up somewhere … Why? Listening to young people, one thing that comes through really strongly is the weight of the world they carry on their shoulders (particularly so for guys – and farmers, war veterans … ). So I hope this one helps to lighten the load a bit. It’s a true story, arrived on my page this week - pass it on …
Caught some of a debate on ABC radio this week over ‘should white crosses be allowed on roadsides and in public places to symbolise the place a life was lost?’
The arguments against were along the lines of …. they make people feel bad; they’re an eyesore, visual pollution … an intrusion … a dangerous distraction for motorists … or could cause children distress. All valid arguments however … considering the rising rate of depression in the community (and my own experience of how unresolved and suppressed grief can play a major part in that), I couldn’t help but wonder … surely if this symbolism and public expression of grief helps to ease a person’s suffering, isn’t it more important as a community to have a heart than an opinion? To endeavour to understand the value and relevance of this act in someones healing process? As for visual pollution and dangerous distraction to motorists …. I wondered why we’re not leaving the sad people alone and instead, debating over the banning and tearing down of advertising banners and billboards…
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NEW click image to print & collect. Let’s wish upon a time when … Billboards fall flat on their perfect faces. Golden arches buckle at the knees in shame. And we’re free from going anywhere ‘quick!’, ‘while stocks last!’, ‘before it ends’ or be the first so you ‘don’t miss out’ on a ‘must have!’ A time when fat was used to make gravy not deemed ugly, unsightly lumps and rolls to be sucked out (and in) …
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More goodies from Melbourne …
Ghostpatrol website – check it out and his work in this book …
The book also contains work and words of insight into street art from Miso (below), along with art and interviews from 9 other artists. Pass it on to all the art and story lovers you know …
NEW: Click on Miso image above to print and collect.
See also Banksy back in the Dog’s Blog and Stormy Mills.
NEW: Click image to print & collect.
Bought this mag in Melbourne – where we were exploring the idea of ‘printing the internet out’. Although Black Dog is archived by the National Library as an electronic publication, I believe the internet cannot replace the physicality and potential for psychological holding that print and paper things offer. Some words pulled from the mag that reinforce something cooking in the Black Dog pot (stay tuned – click image for print version) …
“There is a deep longing in mankind to ‘feel’, and that’s something a screen can’t (yet) provide ….
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