Dan Morelle

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

A Li’l Birdy Story

As a small child I lived in flats in south west London. To the back of our ground floor flat was a shared garden which seemed like a gigantic field. It had perfect giant trees for climbing and patches of bare ground for digging holes and making mud pies.

I clearly remember that frosty autumn morning my brother and I discovered two little baby starlings cheeping away in distress on the ground, ejected from their nest. It was exciting and a little scary. One of the neighbours had a fierce little scrappy charcoal coloured mutt that was tormenting the birdy brothers under a bush. It must have been a Sunday because our dad was there. We caught the birds and put them in a white shoebox on the highest branch he could reach of the giant Horse Chestnut tree. I tore some grass up for their food and my brother got some cotton wool for their bedding. We used some crisp wrappers for insulation and made some air holes in the lid with a pencil point.

My father gently explained the birds might not survive the cold of the night or the shock of being handled by us but we wanted to make the effort to help them through the night – if we could only get them the strength to fly they could find their nest and be okay.

The next morning my brother and I slung on our little red coats on and ran outside hoping that we’d find our birdy counterparts alive. In our hearts we knew that was not the truth. What we discovered was worse that anything a little boy could imagine.

At the base of the tree propped up against one of the erupted ground roots was the box, tissue paper shredded and strewn about. I have no idea what happened to the lid. Inside was just a few blades of grass and about 2 metres away on the bare ground were the scrawny skeletal remains of our birds, no feathers, no flesh, no blood, just bones. So thin, fragile and white. In the corner of my eye I saw the dog licking his white teeth and sneering.

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

I went up in to the loft last weekend to dig out my water colours and dust them off after my 10-year hiatus.

Um, I have developed a bit of a Moleskine problem, this is the first play in my water colour book. Its inspired by a totem pole that I saw earlier this week at the British Museum.

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

I normally draw with my right hand but I found myself drawing this little man on the train to London with my left hand. I think I had a drink in my right.

I remember reading somewhere that left-hand people used to be considered strange…

The following is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Left-Handedness:

Possible effects in humans on thinking

There are many theories on how being left-handed affects the way a person thinks. One theory divides left- and right-handed thinkers into two camps: visual simultaneous vs. linear sequential.

According to this theory, right-handed people are thought to process information using a “linear sequential” method in which one thread must complete its processing before the next thread can be started.

Left-handed persons are thought to process information using a “visual simultaneous” method in which several threads can be processed simultaneously. Another way to view this is such: Suppose there were one thousand pieces of popcorn and one of them was colored pink. The right-handed person — using the linear sequential processing style — would look at the popcorn one at a time until they encountered the pink one. The left-handed person would spread out the pieces of popcorn and visually look at all of them to find the one that was pink. A side effect of these differing styles of processing is that right handed persons need to complete one task before they can start the next. Left-handed people, by contrast, are capable and comfortable switching between tasks. This seems to suggest that left-handed people have an excellent ability to multi-task, and anecdotal evidence suggests that there are more creative stems due to this ability to multi-task.

Right-handed people process information using “analysis”, which is the method of solving a problem by breaking it down to its pieces and analyzing the pieces one at a time. By contrast, left-handed people process information using “synthesis”, which is the method of solving a problem by looking at the whole and trying to use pattern-matching to solve the problem. [39]

The hypothesis that left-handed people are predisposed to visual-based thought has been validated by a variety of evidence. In the 2004 book Brains that work a little bit differently[40], researchers Allen D. Bragdon and David Gamon, Ph.D., briefly described some of the current research on handedness and its significance. “Handedness researchers Coren and Clare Porac have shown that left-handed university students are more likely to major in visually-based, as opposed to language-based subjects. Another sample of 103 art students found an astounding 47 percent were left- or mixed-handed.” [page 76]

Ultimately, being left-handed is not an all-or-nothing situation. The processing styles operate on a continuum where some people are more visual-simultaneous and others are more linear-sequential.

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

I drew this whilst at the British Museum earlier this week. The cat was in a glass case and people milled around it quite quickly. My stopping to draw caused a bit of a stir as I was blocking the way. Some pushed past hence the couple of times I was jogged. I usually draw quite frenetically but here I was calm as a Hindu Cow.

After about 5 minutes and a few people complaining I stepped away. Why only grace a Divine Cat with a fleeting glimpe?

More about the Divine Cat click here.

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

I don’t actually think this is a Bodhisatva, I think its a Buddha but I like the sound of Bodhisatva. So I will say it one last time, Bodhisatva. Thank you.

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edit:
Let’s shed a little light on this with a little help from Wikipedia:

In Buddhist thought, bodhisattva (Pali: bodhisatta; Thai: phothisat, โพธิสัตว์) literally means “enlightened (bodhi) existence (sattva)” in Sanskrit.

Those who call themselves bodhisattvas are motivated by the wish to benefit other “existences” and to lead them to enlightenment[citation needed].

The Mahayana encourages everyone to become bodhisattvas and to take the bodhisattva vows. With these vows, one makes the promise to work for the complete enlightenment of all sentient beings.

According to the Theravada tradition however, being a bodhisattva and becoming a fully enlightened Buddha (Sanskrit: Samyaksambuddha) is not possible for the vast majority of beings, so their common path to follow is to strive for becoming an ordinary Arhat (liberated from the sufferings of the cycle of rebirths; the term is applied in Theravada Buddhism to Buddhas as well).

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

The old dear behind me said “didn’t you hear the lady at the door when we came in? You are NOT allowed to take photos”.
I apologised to her in my own way and kept snapping.
The King found his immortality of course. These will be standing when we are all dust.

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

It was quite strange to crunch through this beatiful scene then hours later to be walking amongst the Qin Shi Huang’s soldiers. Walking though a scene from Hero.

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

In London today I went to see some of the Emperors soldiers at the British Museum I stubled upon this beautiful statue and was frozen in awe.
I had to draw.
There is something to be said about going to a museum on your own, you have time to stop and find your own pace.
Want to know more about this statue, click here.

Dan Morelle posted a photo:

This is my first foray in to the world of rice paper, ink sticks and water. A whole new place…