New Cave Paintings Discovered

This is amazing. More images just discovered in underground Spain. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/found-70-hidden-cave-paintings-from-14500-years-ago?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=atlas-page

Ice Age Art

This is one of my great passions, so I had to see the exhibition at the British Museum, but have to admit I was a bit disappointed. It was mostly about portable pieces of art, many of which were incredibly small so hard to seee through the crowds, and even then, I ofte struggled to … Continue reading →

Grafitti

Bristol, with its 2 universities and for many years a tradition of graduates staying in the area, has a long track record for counterculture. With so many abandoned buildings it is now becoming famous for its street art, but whilst I can see the skill and effort put into a lot of it, for me … Continue reading →

Split Brains, Broken Brains

One of the most amazing of the TED Talks was that of neurologist Jill Bolte Taylor who described having a stroke, of how different parts of her brain coming in and out of focus, of how she struggled to get help: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html I knew of the two sides of the brain working differently, but I … Continue reading →

Reading Cave Art

This is a drawing from David Lewis-Williams’ wonderful book ‘The Mind in the Cave’ which he interprets as being rather confusing depiction of an eland headed man somehow underwater, probably from a shamanistic vision. Later in the book, he notes how when a shaman came out of a trance or dream, he would concentrate hard … Continue reading →

Cave Art and Space

In my previous blogs on cave art, I wrote that the art did not change for 20,000 years, which is true, but its presentation did. There is a significant difference between the placing of this art between the earliest at Chauvet and the next oldest of Lascaux. It has been repeatedly noted that the art … Continue reading →

In Your Face, Dawkins

Sorry about that heading. It was suggested by a friend who is now being dealt with by the proper people. But it seems to have got your attention. Welcome. My last post led me to think that cave art suggests art preceded religion. There is a language of artspeak that we have all seen in … Continue reading →

Frozen Time Frozen

Cave art. I’m still working on it. Chauvet is the oldest, most famous and recent discovery, but there are lots of things that are blowing my brain cells on the topic. The caves are across Europe – there’s even one in England. But none in the middle – South Belgium, Germany, Romania, and the amazing … Continue reading →

Going Underground

I cannot recall how it ws that my friend leant me ‘ The Mind in the Cave’ by David Lewis-Williams as a source of ideas for my final project, but it is utterly brilliant. I am reading it slowly as I have to keep stopping to digest the mind-boggling ideas this large book is littered … Continue reading →