Today's work

Today I was painting some Neolithic symbols with a small brush and ink. These symbols date back over twelve thousand years. I first saw them as a child on a school trip to a passage tomb called Newgrange in County Meath, Ireland. I used very similar (American) Indian and (Australian) Aboriginal symbols in ‘Jimmy Round Belly, The Canopy’ ~ they are all amazing and beautiful.

Actually, a funny thing happened the day our school visited Newgrange.

There was a small wooden staircase leading up to the tomb entrance. Our teachers must have thought they could fit the whole school on those stairs. Which of course they couldn’t and as the baying mob of excited ten year olds pushed and squeezed I soon found myself jettisoned off the top stair; falling backwards with a crushing blow on to the gravel below.

Struggling to catch my breath, I was dragged to my feet by an angry school teacher and dumped at the back of the line to begin climbing the stairs again.

I’ve visited Newgrange quite a few times since and there’s still no handrail on those wooden stairs. Thankfully, there’s never been any school children around to push me off again.