Stopped Feck Traffic

Stopped Feck Traffic 
a poem by 
A M Donaghey

 As I sit in the traffic with hazard lights flashing.

Irate drivers behind me, clench fists of frustration.

They think it’s my fault, that my car has stopped moving.

And I’m fuming inside that my motors not turning

I open the door and step out on the road

All the drivers, they watch me, and most of them loath.

Grab one hand on the wheel and I steer to the side

Feel like a gazelle, singled out by the pride.

I push the dam car, clear the way for the jury.

They’ve already judged as I see from their fury.

Beeping their horns as a sign of disgust

Swear words on their lips that they readily thrust.

What else can go wrong on a Monday like this?

Wish I didn’t get up, stayed in warm bedded bliss.

For there’s always tomorrow, if I get through this day.

Oh, feck cars and feck traffic, and the hate that they pay

I had posted three poems on this blog, but deleted them as I wanted to enter them in a literary competition up home in Donegal. I was sure I would have a chance to win something or even get the poem published. But, after sending in the poems and paying the entry fee, I didn’t even get a mention. I had read the winning poems from the 3 or 4 years before and thought I would have a good chance. I know my work isn’t perfect, but I didn’t even get an acknowledgment other than an email stating that they received payment for the entry fee which was sent with the poems. I mean, how hard is it to set up an auto email that would thank you for the contribution? I have yo say, it put me off ever entering anything like this again.

 In fairness the winning poems were of a high standard, but the fact I didn’t even get a thank you for the entry, well that was very poor.

OK, now about this poem Stopped Feck Traffic. When I was doing art in college a few years ago, we were asked to provide some personal writing for communication class. I didn’t really have anything, but driving back home, my car broke down and I wrote this wee poem. The word Feck (in the title) is an Irish slang word that is a kind of fill in word that means frustration. I think frustration is the nearest word I can think of, and the word Feck is also used instead of fuck. For example, if you drop something or make a mistake, you could say “FECK” or “FECK IT” or someone bothers you, you can call them a Fecker or tell them to "Feck off". It is not an offensive word, like the fuck word, but is as a milder more humorous version of it. Also the word feck is not used in the sexual way as fuck is used. Not sure if that has clears things up, but that is my interpretation of it. 
I will post my two other poems in a few days.

As before, thank you for reading my blog and please feel free to make a comment.  

Viking shield

Viking shield revisited

Back in 2014 I made my first Viking shield using wood that came from an industrial pallet that I had left up in my attic for about 10 years. The shield looked really good however I was never quite happy with it and I ended up putting the shield back up in the same attic that I had stored the timber for so long.

So a few weeks ago, I decided I would take the shield down and redo it the way I wanted it to look. Maybe I could hang this on my wall and not be ashamed of it. Even though I say it myself, the workmanship was really good and the fact the wood was warped, cracked and split, really suited the shield perfectly. The worst thing for me however,  was the shield boss which I made from a Fray Bentos pie tin that fitted into a fabric covered ring I made from a piece of partial wood.  At the time, I had no access to metal plate that I could make a shield boss from. I also had very little money and no workshop. So I made the shield and the boss out of whatever materials I had at hand. In fairness, it was a really good way to recycle materials that would otherwise be thrown in the bin, even if it was the recycle bin at that. For anyone that does not know, the boss is the metal dome in the center of the shield that is used to protect the hand while holding the shield in battel.

As you can see in the photo above, the finished boss on the right looked ok if you had never seen a Viking shield before. But I was just not happy with it and felt it took away from finish, feel and look of the shield project. Now this shield was always just an art project, but could still be used in a re-enactment Viking battle.

So, when I was back home in Donegal, I found an old copper water cylinder and thought this would be ideal to finish off what was then my abandoned project. I cut the cylinder up into square sheets and flattened them out. I then made my new boss from a sheet of the bronze copper that I cut and hammered it out using a warrington ballpein hammer on a large log that I hollowed out to make a dish shape. I also used on old canon ball as an anvil to give it shape. The canon ball I dug up in a garden in Dublin Ireland, years ago.  Never really thought about it till now, but just wonder what the story behind the canon ball is?
 

When the boss was finished, I then got it professionally distressed and aged, so it would look the part. It turned out very good although I would have liked a little more Verdigris. Verdigris is the blue green oxide that aged bronze and copper has, as in the photo below.

So after a little bit of work, the new boss was ready to replace the fray Bentos pie dish.

So I went ahead and attached it to the shield, but it still didn’t look the way I wanted. Sorry, I did not take a photo

So I got out my rarely used carving chisels and started giving some texture to the wood. I then aged it and even got a blow torch to it and scorched some of the wood.

So this is the finished shield. I’m not 100% happy with it and I might age this in the future. I am also not happy with the edging as Viking shield would have used raw hide leather, but it does kind of looks the part.

It is what it is, so I am reasonably happy with the finished shield. 

Heavenly scented summer breeze

I decided to do a name change and edit to my new poem.

Still not 100% happy with it, but it is almost there.

Heavenly Scented Summer Breeze.  

An unfinished poem

By A.M.Donaghey 

Heavenly scented summer breeze, grassy carpet of outdoor leisure.

On drowsy days of lemonade, and effervescent pleasure

Dandelions and camomile, stipple through a vale of green.

Grass with seed and flower heads, all weighting for a preen.

Taste of sweetness summer fruits, that tantalize the tongue.

and coolness ice cubes in your mouth, that almost quench the sun.

Shadows of the summer leaves, swirl and flicker through the air.

moments, minutes and hours pass by, and all with out a care

Singing birds and buzzing bees, insects on the wing.

Dream like in this warmth of light, and memories that they bring.

 

How id love to be there now, the childhood times I  treasure.

 On those drowsy days of lemonade , that summer breeze of pleasure.

 As always, thank you for reading my blog and please comment if you wish.

New Poem, Sitting on the lawn.

Sitting on the lawn.

 An unfinished poem   By A.M.Donaghey 

Heavenly scented summer breeze, grassy carpet of outdoor leisure

On drowsy days of lemonade, and effervescent pleasure

Dandelions and camomile, stipple through a vale of green

Grass with seed and flower heads, all weighting for a preen

Taste of sweetness, summer fruits, that tantalize the tongue

and coolness ice cubes in your mouth, that almost quench the sun

Shadows of the summer leaves that swirl an flicker through the air

moments, minutes and hours pass by, and all with out a care

Singing birds and buzzing bees, insects on the wing

Dream like in this warmth of light, and memories that they bring

How id love to be there now, feel that summer breeze of pleasure

On those drowsy days of lemonade , the childhood times I treasure 

As it is coming into September and we are seeing the last few days of our Irish summer, I thought I would try and finish a poem that I started writing last year. As always, I am not 100% sure if it is fully finished and I may re write it in the future.

As always, thank you for reading my blog and please feel free to comment if you wish,

Evidence Art project

Evidence  Art project

Here is my finished art peace called Evidence. 

It was painted a few years ago as a college assignment and although it  is a few years old now, I didn't get to completely finish it the way I wanted to at the time. So today I took it down from my loft were it was exposed to extremes of temperature of cold in the winter and boiling hot in the summer. So I am sure you can imagine that it is not in the best of shape.

My idea at the time was to paint a picture of myself looking into a window and each section of window was to be painted in a different style or colour. However, my tutor at the time, was not really happy with this idea, although to be honest, I think I just didn't explain my idea properly.

So instead, I created this as a series of self portraits that I painted in the negative over an eight day period. As you can see the first one or two portraits were not so good, but each day I did a painting, I started to get better and more confident with my brush work. I have to say, my favourite one is the top right painting as the brush strokes are loose and getting more confident. I painted the portraits as negatives, as I felt at the time unhappy about my art and to be honest I still do to a degree.  The frame of this painting is covered with photos of family and ancesters as well as copies of census forms that recorded my great grand parents.

To finish this peace, all I really needed to do was put some of the wood features of the window in and that's it. Not sure if it adds to the art, however, this was taken before I coloured the frames white, so at this stage it looks out of place.

Anyway, that my finished Evidence painting

The sculptural part of this project was the Evidence chair that I featured on this blog before, but here is a photo anyway.

Until next time, thank you for reading my blog and please feel free to make a comment.

Second Viking shield FINISHED

Second Viking shield FINISHED

I am glad to say that I have finished my second Viking shield and it turned out quite good. Typical of me, that I am not 100% happy with it, but then again I never am happy with my work. But that's me in a nut shell I suppose.

So this is the finished Viking shield, that has been aged and ready to be hung on the wall.

It took me ages to paint the design and when it was almost finished I realised it looked more Roman than Viking. I then looked at a few books on my bookshelf and decided that a few Celtic designs from the Book of Kells would look good in the medallions and I am hoping that it looks more Viking now.

I used natural earth colours like burnt umber and yellow ochre as these colours would have been available a thousand years ago. The green colour was made up with yellow ochre and some copper oxide. Once I was reasonably happy with the painting, I then aged it and put a few coats of wax over it all. There is a slight brown colour to the wax which gives it a rough antique finish which is what I was looking for.

I then pined and nailed the boss on to the shield before putting the handle on the back. I decided to pad the boss with some of the jute webbing as I feel this gives it the look and feel of a real usable Viking shield. This shield was however made and designed as an art piece, but I am confident enough that it would work well as a re-enactment Viking shield, although I am sure it would get destroyed in battle.

Over all, I am happy with this project and am fighting the urge to build another few shields. I think my next project will be to finish a self portrait piece that I made when I was in college a few years ago. The portrait is called Evidence and although I got a distinction for it, I never got round to putting a few final finishing touches to the piece.

So until next time, thank you for reading my blog and please comment if you wish.

Second Viking shield part 1

Second Viking shield part 1

After finishing my first Viking shield art project, I decided to make another one as I had found more timber up in my loft. So I started building it, but then realised I just did not have enough wood. As you may remember, this timber was used for the blind carving and my Viking shield. It came from a large industrial pallet that I took apart and put up in my loft over ten years ago.  The timber was warped, cracked and really rough, but I always knew I would use it for something other than cutting it up for firewood. 

Anyway, as I was saying, after starting to second shield, I now find I just do not have enough wood and also some it is just not usable. So I went down to the nearest DIY store and bought the cheapest cladding wood I could find and now have enough to also make a third shield as well.  As this new shield will be covered in canvas or linen and painted, as some original Viking shields would have been made, I went down to the local curtain shop and bought some large curtain liner cloth as this will do the job at a fraction of the cost, as linen and canvas is expensive. When the Vikings made this kind of cloth covered shield, they would then paint it with Viking / Celtic designs. This is what I intend to do once this shield is complete.

 

 So here are some of the construction processes that go into making my shield.

I did the edging the same way the Vikings would have done it, but used jute webbing instead of raw hide, as I just can not afford to buy raw hide. I feel the jute webbing looks every bit as good and as it is a sculptural art project and not going to be used for battle, I feel the jute works and looks authentic.

I have to say that putting the edging on the shield took me about 5 or 6 hours as it is made up from individual over lapping pieces that are nailed and sown on. After a few hours of working, I gradually found my rhythm when it was half way finished. Then it only took about an hour to complete the rest. 

I recon if I make this again, I will complete the edging in 1 ½ hours instead of 5 or 6.

So this photo shows the comparison between pre and post ageing. Also as you can see, I have temperately put a boss in the center of the edged shield, to give an indication what the finished piece will look like.    By the way, the two photographs were taken at different times of day and also by different cameras. 

Now all I have to do is research and create a Viking / Celtic design that I will then paint on, using natural earth colours like burnt sienna, red and orange ochre and colours that would have been available a thousand years ago.

So once again, thank you for reading my blog and I will show the completed shield in my next post.