Song of Seikilos

Few years ago, I read this amazing article about the song of Seikilos. It's the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. The find has been dated variously from around 200 BC to around AD 100. The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found engraved on a tombstone, which says

" I am a tombstone, an image. Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance "

Once I heard the music after restoration on youtube, I had this weird sensation of familiarity as if I heard it before. Different from the morden day ancient Greek film BGM, the melody, is so pure clam and simply beautiful, moved me deeply inside. With drum, flute and harp accompaniment , I can almost imaging an warm summer evening, the folks of ancient Greek gathered together at one small square in the city with marble stairs, not far way, the food market was just closing down, People took fish, vegetables and bread back into the basket prepared for tomorrow. In the corner of square sat a small group of people with music instruments, wind gently lift up their sleeves as they were arranging  the position to sit or stand and carefully turning the strings. Then the nightfall, the sound of flute and harp raised, music started. And I was the strange listener stood on a distance hill, so far way that it took the music note 2000 years to reach me. But it did, eventually, without knowing a single world of ancient Greece somehow I feel that I can understand it.

Hoson zēs, phainou
Mēden holōs sy lypou;
Pros oligon esti to zēn
To telos ho chronos apaitei 
While you live, shine
Don't suffer anything at all
Life exists only a short while
And time demands its toll. 


Later on I found the translation of the lyric ( above, with English translation ) and that's exactly what I feel about this song. Sun rise sun set, moon rise moon set, earth spinning day and night. Days, months, years and decade pass, we come and go, nothing changes.

So I did a little drawing according to ancient Greek vase design while listen to this song.
Also you can click the audio track below to hear the beautiful Song of Seikilos.

End of the World

I'm a big fan of Haruki Murakami. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World  is definitely one of my favourite book of his. From last week I started a personal project of making the map of the town of End of the world based on the novel. The almost desolated like town that make me feel lonely but enchanting.

Although I know that no one born in modern world could ever manage to settle down in a bleak place like this, however I still wish there was a town like this somewhere in the world, isolated from rest of the universe. And I know, inside that town, the beast will walk, the shadow will fade and the old dream will be stored in the skull and left on the dusty library bookshelf.

God's in his heaven, All right with the world.

Click here to visit my Etsy shop if you would like to purchase the print of this map.
or any other question just simply contact me by : guobetty@gmail.com

Click the thumbnails below to see details in large scale.

Printmaking taster weekend ( Day2 )

The 2nd day of the class we tried Etching. I like drawing a lot so really enjoy the lesson. Specially, I like that it need so many progress to produce one print, lots of people hated it as it was not easy job. However by preparing the metal plate by hand, smoothed the corner, washed off the grease then "cooked" the wax to dry so it shins like mid night coal. After that we draw with a fine sharp needle pen ,put on as many detail as possible, Then put the plate into acid liquid. Finally scratch off the wax by using dirty cloth ...... I loved and enjoyed every single moment. My hands were so dirty that the ink mark stayed on it for 2 days, but I do experienced something  rigorous and almost religious.

The pleasure that only hand craft man in the old days might experience, no machine no digital adjustment, just pure hand craft art. I could feel the texture of paper and smell of the oil ink, that really make you connect more with your artworks.

Here are my 2 days class result:
" Stove and Kettle" Black and white print from Etching.
" Lamppost by night" multiply color lino cut print from Relief.

 

Printmaking taster weekend ( Day1 )

Today I went to a two day printmaking taster weekend held by The Art Academy near London bridge. I've always wanted to learn some traditional printmaking skill. Today we tried linoleum relief with color reductive, which turns out lot harder than I expect. By using only one sheet to complete more than one color coating ( we did 3 color coating today), we have to plan out which lines to cut out first and also think about the color overlay result in mind. According to Victoria our instructor , the prints done by reductive way somehow held more value than the multiple relief , because there will be only limited amount of print that can be produced.

When I used to do color coating in stamp making I usually use more than one rubber block so the print can be produced infinity , as long as the rubbers don't wear out.  The way that you have to think all 3 layer at the same time is quite confusing as you can not see the final result until you had your last layer cut.

Apart from this challenge, the whole day had been really fun. In the end the 4 final print turns out better than I expected and funny enough, I somehow unconsciously chosen the color of my outfit today (dark brown, khaki and yellow), Victoria said people who come to the course always seems to do that which is really an interesting observation.

Also I had this amazing tea she made for me ,apparently just normal Sainsbury's tea bag but I can taste something different from it ,more like a nice burned, earthy fragrance. She said the secret is the bone china mug I used. Really? I never know the mug could cos such impact on taste of the tea before, will defiantly experiment on this theory later!

Last but not least, she brought us to this print material supply shop near the studio, I bought some basic lino set looking forward to try to make some small print at home later.