Music Collection on Pinterest

 

 

I have recently been sorting out my music collection and have also been painting and drawing various pictures representing different artists, styles and genres. The two above represent Classical and Jazz, the Cellist is inspired by Jacqueline du Pre and Jazz is inspired by Ella Fitzgerald. There are ten pictures on the board at the moment.

 

You can find the board at http://www.pinterest.com/lornafinnigan/music-collection/

Concert for N-GHASaid

I had a really enjoyable evening, the night of the N-GHASaid concert on the 2nd October 2014. I hadn't been to the Northwick Park Hospital Social Club in years, it hadn't changed much and still has a traditional pub atmosphere. 

The proceedings got off to a slightly late start and then we were treated to a vocal and guitar duo, Charles on classical guitar and a poet, before it was my time to play my 'Music from the Movies' selection of piano pieces. Charles had bought his keyboard in for me to play and my piano teacher had suggested I purchase a universal sustain pedal, which would really enhance my performance. The pedal was a very good idea and I'm glad I made the detour via central London to get one. I was quite pleased with my performance and people said it sounded good, it would have really good if the keyboard had been touch sensitive and had one extra octave at the bottom.

After my tunes I was accompanied by my colleague, Kiran, and my daughter, Amy, who sang John Lennon's Imagine with me accompanying them on the keyboard. I was really pleased that my daughter had got up to sing, that was the highlight of my evening. After Imagine, we had Phillopino dancing interspersed with Kiran's Indian singing, both were excellent.

We had to go early as Amy had school in the morning, but my boss stayed on and won the raffle. In the morning I heard that we had managed to raise over £500 for the charity, so I was pleased with what we had achieved.

 

Passtimes Handmade Cards

The set of 'Passtimes' handmade cards came from a set of website designs I produced, which never made it onto the web. At the time I loved looking at old style web designs like 'Pat's Web Graphics' and 'Moyra's Web Jewels'. The passtimes designs are based on the popular hobbies of fishing, genealogy, book collecting, gardening, drama and wine making.

Music from the Movies

I have been practising hard for a concert next week in aid of the Northwick Park Hospital charity N-GHASaid. I am really getting into music from the movies at the moment and have compiled a mix of some of my favourite movie music on 8track. You can find it on my AmiloFinn 8Track channel at http://8tracks.com/amilofinn/music-from-the-movies

Lavender Matrouskas

Last year I became fascinated by the Matrouska doll design. I have found and been inspired by various Matrouska themed craft dolls around the web so decided to design and create some of my own. I had originally intended them to be quite a bit bigger, but found, in practice, that a small lavender matrouska is much more practical and pleasing.

Pictures at an Exhibition

'A little girl and her mother visit a magical art gallery where pictures come to life and take you on fabulous adventures. 'Pictures at an Exhibition' is inspired by the work of Modest Mussorgsky.'

I developed the 'Pictures at an Exhibition' idea into a short illustrated story and a DVD film which I sell on my craft stall. The pictures the little girl, Grace, visits, include a lot of stories and pictures by Amy and are divided into different coloured rooms as follows.

In the Blue Room: The Planets, The Puzzle, Gone Swimming

In the Green Room: The Tudors, The Legend of the Dream Box, Phoenix

In the Red Room: Through the seasons, Snow White, In the Garden

Details about these individual short films and the short films themselves are available on the LornaJHart YouTube page and the Lorna Finnigan Facebook page.

The Temps

Before I had my daughter I was always doing evening classes; tap dancing, French, computer networking, yoga, all sorts. One class I attended was the WEA writing course in Northwood Hills, while there I managed to get one of my poems published in a Katabasis volume entitled 'Work'. The poem is called 'The Temps'. I was on a fixed term contract when I wrote it, but am now in a permanent post and much happier in my work.

The Temps by Lorna Finnigan

This place is like a railway station

So many people come and go

Some you vaguely recognise

Some you barely know

I suppose it's to remind us all

Just how brief our lives will be

It makes you feel quite desolate

Temporarily

Xenophobia Magazine

I worked on Xenophobia in the 1980s in my teens. It was inspired by Smash Hits. My musical tastes at the time were New Romantic and Goth. Inside are features on Altered Images and Japan (the pop group), also art galleries and baroque influences. I made up two of my own groups, Beautiful Europeans and Bondage Strap, and also my own lyrics to imagined songs.

The Mythic Muse

This poem by me and accompanying picture by Amy concerns Greek mythology.

The Mythic Muse by LJ Finnigan

 

Psyche opens a door for you

Echo reflects your surprise

Guinevere offers you her hand

Venus gazes into your eyes

 

Boreas calls and Ophelia falls

Helen awaits her destiny

Miranda creates a terrible storm

The Daeniads sob with futility

A fairy tale beauty softly sleeps

On Circe’s island we feast on dreams

Penelope faces reality

A doomed lady drifts downstream

Pandora lifts the lid on mischief

The water nymphs ebb and flow

The mermaid combs her luxurious hair

Persephone leads you below

Saint Mary's Art Exhibition

 

I took part in the St Mary's Church Art Exhibition on Saturday 12th July. I was really happy with the display of eleven of my pictures that they had created for me.

 

  

I have been contributing my arts and crafts to St Mary's Summer and Christmas fetes since 2010. This year I contributed the above three paintings and in previous years I have contributed the pictures below. Recently one of my pictures was sold and the money donated to the church.

  

 

 

 

Charity Coffee Morning at Northwood Hills URC

 

I took my craft stall to the charity coffee morning at the United Reformed Church in Northwood Hills on Saturday 5th July. There was a good crowd and a nice display from the Northwood Live at Home people and a lady who made cards. People were generously interested in 'ALF Creations @ the Star Heart Cafe'. One lady bought three of my books; Amy's story book, our poetry book and my song book. I also sold cards and lavender scenters. A little girl bought a mauve and gold gadget pouch, which she was very pleased with, which was very sweet. Mum and I had a nice time. I am aiming to rethink several items on my stall before I do more craft events.

 

   

Another Day, Another Place

I originally wrote my play 'Another Day, Another Place' when I was eighteen after experiencing a 'holiday of a lifetime'; a three week coach tour of central and southern Europe. I have updated and condensed the play into a seven minute video, which includes more countries in north, west and eastern Europe, that I visited in my late teens and early twenties. The play was really about self-discovery and the friendships, loves and break-ups experienced by the young people on the tour bus, rather than a great appreciation of the places we were visiting. The accompanying music is made up of two songs written by me when I was seventeen and eighteen 'I can see you' and 'Waiting for me'.

Through the Seasons

'Through the seasons' began as an early computer project involving Paintbrush, Publisher and PowerPoint.

In 2012 I remoulded my words into four seasonal haiku which I included in an ALF Creations poetry book along with accompanying pictures by Amy.

 There is also another version of 'Through the seasons' on my YouTube page, which uses one of my songs 'For what I am' and one of Amy's illustrated poems 'What do people do'.

Northwood Craft Market

At short notice I took part in the Northwood Craft Market on the 7th June. It started off a very wet day and the market was quite slow and quiet, however there was some positive interest in my craftwork and I did sell a few dolls and cards. On the plus side it does mean that I still have a lot of stock left for my next craft morning on the 5th July at the United Reform Church in Northwood Hills.

 

The Garden and The Forest

These two illustrated poems are inspired by the fairy tales 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Little Red Riding Hood'. In particular the more adult versions of these tales as retold by Angela Carter in stories such as 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon' and 'The Company of Wolves'. Gardens and forests seem to me to represent the extremes of the green world, the tameness of a well-cultivated garden and the wildness of an unruly forest. In my garden I have one small border which I try to keep looking reasonably neat and pretty and also a wild patch at the back, which I struggle to keep in its place. I feel Belle and Scarlet are two sides of the same coin and are doing their best to stay calm and remain true to themselves when faced with the overwhelming desires of an intimidating beast or a ravenous wolf.

Lorna on Pinterest

I have joined Pinterest and started putting pictures of my dolls, illustrated poems and other artwork on various mood boards. I now have about a hundred pictures on there, spread over eight different mood boards.

Aspects of tea
Star Heart Dolls
Illustrated poems
Digital collage
Paintings
Craftwork
Sketches
Drama & Stories

I have found it a fun, enjoyable endeavour, please stop by and take a look at http://www.pinterest.com/lornafinnigan/

Richard's Things

'Richard's Things' was inspired by the title of a book by Frederic Raphael. I have an old ex-library copy of the book, but find it quite a difficult read. I really enjoyed drawing the sketches for my accompanying video. They were mostly produced in one day, a day off from work spent indoors waiting for the gas man.

Wise Women's Words

In one of my stories, Deja Vu, the main character, Sara, joins the Wise Women's Words reading group. This is a selection of weird tales, stories and poems the group discuss throughout the story.

 

Mr Jones by Edith Wharton

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

The Last Séance by Agatha Christie

The Blue Lenses by Daphne Du Maurier

Man size in marble by E. Nesbit

Death and Co. by Sylvia Plath

Daughters of the late colonel by Katherine Mansfield

Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti

The old nurse's story by Elizabeth Gaskell

 

This is a selection of treasured books I have by some of the chosen authors. The illustrated edition of 'Classics of the Macabre' by Daphne du Maurier is my favourite. It includes 'Don't look now' and 'The Birds' as well as my favourite story 'The Blue lenses'. I have often thought how wonderful an illustrated edition of Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber' would be.

A Time for Dolls

I had intended to produce a doll making video accompanied by one of my songs. I couldn't quite get to grips with this idea, so I have instead gone for a video presentation of my 'Book of Dolls'. The short film features 'The Making of the Virtues' in the middle of it and is set to my song 'Like Minds'.

The Excuse

Over the years I have enjoyed a number of exercise activities; swimming, which I still enjoy on Saturdays, all kinds of dancing, yoga and walking, which, not having a car, is also a necessity. However, at school PE was my least favourite subject, an attitude I shared with my best friend. This is an excuse letter I wrote to get her out of one particular games lesson. Unfortunately it was not taken seriously and she had to do the class anyway. The accompanying picture is by Amy.

 

Dear P.E. Staff,

Could you please excuse Alison from her P.E. Lesson as resorcinol and crystalline organic compounds have diffused and demolished her anti-bodies leaving her with a panachronism and making her myopic. She also has a thallium in her central nervous system which has devastated her libido and she is now waiting for 'good old' lobotomy which will hopefully cure her of her schizophrenia and xenophobia. At the moment she is undergoing treatment for her chronic social disorders and we are transferring her to another psychiatrist as the previous one went mad and is now dwelling in a lunatic asylum south of Watford. Despite her leanings towards anarchy and her militant tendencies which cause her to go impuris naturalis, she is strictly and strategically opposed to the filthy capitalist bourgeois pigs and the mediocrity that surrounds the succession of imperialists in pre-revolutionary Prussia. She is willing to disregard her objectives and maintain an elevated degree of over righteous sanity and stability for the good of the welfare state. Alison is a very sensitive five foot five demented gnome, would-be-hippi, who is a member of a samarium, occasional druid and her increasing interest in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks have led to the acknowledgement of the nuclear fallout shelter in the back garden. She is mentally deficient at the sanest of times and has occasional lapses of intensity which is only too common in manic depressives and delinquents. Alison has an inbuilt inferiority complex which led me to the conclusion that her grey matter is not as green as I once suspected. I have always found her very pleasant when she is not around. She has an atrocious claudication in the ninety degree, neither acute nor obtuse, wooden means of support and she is suffering with convoluted nervous tissue in her skull which has left her with exhaustion and brain fag. We hope that her allegiance with Satan and the fact that she is a hypochondriac and psychopath will not detain her for an abnormal length of time at the sanatorium. I hope you will understand as she still has gruelling primal therapy sessions to overcome.

Yours metaphysically,

The hunched backed antichrist with green teeth and a degree in melodramatic hair-dos with a tendency to hypocrisy

(AKA Alison's mother)