It's finally here a collection I've put my whole heart into. When filming The Outstanding Artist it brought a lot of emotion out that I didn't know I have and honestly I'm still trying to understand why and where it stems from.
I've had a lot of really tough times in my life, the biggest being loosing my mum at a young age and I've always had to pick myself up off the floor to build again.
I felt like life is out to get me, that I'm being punished for something but I think that its life testing us, making you stronger and teaching you resilience.
We wouldn't be who we are without these challenges and life experiences today.
This collection has a lot to do with that, resilience. We need resilience. We have to take those moments and those challenges by the hand and grow. Spread your wings and fly.
I have decided to write a poem with each painting and I asked my dad to write one as well to see how they make him feel as we all experience paintings differently.
'There is no dark soul here,
appearances deceive.
Don’t judge a book by its cover.
I am the trickster of the sky,
dancing, playing,
laughing even through the wind.
I have felt pain.
I have survived winters
and still, I rise.
You don’t forget the storm,
but you learn from it.
Every fallen feather,
every shadowed night,
a stepping stone on the path upward.
So much to say but no clue where to start.
The heart and mind listen,
but we just have to believe,
and we will be carried to the heavens.'
By Eleanor Birch
'What do you feel when you hear my raucous call across the twilight?
What do you feel when the rookery explodes into life?
What do you feel when we dominate the sky, as if Spitfires in combat?
What do you feel when you see me cleaning up after the fallen one for whom life has departed?
What do you feel when my polished coal eye meets yours?
You call me Carrion as if this defines me
When I gather, not a flock but a 'murder'
Is your vulnerable imagination my reality, or is there more?
A dualistic life perhaps like Guns and Roses
The dark and the beautiful brought together
The artists eye sees beyond the darkness to dress you in loves symbol
Pointing perhaps to another story only curiosity will tell.
How do you see me now?'
By Ian Birch
