Much of the literature of the 20th Century has been written in response to momentous events such as the first and second world wars. Draw up a short list of some of the momentous events that have been hitting our planet in the last 5 years and suggest a few ways in which writers might try to make sense of any one of these events. Your response to this suggestion, might itself be a piece of creative prose or poetry.

As we look back over the course of literature, we become entangled in wars, politics, cultural shifts, pain, love, nature and just about anything else you can humanely think of. I sit down to write these blog topics in the most creative way I can, but I become stumped – not because they are hard but because it seems I am not capable of creating anything that I feel has already been done before. This leads me to think about the issues that have prevailed the last five years and how they are going to be written about in a way that has not already been done.

It’s not doubt that the last five years have been something catastrophic not only to the planet but to the human race in general. From fires to floods, global warming and coronavirus, we have endured a lot. How it is though that we are going to communicate these atrocities that differs from the past? We seem to live in a time where imitation has become a way of life, we follow and repeat. This may be looks, words, phrases, jokes, videos… we have become a society that thrives off assimilating into one another. It is almost as if you could say that our minds have become mirrors. How then, are we going to talk communicate these disasters and try to make sense of them if it is just the same thing over and over again. After putting a lot of thought into this, I guess that is exactly how – we as a modern society are going to come to terms with what has happened through social media and the internet. Through sharing ideas, poems, prose works, pictures, videos and artworks from our time online. We are living in a generational peak for communication. Everything will be archived and available for centuries to come. These moments will not be written down on spare pieces of paper in the middle of a trench and forced to survive, they will thrive and be shared worldwide.

I believe that’s how we are going to make sense of it – as a collective, sharing ideas on the internet and being accessible to it all. If we were to look at the coronavirus pandemic, we are going to try and make sense of this through one another, online. I’m almost positive it is going to get messy as facts are blurred and lies illuminated but nevertheless, we will turn to the online world for answers as we always do.

Describe the Picasso painting above. In other words paint his picture IN WORDS. Say briefly what makes it “modernist”.

Pablo Picassos’s painting “Femme nue au fauteuil à bascule “. Like many of Picassos pieces, my eyes don’t know where to look first. The colours, the distorted shapes, textures and random images burst from the canvas.  Gazing at it is like a child going to the carnival for the very first time; overwhelming yet spectacular. Primarily, it may seem incomprehensible. One could almost say it’s like a cake. A bountiful of flavour-some ingredients mixed together that at first appear to be a gooey, sometimes grainy, sloppy puddle. However, eventually with time and cooking it becomes a sweet cake. Just as in time, Picassos ‘ingredients’ have created the perfect testament to the modernist period, the perfect ‘cake’.

The colouring is the first ingredient that can be drawn from the painting. The harsh contrast of the black aside the bright tones of the orange, green and blue against the white creates a vibrant backdrop and sets our eyes towards the figure.  A blue palm tree sits in the left-hand corner of the piece, appearing isolated from the rest of the painting. Around the white figure are two swirling brown shapes that look almost like a snake; all while sitting atop a bright red floor. Although the use of these colours seem obscure, Picassos particular choice of such invigorating tones alludes’ to a time of great change and experimentation. One in which strays from tradition and aims to shock viewers in order to receive a response; a typically modernist concept.

As you peer your eyes more deeply into the image, various shapes form and textures come alight. The title translates to ‘woman naked in armchair to the scale’, however at first one might not see this as they are distracted by the colours and its peculiar shapes. While delving deeper into it, one can make out the brown swirls to be the head of an armchair and the white to be a figure of a woman. The textures of the piece also aid in identifying these aspects of the painting as the armchair is carved with fine lines indicating a decorative piece and the woman is etched with smeared black paint, highlighting the figure. As well as this, the colours of the backdrop not only vary in colour but also grain, illuminating the distorted presentation of the woman. It is evident that all ‘ingredients’ of the painting are fragmented and collaged. The body parts of the woman are not in order, the colours and textures are confronting and the armchair is created in an odd shape. Looking at the way in which these elements have been crafted on the page gives insight into the modernist period. The fragmentation and sense of disorder it conveys is suggestive of the declining state of society (which makes sense being created on the cusp of war). As the woman is painted with faded black ink and her body doesn’t align, she represents human destruction. Moreover, the armchair can see be analysed as a symbolic notion, highlighting negative materialistic ideologies.

All in all, as one analyses these elements or ‘ingredients’ it is evident that Picassos painting becomes the perfect cake or more specifically, the pinnacle of modernist ideology.

Image taken from: Micheal Griffith’s WordPress site

Describe an experience in your own life where you seem to have touched something much deeper than your ordinary everyday experience.

It’s not everyday that a girl my age gets to MC a wedding. Sure, I agreed to do it knowing well and true the complete significance of the day for the couple but it didn’t strike me that this day, would engrave itself in my soul for life.

30th of August, 2019. Seas of rolling green dotted with grazing cattle and Australian bush merged into one blur outside of my passenger window. I couldn’t tell if this churning feeling inside of my stomach was nervousness or excitement, maybe a mix of both. The rain began to fall a little heavier, tinting the image on the other side of the glass but not staining its beauty in the slightest. As I step outside I am hit with the sweet saviour of mildewed meadows and aged oak. What a sight for sore eyes – that’s until I am greeted by flying makeup brushes and popped champion by a very nerve-struck bride to be. Before we know it, it’s go time.

I’ve never felt more comfortable than I did in this moment, with hundreds of peering eyes waiting for what I had to say next. I grew very familiar with the microphone that night as it begun to mould perfectly into the shape of my palm. All had seemed to be going well, people laughing, crying and coming together as one. Then a magic moment speared me right through the heart – the maid of honours speech. As she described life long memories and her love for the bride I glanced over to my best friend, who with one tear rolling down her face and an unforgettable pout uttered the words “I love you” from the other side of the room. A love like no other filled me whole in this moment, an almost indescribable feeling. I was ambushed as memories soared through me, good and bad. I couldn’t help but think about how this one person had been my rock through it all and remains that way to this second. On this very day, I came to realise the real meaning of love, happiness and friendship, a feeling so much stronger than I had ever felt before.

We continued to dance into the night. Eventually it was just her and I left on the floor, singing our hearts out to old tunes and laughing like we never had before. It was this very day, the 30th of August that my heart was branded with a forever lasting friendship. It was on this day that I realised, the true power of three very simple words, I love you.

Image – taken by myself at the wedding location.