CALENDAR 2025… A brutal Diatribe…
It’s just startling how much the world has changed in 8 years; largely… in fact, overwhelmingly, it has been for the worst. Although a landscape photography calendar seems to be last form of ‘product’ that should highlight our burgeoning dystopia. This is what I’ve decided to do. In truth it is really hard for me to sell meaningful art, whether it be paintings, photography or drawings… Quite simply people are not interested in the encapsulation of sincere reflections on our time. People like to buy landscape photography calendars. The fact that I slip in these brutal and honest diatribes into what is widely considered a genre of pictorial romanticism is an act of art in itself. If this is the vehicle that will carry my message, my expression most widely. Then so be it…
DOWN WITH DYSTOPIA... I AM SEARCHING FOR THE LIGHT.
Every year since 2017 I have been using this block of text to sum up the previous year on planet Earth. It has not become easier over time.
Naturally, I’m searching in the shadows for a sliver of light that could lead us out of the mess that the so-called "grown-ups" have made of... well, everything. When I was a boy, and even well into my twenties, I was led to believe that adults, due to their many extra years of lived experience, knew exactly what they were doing. Admittedly, the last decade has been a particularly low point for mature, competent, and rational thought. But now that I am meant to be an adult myself, I've realised that, in fact, it is the children who have it right.
Is it right for me to sweep aside active genocide, brutal AI-driven robot warfare, the reinvigorated threat of intercontinental nuclear war? The looming, largely neglected environmental cataclysm? The failing post-war infrastructure, the cost-of-living crisis, exponential rates of homelessness and the fact that technically, Britain is bankrupt? No, I cannot sweep it aside. How many times can one heart break, lying motionless, staring up at a small illuminated rectangle, fingering it, stupefied, searching for answers and finding none?
We are living in a time of great change, an over turning. From the human to the Bee; we all know it, we all feel it. The Jet Stream, the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, Solar maximum; big stuff, changing rapidly in mysterious and unexpected ways. It’s no wonder our heads are so heavy and we persist in making foolish and misguided democratic decisions. I think anyone that has studied history is aware that what we are witnessing right now is ‘end of empires’ stuff.
I listened to a podcast about the ‘Strauss-Howe generation theory’. It proposes that history follows a cyclical pattern, similar to nature's seasons. That history is shaped by four recurring generational archetypes—Prophet, Nomad, Hero, and Artist—each born roughly every 20 years, forming a "saeculum" or a complete human lifespan of 80-100 years. As generations age and progress through stages of influence—childhood, young adulthood, midlife, and elderhood—their ascendance in society shifts the cultural mood and drives a cyclical process of growth, maturation, entropy. Death and rebirth.
At the beginning of 2024 I must confess that I had to fully abandon all hope of any human led salvation. Trying to keep pace with news, politics and social trends became a virus that infected my mind, an insurmountable kibosh which stifled my ability to find joy in my own existence. Some really awful things happened in my friend / family group in 2024; brutal, unjust hardships. If I attempted to carry the weight of the world on top of all this I would have completely crumbled. So I committed to search for the joy in those around me, to cultivate my community, to laugh and holler, to dance and spread nonsense. I am so lucky to have the love of a good woman, the support of lifelong friends and the nurturing of my amazing, almost-adult children. These people are my hope, my salvation, my future. Performing in the band again has reignited a passion for life and galvanised my appreciation of how vital and empowering a single moment can be… That one big down beat, the touch of your lover, the wide-eyed infant still alive and unfettered within your growing child.
