Yesterday I went to the National Gallery in London to see my old (as in past, not age you understand) 'Children's Literature' tutor telling stories. She is a storyteller for adults but I had never been able to make one of her performances before. The National Gallery puts these story-telling events on about every two months and ask an artist to choose a picture that inspires them. In this case we found ourselves in room 46 in front of Degas' 'Inside the Girl Inside the Study'. I must admit I thought the story/stories would be about the painting but my tutor had picked up on the fact that Degas painted out the girl's engagement ring and use this as a basis to tell us stories of Egyptian gods, Chinese merchants and a magical coat and shoes. It was wonderful. I really don't know how she performed alone for fifty minutes telling us stories and enhancing them with exotic musical instruments. She does quite a lot of performances around London and I'm hoping to see her next week at the British Museum - if you can catch it try and do so!
I thought that stories would be a good theme for this blog. After all the National Gallery tells a story itself, of Britain's imperial and cultural power - at least that's what it would have been built to say. I love the National Gallery but probably not in July when it is really busy. Unfortunately I didn't have time to look around as I was going back to the City to meet a couple of friends for more stories! I did spend 5 minutes outside taking a few pictures (what a surprise!) to share. Let's see if I can link them all to stories?
What a great ship in a bottle on the fourth plinth! This conjured up stories of pirates and adventurers of days long ago sailing the high seas - 'Avast me hearties!' (Or something along those lines) |
This is the Olympic clock (maybe there are others?) which tells the story of all the hopes and hard-work that are required before the Opening Ceremony next year. |
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