The last word

SKY THAT HARBORS HEAVEN (detail) J. Rothenberg

Phil writes:

We all want to be heard, be valued, be loved. The Understanding the Ritual exhibition at The Storey gallery in Lancaster, is now in its final couple of days and the artists in it (including myself) will have to take our work down and hide it away again, in studios, or cupboards or under beds. It's always a sad moment, but I'm also aware of how very lucky we are are to have a chance to showcase and show-off in the first place.

These shots above and below were taken while I was invigilating yesterday. I'm delighted to be in an exhibition with the octogenarian poet Jerome Rothenberg, Gaye Black (aka punk rock icon Gaye Advert) and the irrepressible Pete Flowers who curated - plus many other good folks. My sister Finella and I (under the name The Gingerbread Tree) exhibited our bookwork The Practical Senior Teacher, an old school textbook which we've been 30 years making/destroying with collages, fire, paint. Jerry Rothenberg's poem The Sky That Harbors Heaven was the only textwork in the show - and my close-up photo of a line from the poem gives Jerry the last word...

Paintings by Pete Flowers and Geoff Parr.

SENIOR PRACTICAL TEACHER, Finella & Phil Davenport

UNDERSTANDING THE RITUAL exhibition at The Storey, Lancaster.