July-October 2025 became the period when the activities, developments and explorations of the past fifteen years came together as a sense of achievement.
I reached my 80th birthday; had nine books published as paperbacks and ebooks (with another two in ebook form only); I took over a local community hall and arranged more than 120 works of art (as a display rather than a well-curated exhibition); had a good number of think-pieces written and lodged on the www.thewordsthething.org.uk website; had recorded my approaches to writing and my art learning journey as two blogs; had found reasons to wander around a number of cities ….
It felt like a productive stocktake of somehow having reached a point that marked the summation of that phase and a place from which to pivot off in new, different, as yet unknown directions.
The Development Vocabulary was still relevant. The Social Issues were just as pressing. The will to enjoy myself trying out new things, learning, puzzling and digressing felt just as motivation.
Some strands of these new pathways were beginning to form as possibilities:
More on neuroscience. What is going on chemically in a brain that is thinking, remembering, being creative, improvising ….?
Getting to grips with the very basics of musical notation, music theory, the structure of enjoyable sounds ….
Particular focus on jazz – what made some jazz likeable? What goes on in the mind of players who are improvising, in the flow, demonstrating such flexible skills and abilities ….?
Getting more competent at chess, at playing musical instruments …
Finding new reasons to wander in Birmingham and in other cities; absorbing what those cities had to offer …..
Extending contemporary artmaking to include different content, and different methods such as creative video/ sound art …..