Inspired by the Gospels…Calfskin, Migrating Birds, School Kids and the Return of Cuthbert

I haven’t been to see the Lindisfarne Gospels Exhibition yet, but I’m looking forward to it and I’ve been told it’s fantastic. What I have seen though, is inspiration all around, as artists and communities react to the return of the Gospels and remember a time when the North East of England (or Northumbria as it was then known) was a leading light in culture, religion and art – with Lindisfarne, Wearmouth and Jarrow and Whitby at the forefront.

The Lindisfarne Gospels Exhibition lists more than three hundred related events all over the North-East, but there’s plenty more than that; the first school in my village hasn’t been included on any official lists but they’ve been inspired and have created.

Here’s just a small sample for you to taste…

First, we have a beautiful tapestry in Bede’s World, created by their ‘A-list volunteers’, more affectionately known as the Bede’s World Nana’s. Working with Susan Moor of the Northumbrian Scribes they used a quote from Bede’s Life of St Cuthbert; his vision of the soul of Aidan being taken up to heaven. The colours were influenced by those found in the Lindisfarne Gospels and were dyed from plants, some of which came from Bede’s World garden, while the wool came from the sheep on Bede’s World farm.

Judy Hurst is an artist with an impressive pedigree and is also a lovely woman. I’m planning to spend time with her in the near future, to find out more about her and her work, and I’ll share it all when I can. Her work  is  “inspired  by  her  knowledge, respect  and  deep  love  of  the  architecture,  Celtic  history  and  wildlife  of  Britain  and  France.” The following work, also in display in Bede’s World, was created using a full calfskin (that’s what the Gospels were made with), sourced and prepared in the traditional way…

Next comes Bob Beagrie; a poet from Middlesbrough with various awards and prizes. Bob is a senior lecturer in creative writing at Teesside University, but what impresses me most is not his academic credentials, but his writing. He reads with pace and precision, which is why you don’t find a break in the following poem about Cuthbert. I first heard him a few years ago at a poetry event and I was bowled over. If you appreciate what follows do check his reading of Seer Sung Husband on youtube, set to live music.

Cuthbert

On the return to the North of the Lindisfarne Gospels

A column of light, momentary pillar, out there,

this side of the turbines and taller,

no end to it, and no beginning,

as if it plunges into the cold depths,

slices down into the hidden bed,

not for the congealed blood of prehistory

nor to tap a yet to be depleted reservoir

of natural gas, but straight through the crust,

the mantle to the white hot molten core;

out there between the cargo ships and tankers

and the patterns the frail descendants

of tempests make as they limp ashore

in frothy bubbles that look like frogspawn;

speaking the one long call of, Oh,

a column of light, momentary pillar

and Spring on its way, at last, at last!

after such a stubborn Winter, and its him,

standing on a kind of raft

made from lobster pots, driftwood, rope,

lashed and tangled, paddling it inward, its him,

thin and straight as a razor fish

and are those seals that dip and frolic

in his wake in the long call of Oh?

But neither the dogs nor their walkers

have noticed anything unusual,

the toddler with his ball misses a kick

falls onto his bottom, his mummy

laughs, picks him up and off he trots,

the queue into Cod Almighty lengthens

by the minute, an ice cream splatters

onto the pavement, someone cries, Oh,

Mrs Morrison trapped in the rockshop

sells another rainbow candy lollypop,

but he is bringing the light of his wisdom,

returning from his long isolation to wash

off the contempt we feel for ourselves

and each other, the wealthy for the poor

the needy for the privileged, the strivers

and the shirkers, the inborn and newcomers

the haves and the have nots, the entitled

and the beholden, the inner and the outer;

will he wield the column of light,

momentary pillar, staff of life, to shear away

the trappings of our closely held devisions,

cleave the difference with a common vision,

but looking again I see the glare of the sun

upon the waves, clouds, their shadows

and he, along with the raft and his seals

was nothing more than a brief flight of fancy

a romance, instant of wishful thinking,

glint on my glasses, symptom of brain ache

so I stride over dry sand and shell, upon

the belittled citadels of glory, wealth,

knowing how a man of my age of this age

should know better than pin any hope

upon a legend even those from illuminated books –

for God’s sake, the things they can do

these days with CGI, with soft focus

montaged edits and backing music

subliminal messaging and NLP to beckon you

into the swell and sweep of commercial belief

that it’s possible to fill the hole, to plug the leak,

to heal the wound; oh, how it would make

those poor, devout, scribbling monks choke,

and the sea, well, it continues, as ever

to mouth its one drawn out call of, Oh.

Stephen Livingstone is an artist currently living in Durham. Inspired by nature, by landscape and habitats, he often uses natural or found substances in his work. It seems Stephen is finding inspiration easy to come by at present; he was part of an exhibition at the Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle recently and has work at the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Durham, on the way up the cathedral. The following work (and what follows are only very small sections of much bigger pieces of work) are currently on display at Bede’s World (noticing any pattern yet?).  Inspired by migrating birds of the Northumbrian coast and the carpet pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels, his work is much more impressive and large-scale than my photographs show…

And finally, for here at least, Seaton Sluice First School were inspired by the Lindisfarne Gospels after a visit by BBC Newcastle and an historian. Green Class teacher Mrs Allan invited me to speak  about my journey but unfortunately we couldn’t find a time convenient to both of us before the summer break – and so she let me take away some of the kids artwork to look at it. It was all brilliant, and I’ll leave you with a selection…