A Book & its' Cover

Books have featured prominently in my day today.

 I was at Buckie Library today as part of Book Month. My remit was to produce a piece of art designed around the opening lines of my favourite book. My all time favourite book is The Diary of a Nobody written by George & Weedon Grossmith in about 1895. The copy I have belonged to my Grandad in the 1940's & is one of my most treasured possessions. I took the opening passage , then converted it into the modern equivalent & embellished it with a design comprising of piles of books & a long row of coloured pencils, 3 deep. Here's how it turned out.....

The next 'book' thing that happened was that during the event on 2 separate occasions, 2 elderly gentlemen came over to see what I was doing. Unusual in itself, as men normally pass my table by without a second glance. One had been a cake decorator & was fascinated by pattern in all its' forms. He even has a book all about the patterns on man- hole covers! Now I know there's a Zentangle pattern based on one of these (Man-O-Man), but a whole book of their designs?! Anyway he said he'd put all his cake patterns on a disc & would make a copy for me to see if it would inspire me in my work. How fab will that be?

The second man was an artist himself & seemed very impressed by the little I had time to show him about Zentangle. He asked if I'd go along to his local Art Group & give a talk about it.
 These encounters got me thinking. I have long felt that elderly people are, by & large, overlooked by society in general, in terms of what they have to offer & the wealth of experiences they have had. I remember as a child, loving to sit at my Nana's kitchen table in Elgin, listening to her blethering with her sisters. It stands to reason that through  all the decades they've lived,there must be a lot to tell!
I was so enthralled that I even wrote some of it down as they were chatting.
                                            So you see, never judge a book by its' cover!