...I LIKE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.....

" My buddies all shun me since I turned to Jesus
   they say I am missing a whole world of fun........."

Having done a BA majoring in Italian Renaissance art I am more than familiar with the
iconography of the painted crucifix , particularly the suspended ones that seem specific to
Italy , mainly due to the altar at that time being in the center , towards the crossing.

This particular example is by Cimabue and is suspended above the altar in the church of San Domenico in Arezzo . Stylistically this format was pretty much of a dead end from a pictorial point of view , as  within the nature of the form there was no room for any visual development or storytelling - the only areas available for embellishment were at the four extremities.........

.......or , as in this example , just the two horizontal extremes ; the format thus remained pretty much inert........................... and then I came across this example.............

......' Maquette for Crucifix ' , an illustration from the book ' Gods of Heaven and Earth ' by
Joel-Peter Witkin ; a radical re-interpretation of the form , stripping in photographs at the four median points .............Saints ? Sinners ?..........Gods ?

The book was published in 1989 and was the second book of his photographs to be published , Was it intended as a maquette ?  Did he intend ever to construct the piece as an artwork ? I have no idea but
I found the re-working of the format interesting enough .........................suspended as the highlight of a photographic exhibition it probably would have courted controversy enough......

..GOING TO THE END OF THE LINE.....

" Well it's all right , riding around in the breeze ........
   Well it's all right , if you're living the life you please........"

David Millar rode his last race last week - at least , his last race as a professional cyclist.
Most professional cyclists , mainly road racers , expect three - five years at the top , if they
are lucky. Millar had seventeen.

The Grand Tours are I suppose the highlight of any road racers career - Millar rode in and
finished 5 Giros , 7 Vueltas and 12 Tours . He has said that a couple of stages of Le Tour were for him the most memorable , one in 2002 when he won the road stage into Beziers - " because at
that point I was still clean " , and Stage 9 in the 2010 race , riding in the Alps from Morzine-Avoriaz down to St-Jean de Maurienne , a distance of some 204.5 km. He felt as soon as he started that day , having previously crashed , " that something was not right " , and dropped by the peloton on the first climb of the day duly rode some 194km at the back of the field with two broken ribs , finishing some 45mins behind the stage winner . " .....it wasn't too bad on the flats , but on the climbs I could feel the
ends rubbing together ...."

The stage profile shown above would suggest that there were no too many flats that day .......and the temp was probably in the mid-thirties.

Strapped up , he continued in the race and on the morning of Friday 23rd July we saw him duly ride out at the start of Stage 18 from our home town of Salies-de- Bearn on the stage up to Bordeaux. . He

went on to finish the Tour in Paris on the sunday , Still strapped up.

Sometimes , when footballers being paid upwards of 100k a week complain of ' being tired ' you

wonder ......................

During his two years suspension , and on his road back to eventual redemption , he lived a couple of miles away from where we were living at the time , near Chapel-en-le-Frith in the Peak District .

Unsure at that time of where his future lay , and whether he would ever be allowed back into road racing , he applied for a job as a shop assistant at Borders in Stockport ( anyone remember Borders ?) and realised that he wasn't even qualified for that . 

Once you find out what you are good at , stick with it - through all the ups and downs.