A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR

My favourite painter is Tintoretto. Others may have finer brushwork. Others may be more inventive, perhaps, but none can match his speed of execution and his ability to take a Bible story and give it life, earthy reality and power. So what did he really make of Christmas and the events leading up to and succeeding it? First the Annunciation, where it all started, with the angel Gabriel, for all the world like a hairy biker astride a Harley Davidson surrounded by uncontrollable cherubs. He’s crashing through and into the wreck of a squat where Mary sits and giving her the shocking news straight: that the divine bun is in the virgin oven.

Second a detail of the Adoration of the Shepherds. In this, the shepherds reaching upwards towards mother and baby and the placid solidity of the animals emitting normal smelly farmyard smells in what was clearly as an abnormal event  – the ability of Tintoretto the storyteller shines out. Unlike so many artists he’s in it for the news angle, for the headline story and it’s this and the immediacy of breaking news that strikes a chord. Tintoretto is king of the hashtag way ahead of his time. Here he is trending Christmas.

And finally in yet another version of the last supper (Tintoretto painted six of them that we know about) where his take on the story varied from “Board Meeting” to “Booze-Up” to, in this one, “Brawl” with Christ as referee  - ”back to your corners boys and come out fighting”.

In 2014 may you all share just a little of that verve for storytelling and seeing new ways of telling an old, old story so as to grab your audience and have them asking for more.

Become that presenter with the appetite to do what ad man Ed McCabe once described as the truth about innovation:

“There’s nothing new under the sun but there’s always a better way.”

Enjoy a happy Christmas, a wonderful New Year and a better way forward.

HAPPY EASTER AND SEE THINGS FROM A NEW PERSPECTIVE

“We don’t do God” Alistair Campbell famously told Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister.
Nor do I but I love the frisson of religion and especially the creativity that key events in the Christian year evoke. Here’s Tintoretto on the last supper. It’s a real meal full of life with a thieving cat, a dozing dog, sweating servants and ghost like angels lurking in the rafters.

Yes, this smells right for the days leading up to crucifixion when a landslide popularity swung the other way for Jesus Christ as the spin doctors got to work.
What a great story and what a great depiction of its dying moments here unlike Leonardo’s timorous last lunchtime snack of a painting.

Another recent story, familiar to most, is about Joseph Kony and the campaign to bring this Ugandan warlord to justice. Look at the enclosed video and begin to see new ways of making things happen.


KONY 2012: Part II - Beyond Famous from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.
The world we knew is crumbling (“crumble” is remember a slow words – “crumble” doesn’t mean next month, next year or even next decade.) But when Caroline Lucas MP for Brighton Pavilion – Green Party and George Galloway MP for Bradford West – British Respect Party (and gosh, won’t each of them hate being juxtaposed like this) overturn expectation and their voters disobey convention isn’t something new happening?

I detect the fragrant smell of rebellion.

For sure I think Mr Galloway isn’t exactly the most appealing of operators whilst being aghast in admiration at his ability to beat up his interrogators from Jeremy Paxman to the Senate Committee in Washington. Whilst Caroline Lucas is a slightly zany breath of fresh air in a world of political bluster.

The bottom line to all this is the established powers are all on a slippery slope – the “authorities” as a gardener I once had used to grimly describe them are losing out to the people.

It’s time to review the marketing strategies of the politicians and companies everywhere.
But however good a story - it has to look, feel and smell real.

And in the end that’s what I love about that Tintoretto painting as opposed to most religious art….it feels gritty and true not bland.