Thought provoking

Today I ambled past the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol and spotted this new sculpture outside. I walk past this building twice a day and had never set foot inside before. I know better now! This stunning building is housing a sculpture show by David Backhouse. His work is brilliant. I checked out another art exhibition while I was there. It was by a chap who has focused his oil paintings on depictions of death, sex and aging - there are plenty of arresting and disturbing images on display. Among them was a dead body of an old man which some people refused to look at.

What really struck me as I was taking it all in was how fantastic the arts are for making us pause and consider the human condition. What we feel, what we're doing with our lives, what we're afraid of and unwilling to face. In this ever faster world where we're always racing around I found it powerful to stop and consider what it means to be human - in all its aspects.