Art, grief, culture, cities and creative survival – new writing and visual thinking for February.
Welcome to the February edition of alisonlittle.blog — a month shaped by quiet remembrance, political unease, digital identity, and the creative traces we leave behind. From intimate flash fiction and grief-letter installations to exhibitions in Liverpool and London, February brings together personal storytelling and cultural commentary across art, place and memory.
🌿 Featured this month
💌 Grief Letter: Letters to Forever – Crypt Gallery, London
Alison’s deeply personal contribution to Letters to Forever forms part of an evolving grief-letter installation at Crypt Gallery in London.
In Grief Letter, Alison writes a handwritten message to her late partner Dave, two years after his death during the first wave of COVID-19. The article explores the emotional landscape of writing to someone who is no longer here — and how a growing, collective archive of voices creates a shared language for loss.
Key themes: grief writing, memorial art, collective remembrance, COVID-19 loss, creative healing.
🤖 Can People Escape the Neurophoria? – FACT Liverpool
Discover Can People Escape the Neurophoria? at FACT Liverpool, a powerful new media exhibition exploring artificial intelligence, human choice and digital identity through immersive installations.
The exhibition sits alongside works by Bassam Issa Al-Sabah and Nina Davies, positioning Liverpool at the centre of contemporary digital and speculative art practice.
Key themes: AI and art, immersive installations, digital identity, future technology culture.
🏔️ A Mega-Casino on Snowdon?
What would it mean to build a neon-lit mega-casino on the summit of Snowdon?
This imaginative works re-envisions Snowdonia as a high-altitude world of luxury hotels, heliports and late-night entertainment — before confronting deeper questions about conservation, access, commercial ambition and the future of one of the UK’s most cherished landscapes.
Key themes: landscape ethics, over-tourism, conservation, speculative architecture, cultural futures.
✨ Manchester’s Tower of Light, Deansgate
Four years after its unveiling, Manchester’s Tower of Light on Deansgate remains a striking example of contemporary civic architecture.
Blending shell-lace inspired form, laser-cut steel and sustainable low-carbon technology, this award-winning structure explores how decorative urban design can still communicate pride, place and environmental responsibility.
Key themes: public art, sustainable architecture, urban design, Manchester culture.
✍️ New fiction & reflective writing
- The Loss – a flash fiction response to Silhouette: burnt orange by Charlotte Hodes, exploring grief, miscarriage and quiet recovery through an intimate moment on the Dorset coast.
- Foraging Memories – a reflective short story on grief, nostalgia and the emotional power of everyday objects in an increasingly digital, contactless world.
- Bullet Mark – a haunting flash fiction piece capturing the quiet violence of survival through spare, lyrical imagery.
- The Eternal I – a provocative flash fiction response to the Errant Muse exhibition at Victoria Gallery & Museum, examining identity, image and the commodification of the self.
🏛️ Art, politics and cultural commentary
- A fictional interior world of Mrs Trump
A haunting work of political fiction responding to a recent documentary release, imagining the private emotional life of Melania Trump during a fictional second stay in the White House.
Although public figures such as Donald Trump appear, all events and inner lives are entirely imagined. - Is the word ‘Spinster’ still an insult in 2026?
From Jane Austen and Bridget Jones to Sylvia Pankhurst, this article explores how language has shaped cultural attitudes toward long-term single women — and how those attitudes may finally be changing. - The Mar-a-Lago face explained
An in-depth look at how cosmetic aesthetics, political identity and conservative media culture have become visually intertwined in the Trump era — and why the debate is now reaching the UK.
🖼️ Artists, relationships and creative histories
- Tracey Emin and Billy Childish: a turbulent relationship behind one of British art’s most famous stories
As Tracey Emin returns to Tate Modern, this feature revisits her early relationship with Billy Childish, tracing how emotional conflict and creative rupture helped shape two sharply contrasting artistic paths. - Shrines Through the Lens – Graham Smillie and roadside memorial photography
Liverpool-based photographer Graham Smillie reflects on documenting makeshift shrines and public memorials across the city, revealing how grief, politics and community intersect in public space.
🏙️ Cities, memory and contested space
- Graffiti on the Liverpool Loop Line
Once a short-lived railway experiment, the Liverpool Loop Line now forms a quiet green corridor through Liverpool — but its tunnels and walls have become a battleground of identity, protest and belonging, recorded in rapidly changing street art.
❤️ Style, everyday culture & slow pleasures
- Hearts aren’t just for Valentine’s Day
A confident, modern guide to heart-led fashion, interiors, culture and city experiences — showing how to live with the heart trend all year round, without pink clichés. - Ale, of the ginger variety
Why ginger ale remains Alison’s favourite drink — a quiet companion for slow café mornings and real conversations.
🏃♀️ Creative energy & digital practice
- The ultimate running playlist
A carefully structured playlist for warm-up, motivation and cool-down — with practical headphone tips to help transform your next run. - February Digital Sketching Experiments
A shift towards process-led digital sketching and recorded mark-making — revealing mistakes, decisions and creative growth through green-heart, literary and fruit-based animations.🌼 Looking ahead to March on alisonlittle.blog
🌼 Looking ahead to March on alisonlittle.blog
In March, the blog turns towards early spring light, movement and fresh creative energy — with new writing and visual work coming from time spent in Delamere Forest and along the Sandstone Trail.
Alongside outdoor exploration, March will also feature:
- a spring running kit bag refresh (what’s genuinely useful as the seasons change),
- a first look at new exhibitions opening this spring, and
- a curated edit of fashion and style for warmer months, focusing on practical, wearable pieces rather than fast trends.
It’s a month centred on re-starting, re-moving and re-looking — at landscape, culture and everyday creativity.
Thank you for reading and supporting independent writing and art at alisonlittle.blog.
February’s work reflects on what remains — words, marks, objects, places and voices — and how creativity continues to hold memory in motion.
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