Art from our travels

 A quick follow up to Tuesday's travel post, to show some of the art we experienced whilst we were away.

In Norway we saw a fair bit of street art which brought smiles to our faces. We didn't get to any museums or galleries (May Day public holiday in Bergen) but we saw some lovely pieces on the streets.

And this was street art to me! We paused as we dragged suitcases to the train station and turned and saw this massive stretch of board which had been home to many many posters over time.

In between flight arrivals and departures in Aberdeen, we made it to the Gallery there. There was a wonderful exhibition of embroidery samplers which was a joy to spend time with.

I like that these artworks have survived the centuries and they tell us about the women and young women who worked them. Their names are stitched into them. They are foregrounded, not backgrounded.

I also like the layers of symbolism in some of them - peace wreaths, forget-me-nots, doves and more. Here are a few of my favourites.

The oldest sampler there - by Hannah Bosvile, age 13, 1755

Mary Margaret Payne, 1827. 

Eliza Luke, 1799.

Mary Helen McMahon, 1885. I like the length of this scroll-like sampler, and of course the white on white of parts of it. It demonstrates a number of embroidery stitches, but also various dressmaking techniques.

And the local embroidery guild has also put together some modern samplers which are bright and beautiful!

Overall, it was simply a delight to see women's work displayed so prominently. The gallery also had an exhibition of women's works on paper; and one room full of Suffragette artworks and items - all excellent!

Thursday Thoughts...

“Muteness is cessation; silence isn’t. Silence is generative. Something happens in silence”. 

 Anne Michaels

The comparison here between silence and muteness is interesting to me. I am a little bit fascinated with silence at the moment - and the many ways we can interpret it. I think this comparison feels like the one between loneliness and solitude. From an external perspective they can appear the same; yet the experience of them is so very different.

Muteness to me implies cessation as she suggests; but perhaps also an external input. Something from the outside which acts.

Silence can be either external or internal I think; and I think she is describing that quiet space, that well of offering that enables things to come forth, to begin.

Almost as if silence is an opportunity. I think I shall be pondering the notion that 'something happens in silence'  for a little while yet...

Some of my favourite pieces about silence Sentinels (2010).

Norway...

 B and I are just back from a quick trip across to Norway!  My brother and his wife were travelling there and it seemed too good an opportunity to pass up - to hang out together on the other side of the world to usual.

We arrived in Bergen and it was beautiful, especially the old town of Bryggen. We wandered around and poked our heads up alleyway and side streets, admiring the weathered and worn timbers and buildings.

Before we left, we saw some most beautiful cherry blossoms.

The weather was not as kind in Voss - and it shows!

Luckily the next day dawned bright(ish) and we went for a magnificent ferry cruise through a fjord; and then an alpine train trip amongst the snow tops. Stunning. 

And then back to Bergen in the sunshine!

It was a glorious few days and we would love to go back. 

Thursday Thoughts...

“Each act of creativity becomes a form of prayer, if the heart is centred in the making” 

 Jackie Morris

Not being a religious person, but nevertheless a person who holds to many of the teachings and ways of being, I sometimes struggle with the word prayer having an overtly religious link. 

If however I think about prayer as I think it is used here, as a quiet moment, a gathering of energy, mediation, and connection I can find my way through things much better.

For each act of creativity to be a form of prayer in this way is beautiful. For me it suggests that as we make, if we make with our hearts engaged, the very act of making is a gathering of energy, is a quiet meditation and is seeking connection.

Which I honestly think is true.

This quote is from Jackie Morris' book Feather Leaf, Bark and Stone.  A gift from a friend it is one of the most beautiful books on our bookshelf. To be savoured, returned to and dreamt about...

Narratives - an artists' book exhibition

 Whilst we are away, another beautiful artists' book exhibition is occurring in Maleny. As part of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Writer's Festival some good people are once again showcasing artists' books at The Little Red Cottage in Coral St Maleny. Details below.

I am sad to be away, but so grateful to be included.

The theme this year is Narrative - Connecting hearts, minds and nature

I have two entries in the show. This will be the very first showing of my book Simply Being.

The nature of the book, about slowing down and taking time to be, and to be present, resonates with the theme I think - connecting your own mind and your own heart; and particularly connecting with nature.  

The words in this book emerged from time spent here in Scotland where I do look slowly, and try to listen softly, and of course, go gently...

I have also contributed my three Grief is a Stone book-ets.

It felt to me that these book-ets also tell a tale of connection with our hearts and our minds. They speak of how we try to make sense of loss and grieving and how it shifts and moves and changes over time...

It often intrigues me when I look back over a year of making say; or like this when I put two books together that are unrelated in theme and thinking and realise how closely they seem to be related.  These books feel very 'me' and I hope that a few folk I know might get to see them and enjoy them, on my behalf whilst I am away.

Some collage art

I discovered a large folder of imagery waiting for me when we returned. It contained images that I had printed when I was doing my Fibre Arts Take Two course last time with Sally Tyrie.

They were all about the fishing sheds and the fishing net drying poles at the end of our road near the cove, and they didn't belong back in Australia. It was nice to reacquaint myself with them and I began to play with them back here.

I really liked their softness and their tonal togetherness and went on to make more collages. My little studio space was somewhat cramped on Thursday as I had taken the laptop upstairs so I could watch an online sketching course, whilst Barry did his watercolours on the kitchen table.

Nevertheless, after watching for a bit I was able to continue with the collages and have ended up with six that I like.

They measure 12cm x 12cm and I originally had been thinking about them as art-cards, to be sold with their own envelope. The kind of thing where you could write on the back in pencil; then send to somebody, and the recipient could frame them or pop them on a wee easel or some such.

But now I'm not so sure. Barry has ordered some square black mats and I am wondering if they might actually look better as matted artworks? Who knows, these things evolve and become what they will become.

There are two other postcard sized ones too. A nice dilemma to have.

And just because Spring flowers are cheery and beautiful, here is a tub we planted at our front door.

Thursday Thoughts...

"When you love something like reading - or drawing or music or nature – it surrounds you with a sense of connection to something great. It’s an alchemical blend of affinity and focus that takes us to a place within that feels as close as we ever get to ‘home’. "

 Anne Lamott.

I love reading and re-reading Anne Lamott. She has whimsy and wisdom in spades and it's a great combination.

I think she is so right here - that when we love something it gives us a deep and meaningful connection to the world and beyond. It helps us feel part of the connectedness. We are a small moment in the ongoing story of folk throughout the ages who have enjoyed the same pastime, hobby or calling; been interested in the same things; dreamed similar dreams.

I love how she hits the sweet spot with the suggestion of alchemy where affinity and focus meet and create that feeling of home. 

When I am making, at my desk, in the studio, hammering away I feel the most like me I can feel, and I feel deeply at home with myself and the world. The same goes for reading. When I sit and read I feel like I am home, that I am me.

Working in the shed plus beauty and joy

 We often reflect on how fortunate we are that the cottage had a shed when we bought it. Sure enough we need it to store gardening materials and tools, and paint and the like, but it also offers B in particular, but also me, the chance to have a workshop space to make and create in.

And so it was that I tested it out recently to see if I could make some jewellery whilst we are here. We had purchased some tools and some supplies and I thought I had most things covered, so off I went.

Setting up

Realising that although it was great to have bought a stool for me to sit on; that in fact there was nowhere for my legs to go under the bench, so instead, I needed to sit sideways and set up the work station that way. Solved.

No idea what I was pointing at, but I had so far managed to form and solder three pebbles.

Having thought of almost everything, I realised I had not thought of pickle. The stuff that you put the pieces in to clean them, remove the grime and finger grease and other things. I mentioned it to B, who went away and boiled some water and added lemon juice! Ta da we had a functioning cleaning pickle. In a mug. We now have a glass container to hold pickle, but in the interests of necessity for now we had the mug.

I managed to form 6 pebbles that seem to have worked out in pairs so I can make 3 pairs of earrings. I don't have a roller here so had to hammer the wire flat which has left more marks and texture. I am working on whether I like that or not! I think I will try to oxidise a pair as well and see how they look.

And the dappled sunlight coming through the window, the tile, and the soldering tile were a lovely combination of marks and shapes.

So it looks like I will be able to head back to the shed and keep making. We are having a pop up show in May here in the Village Hall and I want to make sure I have enough stock. I'm sure I do, but I always have a little niggle voice saying what if you don't? 

And so to beauty and joy around us. Here is a robin in a nearby tree singing its little heart out.

A tulip at our front door.

A new arrangement in our bathroom.

A nearby bridge with the gorse in bloom (I removed an ugly barricade fence and some rubbish in the burn in photo editing just so you know it has been doctored)

And the latest cute family group in the village.