Thursday Thoughts...

“Words do have edges. So do you.” 

Anne Carson

I sincerely don't know how long this quote has been in my list; but I know it has been years.  And only this week did it spark recognition with the author, because Anne Carson recently won the Nobel Prize for Literature.  I have never read her work so am kind of surprised I had a quote of hers here. But it felt like a worthwhile time to attempt to interrogate it!

I think my response to this is about sharpness. That words can be sharp, and therefore painful. That you too, can be sharp, in your tone or in your actions or your words. So it feels like a bit of a warning. At the very least it feels like a reminder.

I am not sure of the context, but on reflection I look again at the word edges and think that edges don't have to be sharp. An edge can simply be an edge - the edge of the ocean, the edge of a tablecloth. So what then is an edge?

Could she be thinking about words having finite meanings? And we having finite limits? Could she think that words finish somewhere and go no further? That we as people have limits to what we can do and achieve?

On balance, I still think it feels like a reminder to take care with your words and your actions.

Scenes from our trips away

 It has been a busy month here with trips up and down and round about, for friends and with friends.

Here are some images of the beauty we have found along the way...

Two trips to Orkney in a fortnight and some neolithic magic, some beaches and some weather!

The Ring of Brodgar, brooding.

One of the dwellings at Skara Brae.

The Broch of Gurness

Rain shower looking over to Hoy

The beach at Skara Brae, Skaill Bay.

Back on mainland Scotland again, our beach at Armadale

Duncansby Stacks on the north east coast.

Down south - red squirrels at breakfast.

Autumn colours.

And the sheep on the common grazings in Armadale one morning.

The quiet power of stitching

 I have begun a small project. It is in its infancy, and I have been focussed on doing things like finding cotton reels! Cutting up linen! Thinking about what on earth I am trying to do! Working out how many cotton reels and linen! Assessing how I could make it work! When would I need to do it by!

And in a way, that has all been fine. Since the death of our dear friend I have been unsettled, unmoored and unfocussed.

However, I know that making helps me. That it is soothing; that it is calming. Making helps my mind float in a focussed manner, and making with my hands lifts my mood.

Our time has been a bit scattered with trips south to help, and to attend funerals. Trips with visitors and more visitors to prepare for.  None of which have been conducive to embedding myself in something.

But I found some time on Thursday to sit with some stitching.

A friend here had gifted me this book and I have been reading it at Biblio mornings, soaking up the bits that matter and the things that resonate. And it reminded me I could just go sit and stitch.

And so I began working on a length of linen a friend had returned to me. Simple attachment of linen to linen.

 And simple stitches made with vintage wool naturally hand dyed by a friend of hers and over the next few days something began to emerge.

However, with some shortbread in the oven preparing for visitors as I type, I have completed the length of the linen and it feels so good. Not the accomplishment or the achievement, but the actual recovery from stress I feel. The recalibration and realignment that settled upon me. Physically I am better for having sat and stitched.

And here is another length of linen. I had shared the idea of the project with my friend who died and she had enthusiastically agreed to come play with me. That was not to be, so I am trying now to include her in the work somehow. 

This linen strip was soaked in the sea water from our beach (she was a wild swimmer and loved a dip in the sea) and then wrapped around a few rusty pieces we had here, trying to get the softest hints of marks.

It is a beginning. 

It is a return.

Thursday Thoughts...

"I think what I'm trying to do is create moments of recognition. To try to detonate some kind of feeling or understanding of lived experience” 

Barbara Kruger

This feels as if what I try to do with my artwork is seen.  As I read it, the moments of recognition part really resonated.  

In the end I think that is all I can do - make work that might just connect with somebody. They might get a glimpse of something, or nod, or go ah-ha when they view the work or read it.

Her use of the word detonate is far stronger than any I would have chosen. I might have gone for 'spark' some kind of feeling or understanding.

As I continue to reflect on it, my sense is that I perhaps am looking for more than simply a moment of recognition. I think I am looking for a moment of connection.  She suggests an understanding of lived experience; I perhaps am trying for a shared understanding of sorts.

Or am I? Can I really ask that folk have a shared or connected response to my family violence work? 

I think I can, because my work is about my anger at it; or my attempts to amplify the voices of victims and I I am sure many fork could connect to or share those.

I do enjoy when quotes set me thinking beyond my initial response; and this one is truly asking me to think more about my work; why I do it; what I am hoping for; what my intention is...and they are all good questions to be asking!

I think my recent conversations with women friends work has definitely brought about nods of recognition among women... so many women have pointed and gone "that's us" or "oh so true" and the like.  Lots of smiles of recognition, lots of shared experiences.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Anybody who writes a book is an optimist. First of all, they think they’re going to finish it. Second, they think somebody’s going to publish it. Third they think somebody’s going to read it. Fourth. they think somebody’s going to like it. How optimistic is that?” 

Margaret Atwood

I loved this so much when I read it! Writing a book sounds like climbing a mountain when you put it like that, and I am grateful that so many folk have attempted to summit.

As I read through the quote I imagine she has made the process more succinct than it really is, however the four pithy stages are enough for me to realise how ambitious and optimistic it really is.

I like the idea that the folk who provide me so much enjoyment, are optimists. They aren't all negative nellies or pessimists; they have to have some sense of optimism within them to even embark on the project of writing a book.

I had never stopped to think of this way of characterising writers. So often we think of them as anguished or tortured as they struggle to get the perfect sentence; to write so many words; to edit them down. It all seems such a difficult process whenever I think of it, and yet here is one of the best writers around re-shaping the process in my mind. I love it.

Ripples of Peace...

 International Day of Peace is a week ago now, and we have been slow to fully mark it. A dear friend entered hospice care on the day, and the world has since slowed and saddened.

But I have been warmed to see so many images of the peace flags in their different homes and different places, around the world. Here are a few I have managed to catch hold of.

Alongside some old friends in Vermont

Hanging in the holly and the cherry trees in Canada 

At Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, some old and some new...

Some more old and some new on a beautiful maple in Massachusetts

In a spring garden in Canberra.

  

In Swordly, Scotland

And in Maleny.

Apologies for any I may have missed.

If there are more to share, I will add them in here as I receive them.

There was a beautiful sunrise over the cove here in Armadale this morning.

Peace.

Time for learning and exploring

 I am so happy I have finally gotten around to starting this course by Laurie Doctor - Speak to Me From Everywhere. I am a great admirer of Laurie's work and her approach and a week long residential course with her is on my list of "would't that be wonderful" things.

Instead, I am sitting quietly in the cottage watching videos and testing out ideas and techniques. A very slow and meditative time is being had, and enjoyed.

I have only managed to work through lesson 1. I have also started before all my supplies arrive so I am really just playing around a bit on different papers. I couldn't get hold of a chinagraph pencil easily so I have ordered one. Along with some BFK Rives paper (I have stacks of it in Maleny of course!) and some particular watercolours. They should appear soon and I will either continue on these pages or start afresh.

Our kitchen table workstation is clearly very multi-purpose!

In the absence of the chinagraph pencil Laurie suggested a candle, and I COULD get hold of one of those nearby so that has been an experiment of writing so you can't see it; and then letting the imagery emerge after a wash of ink (still waiting for the watercolours).

I had a square of sturdy kraft card in my stash so I am experimenting with that as well as a piece of unknown white paper - which cockled quite a lot with the ink wash, so I imagine its not watercolour or printmaking paper!

I am enjoying the way in which the words are there but can't really be read, unless you stop, focus and try to train your eyes. I also like the sideways, upside down, top to bottom blocks of text and the way they add interest.

And the sun rose with an interesting sky the other morning and here is  wide shot looking back up the road from the cove.

And the walk the morning was book marked by the rising sun over Armadale Bay in the east, as the Harvest moon set in the western sky.

Just magic.

Thursday Thoughts...

“To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control.” 

Martha Nussbaum

This is another interesting thought that I have pondered this way and that. The thing that most grabs me is the suggestion that openness and I guess acceptance (of things beyond our control) are what make for a good human being.

Most suggestions regarding being a decent or good human tend to focus on the actions and the attitudes towards others. Do this. Don't do that, kind of thing.

This seems to say it is about your attitude to the living of life in general - your openness to the world. As well as acceptance of how little in this world we can control. Could this be a counterpoint, suggesting that people who seek to control things may not be good??? Eek.

Perhaps there is something in the understanding of the word good? Perhaps it's not about being a good person per se, but more about living a good life as human?

I nevertheless think that these two things (openness and acceptance), are both key understandings, approaches and attributes to help you live a good life, maybe rather than be a good person.

International Day of Peace

 Today, 21 September, is International Day of Peace.

Being in Scotland we get to hang our flags and celebrate a little bit after Australia, but I like how the message flows through the world and all the time zones, a consistent hum of peace.

We got our peace flags and our peace doves out this morning and found a few older ones from previous years as well.

And after a rainy start, we picked a gap in the weather and managed to hang them outside, in one of our plum trees, and along our barbed wire fence.

And we know some of our old and some of our new peace flags are also flying its the magnolia tree back in Maleny.

We hope there are small moments of peace for us all today, and into the future. May we find ways to make peace and create peace. May we seek and honour peace.

Peace is beautiful.

I would love to see images of the flags flying anywhere in the world if anybody would like to share them, and I will add them here to spread peace around...