Some of the words on the scrolls and dismantling

 I did a fair bit of research from the museum, from archives and books trying to work out some of the things that folk may have had in their homes in the Highlands around the 1820s.

The idea of the scrolls is that they form a kind of household inventory; lists of all the things that might have been in a home, that needed to be gathered, collected and packed up when folk were forced to leave.  There is a lot when you think about it.

I have included on the inventories some old Scots words which are unfamiliar to us today. I thought it might be important to also have a list of them to help people interpret the work more fully.

Some of these include:

Simmons - a rope

Flate - a straw partition

Rantle Tree - a pivoting iron bar above a fire

Creepy - a stool for children

Caff-seck - mattress ticking filled with chaff

Bosom - a brush or a broom

Kist - a chest

And yes, the stitching goes on...

Part 2...

As part of our recent photography Pop-Up show Exposed, Sheila and I chose to re-furbish and re-purpose the frames. Barry painted a number of them black, we removed old artworks, cleaned up the tape and glue residues, replaced the foam core and put in hangers.

And thus some artworks have been dismantled. I quite like what this one is becoming - lots of interesting moments appearing.

I can't find a decent photo of it anywhere - here is its sibling back in 2011...

Here it is out of the frame (which got used for one of the Exposed images). I began lifting the rusted paper which had drawing marks on it - travel lines and such - but some of it remained, which I quite liked.

And then I chopped the work up into 4 page-sized pieces, and played around with arrangements.

But also thought they might provide the beginnings of 4 new mini artworks

And that somehow the centre could be used on one of them; or become the beginnings of another piece entirely.

I love the process of re-imagining something; creating new possibilities out of old and worn work. 

we shall see where this goes, but for now it shows promise!

Thursday Thoughts...

"One always sees the soul through words". 

Virginia Woolf

I always enjoy the first moment of contemplation with my Thursday Thoughts quotes. I read a few and one grabs me, and I wonder why, and then I ponder it briefly. In those moments, heaps of things can run through my head.

With this one it went a bit along the lines of "oh yes, I can see that, but then of course she would say that,  she is a writer, and I think you can sometimes see the soul in the trees and the sky and in beautiful art as well.."

So I figured there was something there to ponder!

As ever I find myself a bit unsure and uncertain when I read words like always. They are so definitive. So certain. So directive.  I am never sure I want to sign up to 'always' for pretty much anything.  So I start asking does always really apply?

In this instance I wondered as well if it suggests that it is only through words that one sees the soul? Is there a bracket at the end of the sentence that says "and in no other way". Or does it suggest that each and every time there are words, one see the soul?

I would be more comfortable with one can see the soul through words because some words are so beautifully put together that you do feel a fleeting glimpse of the soul and wonder are revealed. At other times they are less interesting or boring, or difficult, or incomprehensible and I am not sure that necessarily reflects the soul.

Anyway I clearly haven't landed on anything succinct that gets me on top of understanding these words fully; but I have had quite the ponder!

Hope in the dark, FD 2024.

Five scrolls down...

 I have completed scroll number 5; and there are only two more to stitch! 

You can see from this image how they go up and down in size - with the central scroll being the largest and the longest. I am glad I stitched them in this sequence because it seems like less of a mountain to climb to have the two smallest to do as I near completion.

Along the way B took some photos of my hands as they stitched the word ember. It was often important to take an ember from the fire to be able to start and kindle a fire in a new place.

And here it is stumbling down a throw on the arm of our couch!

And scroll 6 begins...