Thursday Thoughts...

“I love ritual and repetition. Without them I would be a balloon with a slow leak”. 

 Anne Lamott

I am back to Anne Lamott - her mind is just so interesting. Her life too, and the many ways in which she has learned things is great. I listened to a conversation with her by Monica Lewinsky on Monica's new podcast this week and there was much to mull over.

But here I find that yet again we are simpatico. I love ritual and repetition and I would add routine.

From the way she describes what happens when she doesn't have them in her life, it seems to me that she finds they keep her upright; they keep her buoyant; they keep her moving.  That without them she literally runs out of puff and doesn't know which direction to head in, or how to move along.

Aimless perhaps? 

I think ritual and reparations are also very comforting and calming; the patterns and the rhythms offer days and lives on repeat keep like  heartbeat in the background. A steady and reliable pulsing. Without them I reckon I would go from sinus rhythm to an arrhythmia of sorts.

A slow leaking balloon made me pause and think about all of the things that implied and suggested; and I love how she made me do that with her simple words.

Me with ritual and routine!

Photographic play

It's interesting to me how often I look at things and think about beautiful photographic imagery. Oftentimes, especially when I can't be making by hand myself, my eye enjoys creating beauty with my camera.

Here are a few shots from the last week.

This small arrangement sits atop the microwave in our kitchen here. Some dried honesty in a tactile ceramic vase; a matching but different spot vase bought in Bergen; a silver plate hammered by B; and a paper wasp's nest sitting upon it.

I love the tones, I love the forms, I love the simplicity.

I thought to see how it might appear if I played with the camera a bit.

I like how this one went all out of focus - the softness hints at something, tho I am not sure. A memory? A forgottenenss? Something just out of reach?

And this one I like for its clarity at the front - the detail on the new spotty vase are delightful.

Another arrangement I quite like is these wee hoosies that B made, set upon our fireplace mantle.  All well and good I thought, but really, twinkle lights would make it better! In my view, twinkle lights make pretty much everything better.

I think it might be the way the copper wire refuses to be controlled or trained to a particular shape. I love the random wriggles it draws.

This one reminds me of street lights on a misty foggy night.

A bit similar but simply noir.

And with this one I like the dark undercarriage and the contrasting brightness above.

Making this post really made me wonder a bit about how to bring beautiful imagery into our lives; not just something to be shared on our screens.

I pondered whether we could buy two lovely frames and have them somewhere we would see them; and on a weekly basis or fortnightly basis, simply print a new photo that made use smile, and pop it in the frame to enjoy for a while.

Moving art around, replacing and refreshing art is the way we do things now. In two small homes we have boxes or cupboards with beautiful arty bits, and I regularly move things around, bring these out for show, pop things away for a rest and create new arrangements throughout the house. It makes me smile to see beautiful art in sometimes unexpected places; and to be reminded of old friends when they re-appear.

So I am now wondering if I could use some photos in a similar way??? 

Any which way, seeing art and beauty all around me, spending a few moments capturing it and enjoying it are also ways of feeding my soul and nurturing me.

Creative card chaos

 We have had a busy week - following on from the Pop Up and wrapping and delivering the artwork; returning the things we had borrowed; a hard day's work of re-pointing the mortar between the stones at the back of the cottage, and a couple of day trips out and about so not a lot of time at all to sit and make/create.

Today I managed to sit and in amongst my chaos I have created a few cards...

They sold really well last weekend and because we are headed to a market at Watten this coming weekend, I needed to replace some. I have also had requests/commissions for quite a few so they are bundled into the making here. But chaos it is!

I had managed to cut some BKF Rives paper in to cards through the week; and I am simply doing a range of colour ways with my water colour pencils; and a couple more of my favourites Outstanding! I like the funny little birds and the standing outing the field idea.

Because I don't have letterpress here, there are not too many words; but I do add Outstanding with some vintage Letraset I have stashed here.

I have run out of BFK Rives paper; but I did have a heap of offcuts from the sheets. I wondered what might happen if I tried to somehow stitch a couple of the offcuts together and make a card.

Pretty happy with the outcome I must say, so off I went and cut some more.

This time I made them square as I am now not only limited by paper; but also by envelopes! I will have to order some more envelopes this week; but I did have a handful of square envelopes, so squares they have become...

And just because I wanted to play without needing to make - I have been playing around with white paint pens, grey card and Payne's Grey ink again.  It is quiet and meditative play and I enjoy seeing what happens next, and where the lines lead me. And the dots. And the dashes.

It is always special to need to be making more things because the other things sold; but it is also nice to just play without purpose or intent.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way”.  

Edward de Bono

These words are so true. For creativity to thrive and flourish we really need to get out of the way; shift our perspective, put things back to gather differently and see the world through new lenses.

I think if you think about it, it would be quite hard for creativity to flourish in repetition, mundanity and routine. Not to say that those things can't contribute - clearly boredom oftentimes create magic - but I think shifting ways of looking, seeing and doing might jump start the process.

Jakkai Siributra - puttign things together differently...

The Pop Up and other bits

We were too tired to post on Sunday - that quiet, warm, tiredness of gentle satisfaction and contentment. We had a marvellous weekend and chatted with so many folk; had lots of people help us out in so many ways, and talked art and making and creating; and sold our work. The best kind of weekend.

So a quick recap of some of the things...

I nearly seared my eyeballs writing on this fluoro card! It took a bit of shaking and blinking to clear my vision, laugh.

But the signs on the borrowed A -rames worked well and caught a few people's eye.

Some of my wee hoosies on the windowsill.

B doing a few final tweaks. My jewellery is on a borrowed black cloth on the middle table. Grateful for friends and neighbours who supplied so many things - as well as baked and served and tidied up!

Some of B's wee hoosies and stones and things...

And some of his watercolours - one sold before we opened.

And some of my jewellery. I had made 18 pairs of earrings, and only have seven left. And both Barry and I have plenty of commissions to go on with!

We decided that Monday should be known as Pop Down Day, and we took our time sorting paperwork, wrapping and packing artworks for delivery and sorting.

And watching bumble bees at work on the flowers...

We are full of gratitude for the friends and neighbours we have, and the support they provided us - just wonderful!

Thursday Thoughts...

“There is only so much we can know via direct experience. Reading gives us more time. More lives to live.” 

 Jeanette Winterson

The first part of this quote is actually a really important argument in defence of reading and books I think.  Whilst I am a strong supporter of listening to folk with lived experience of something - they know best what it means for them - I also believe your own personal experience is not the whole story.

One simply can't say I know all about this because this is what happened to me; or this is what I see; or this is where I live; or this is my life and that is the end of that. For me the world has any number of angles, facets, and perspectives and we all experience it differently and the more we can understand other folks' positions and views and experience the fuller picture we can see.

We can't get out and travel everywhere and talk to everybody in the world and so we read. Reading takes us to places, inside people's minds and thoughts and all sorts of ways of being and thinning that are outside our own experience and that helps us understand the world better.

In some cases it does allow us to live another life in the sense of experiencing somewhat vicariously, what it might have been like to be a dancer in Paris in the 1800s or a soldier in Flanders Fields, or a wealthy woman in The UK or a teenager in the 50s...

The same can possibly be said for watching movies or plays, but for me, reading is the way I go about it.

From the rainbow stack of books in our home in Maleny. I collected the books for their cover colours, not for their content, and have to admit to never having read any of the books in the stack...

Prepping for the Pop Up!

 We are holding a Pop Up Art Show at the Armadale Village Hall this Saturday and Sunday. We are excited at the same time as uncertain about what might happen and how it might go, but looking forward to it and to chatting with folk and talking about art!

The show is mostly about Barry's small watercolours of buildings and boats along the North Coast of Scotland; and my sterling silver pebble and stone-inspired jewellery; but we decided to also add in a few more pieces that we have made (and are making!).

I have been testing out my jewellery-making capacity in our shed and this week completed three pairs of earrings. I was able to texture them and oxidise parts oft them, so I feel right at home now!

Different display options are available...

My inside art-making space is quite the clutter!

At a lunch a few weeks ago I chatted with a woman who had previously seen our work at markets here and she said" I love your cards, I hope you have some more". So I thought, right I had better make some more! This one became Welcome to the World when I completed the Letraset.

One of the birds was coloured in on these ones

The latest stash of cards. I bought the envelopes in Bergen!

I also have a few of my black and white photographs. This one is called Safe Harbour.

I have matted up the 6 collages working from the imagery of the fishing sheds here.

Our kitchen table is multi-functional that is for sure - currently typing on the laptop here, but we also do art finishing here as well. Oh and we eat at it too!

I have called these pieces Moments of Memory I-VI.

And last but not least, in line with my love of the house/cottage form that I always seem to end up playing with as I travel back and forth, the form that keeps me pondering what home means, and the form that just makes me feel good when I look at it, I have worked with B to to create these wee hoosies. I selected the timber and the size and the shape and B cut them for me and did an initial sand; but I have done the finishing sanding and the wire brushing and will add the varnish once we have bought it! They just make me smile. 

It feels like we are almost ready for whatever happens, and we look forward to hopefully sharing time with folks we know and people we will meet...

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!